knitlit: it's a blog and now, it's also a SHOE

voila, THE KNITLIT!

my knitting and style worlds collided last month when i attended the IFB conference in new york. before the conference started, there was time for us to meet and greet fellow fashion bloggers and check out the wares of the conference sponsors. i couldn't help but notice a display of a couple of things that obsess me as much as knitting: shoes and handbags.

to be specific, it was jeffsilverman.com, a company with an irresistible and unlikely (as in GTFO!) business proposition: "you desire it. we make it." um, yes, please.

a little back story. silverman, the former head of steve madden, has had a lifelong love affair with fashion. the affair is tempered by his slightly ballsy assertion that the fashion industry just doesn't make sense. the design process begins with designers trying to guess what consumers want months ahead of time. according to jeff, they often guess wrong. "there's always too much of what you don't want and never enough of what you do," he says.

so jeff came up with a better idea. to put you in the driver seat. that's right. you get to design what you want and have it when you want it.  in short, you desire it...jeffsilverman.com makes it.

silverman had another novel idea. to launch his brand through fashion bloggers...at the IFB conference. fifty lucky bloggers won a chance to "be the designer." and i was one of them. free shoes for a creative control freak. now yer talkin' my language.

i have to admit, i was skeptical at first that he'd even follow up with me. but a few days after the conference, i got my first email from jeff himself. he sent my coupon code for the free shoes and told me to check out the website for further instructions.

to "be the designer," the site says you only need to send a brief description of what you want, along with a sketch or photos or swatches or however you want to convey your design idea. ask them anything. any shoe or handbag. any color. any design you want. they then send you photos in six views for you to approve or tweak your design. in three weeks (or often less, they say), you get the finished product. okay. are you kidding?

i figured, what the hell. i'll give it a shot. it's free...so what have i got to lose?

to communicate my design idea, i sent jeff a brief email.

i told him i wanted a brown suede boot with a covered platform and 4-inch heel and crisscross straps like this:

and i wanted him to add a fair isle knit fabric to the top, inspired by this sweater from marc jacobs AW10 collection:

a few days later, i got my first reply from jeff himself, clarifying a couple of details about my design. several days after that, i received another email from jeff. he wanted to let me know that they had located the fair isle fabric, just not in the exact colorway i'd originally requested. he said they'd continue to try to find that color.

view from the front...

...and from the back

pass the caviar and corn dogs, dahling

 

then, this morning, i received another email with six views of my boot...my boot! how cool is that! even in the black colorway, i must say, i am smitten. they say you never forget your first. so true. and now that i see it, i actually prefer the graphic punch of the black and silver with the brown suede. i think it rocks. it reminds me a lot of the glamping vibe of the DSquared show from last fall and tommy hilfiger's haute stadium looks. i only wish i'd had it in time for a luxe tailgate party jimmy and i attended last night.

and, i can hardly wait to get this puppy on my pedi'ed pods! i'll post pics when i do. in the meantime, i'd love to hear what you think...