Dualité

Now that shoppers can snap up the latest fashionables with a click of a mouse or browse through endless specialized boutiques – what’s left for them to experience?

Customization of course. I’m talking a little more than Carrie’s gold name plate frenzy back in the 90s (and I can attest that this was very popular in New Orleans back then), or having your name spelled out in beads on a string necklacle. In 2008, custom-made apparels are popping up in the accessories at affordable prices.

First there were shoes. Vans, Nike, and Converse are perhaps the most well-known companies who have prided themselves in offering their clientele a choice for self-expression. For the ladies, it was Steve Madden, who back in 2007, had the internet crowd a buzz with it’s new service of customizing over 45 different styles of shoes in your own colors and trimmings. Sadly, as I looked at the site recently – customize thy shoes no more. It appears that this gold mine service is no longer in service on Steve Madden’s website. Maybe they didn’t anticipate the high demand for customizable heels?

Second, there are hats. Specifically baseball caps. In Montreal’s underground shopping mall there’s a highly successful small booth (yes booth, they don’t even have store) which attracts teenage boys like moths to its fiery needle that stitches original graphics onto blank baseball caps. A computer is set up to program the stitching machine, as well as implement any new designs the makers come up with. You can flip through an album with hundreds of premade designs like a tattoo example album.

Thirdly, underwear. Stores like Bang-On adds a personal touch to your daily undies by transferring graphics onto them by hot press. You might remember this as high school homework for Generation Y people. They mostly use American Apparel’s er, apparels, as they’re a perfect canvas to work on. Think CafePress, but cooler and in a retro 80s store.

Finally, we have sunglasses. Perhaps geared towards the more affluent clientele, sunglasses are just another new addition to the mix. “With custom glasses, you can choose not only the frame but also other components, such as the bridge — the piece that rests on the upper part of the nose — and the temples — the arms that go along the sides of the head,” according to the Wall Street Journal. Therefore, creating your own specs at your own specifications, much like custom made clothing.

As shoppers are given more and more choices, it’s only obvious that to stand out from the crowd, we must express our individualistic style. By that, other than dressing differently, how about adding your own personal touch by having someone else do it for you without breaking the bank? As the rich turn to bespoke clothing, the mass consumer will turn to customizing entities. While the likelihood of getting your apparels Gucci-fied is no longer possible due to trademark laws, getting custom made clothing at an affordable price could be a new luxury market that remains untapped. Surely it would be difficult to maintain every single individual style, but given a proper organized system, the idea can surely fly. If we can deck out our iPods, we can surely deck out our closet.

Call it Tailoring 2.0.

Having heard news that there were chances of thunderstorm in Las Vegas, I was prepared to spend my stay in dreary rainy weather. But no. What kind of meteorologist says that it’ll rain…in the desert. Take no heed to anyone who says it’ll rain in Las Vegas. Today I baked and toasted under the hot desert heat like an omelette on a grill.

I arrived yesterday to our modest but rather very large hotel 15 mins off the strip at South Point Hotel Casino & Spa. The rooms are large and comfortable, very clean, huge plasma screen and a great view over the hotel’s pool.

But enough about hotel and comfort talk, let’s talk fashion and shopping in Las Vegas.

As I mentioned in my previous post, Las Vegas is building CityCenter on the Vegas Strip right next to the Bellagio Hotel. It’s slated to open in 2009 and construction has already been underway and had progressed much faster than I had anticipated. This patch of land already has the infrastructure to a near completion, a few of the buildings are already halfway through putting on the glistening silvery windows. CityCenter will definitely stand out in the Strip as I noticed many other buildings may be flashy with lights, but many are covered in gold mirror like windows. CityCenter will be all silver mirrored.

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Although I do praise Steve Madden for pushing the envelope in letting their clients customize their own shoes last fall, I’m appalled that they have the galls to blatantly copy designer shoes to sell them off as their own at a cheaper price.

Repeating their offenses from Christian Louboutin to most recently Balenciaga. The pair in question came into light at the Business of Fashion blog where the sporty multi-colored pump has been grossly and obviously copied by Steve Madden. Not only that, those lacy peep toe, construction boot pumps they call “Bombb Nat Nubuck” are also a knock off of Balenciaga’s Fall 2007 line. Perhaps the sales won’t mean much significance to Balenciaga’s financial portfolio, but designers need to protect their designs from profiteering companies like Steve Madden. Even now there is barely a dent or law that cracks down much on counterfeiting, much less crack down on companies who blatantly parade these copies around proudly with their own names stamped on it as if they were geniuses. And yet, they are. Because fashion is perhaps one of the few places where this sort of plagiarism can go unpunished no matter how big the elephant in the room is.

Funny how Steve Madden is expanding to a store within the Eaton Centre soon. I used to like them for making some cute shoes, but now, like Nine West, they’re not original enough to make their own designs and resort to copying for the sake of sales. A shame.

The predicament is typical and expected though. People don’t want, or can’t afford, to drop $500-$1000 on a single pair of shoes, even I haven’t taken the plunge yet to get shoes for that price. More importantly though, I put an emphasis on durability, I’m pretty rough on my shoes as I can get them scuffed quite easily, and prancing around in heels all day is a painful venture. Perhaps I should take heed of my cousin’s advice and start looking at Naturalizer shoes for comfort and classic styles. Growing old or growing wiser?

Above is the Steve Madden’s Balenciaga peep toe boot pump (wow, we gotta find a better name for this…), and I have to admit it’s a hot shoe I’d love to sport myself – but I don’t buy knock offs (and they never carry my size anyway).

Image credit: Steven Madden

As Stacy London would say…”Shut UP!”

In a world where we could only resort to customizing Vans slip ons and some Nike runnings, Steven Madden has pushed the envelope to make it a real girl’s dream: customize your own fashionable shoe. The New York Times gives a more in depth look of the new service, so I went to Steve’s website to get a better look of what it’s all about.

The concept is simple.

Choose one of 45 different styles of shoe (from Uggs to high heels) and play around digitally by picking colors of the trimmings, heel, straps and buttons, from leather to faux animal prints. Prices vary from $89.95 to $169.95. You can even customize a couple of handbags too. Once your choices are made, it’ll take about 3 weeks for your shoes to arrive and to enjoy.

Here’s a shoe I designed on Steve Madden’s interface, cute no?

Though I’m sure every girl would like their shoes to be designed and created by the likes of say Christian Louboutin, but average income people can’t afford shoes at $500-$600 a pop. According to the NY Times, Steve Madden has “almost no online competition” right now, but the company may as well revolutionize online retail shoe shopping for the mainstream public. It’s like the American Apparel of shoes, buy the base, customize everything else yourself. How can you go wrong?

The concept can be pushed even further to handbags as already shown. This trend could spread to sunglasses, gloves, clothes, hats, socks, tights, and the list goes on. Of course, such customization will demand the proper resources and work force to handle the process and most likely new regulations.

Designing or modifying your own clothes is not a new concept though. In some Montreal boutiques like Mad-Ame in the Gay Village, offers their clients the option to design their own clothes with a tailor. They also sell ready to wear pieces and each can be modified to the client’s wishes. Word to the ones who don’t know, this is a lesbian clothing store. Don’t know what that is? You should check it out yourself, I personally found it pretty cool to be greeted with a slushie and have the opportunity to play Mrs. Pac-Man in the store.

Another idea for those of you shopping for the holiday season!