The Verdict?

I have to admit, I had better things to do than queue up all night in a rain and windstorm (!) for the Jimmy Choo for H&M collection, but all the same, I've been dying to know what it was like.
Why? Well H&M has a bit of a weird footwear offer, always looked like an afterthought and the quality is, well, meh!
H&M collabs always get tons of press - remember the Madonna range (which in the flesh, was vile, I have to be honest, here). So I guess Jimmy Choo did it for the pr (and judging by the comments from those who did queue up and buy), hoped that it sold out instantly before the rest of us could see what it was really like!

Those of you who did queue up? Well, here is a c+p of some comments from this thread on the fashion spot.
http://forums.thefashionspot.com/f48/jimmy-choo-h-m-collaboration-81013-26.html

'Spent 80€ & they still are Jimmy Choo, made in China of course '
'I wasn't impressed. They were really painful on my feet (though it was said that they would get softer and more comfortable with wear since it's real leather but I didn't take the chance). They looked Ok, wasn't a "wow!" moment for me at least. I'm sure I can get something similar elsewhere for half the price and twice the comfort.'
'there were still a lot of items left untouched. And I'm really not surprised. For some of the shoes, I have no idea what they were thinking.'
'it looks like the normal h&m collection and the qaulity is so bad, I just hold a pair of "jmmy choo for H&M" shoes in my hand yesterday and they looked so trashy'

and another thing - who are these people who pay £300 per pair on ebay? Why?

A word of advice from me - if you must have Jimmy Choo at a discount price - sign up for email or Twitter alerts from a discount website. I like http://www.theoutnet.com/ and there are also real snake sandals on sale at the Jimmy Choo website (pictured) http://www.jimmychoo.com/ for around £180. They'll look and last better and they won't cut your feet to shreds.

The difference between a tribute and a knock off

Shoe news today is that Steve Madden is being taken to court by designer Alexander McQueen. Quite frankly, looking at the knock-off that they've done, (black shoe boots - top pic), I'm really not surprised.

But I'm not angry at the designer either, (ok, ok I meant the person who sent a picture of the McQueen shoe to the factory in China). I've worked lots on the High Street and the value market, I know it thrives on catwalk trends and that your employer doesn't want to see your amazing creative idea for a new shoe boot, they just want to see a version of whats on the catwalk.

Some design houses are very litigous indeed, some to the point of being a bit obsessed about it. Jimmy Choos' original account on Twitter was just full of Tweets about who was going to get the 'cease and desist' letter next. Cannot find it anymore, but I'm certain they 'went after' a kiddies train ride for having the name Choo Choo?

Some brands do not seem care at all, see Prada, who I've heard, had a deal with their outsole maker to sell the outsoles to other brands once they had done with them.

But then there's 'The Tribute', which I quite like. See my last post about Insa Heels, you'll notice that one of the designs is for an heel that looks like a pair of legs. This was probably heavily inspired by Thea Cadabras' 'Maid Shoe' from 1980 (bottom shoe pic, above), but I like the way it has been updated for the Noughties, you will note that the heel is now size zero! If I was Thea and I saw this, I'd be flattered, not mad.