Rihanna wears RoSa Shoes at the Billboard Music Awards 2016

I expect you're wondering where Rihanna got her killer pointed stiletto heels from to wear for her highly acclaimed performance this week at the BBMAs.  RoSa Shoes obviously. (High Heel Pointed Black Patent Slingbacks to be precise) And she loves them - it's official! Wants more in fact.

Whilst she chose to wear some pretty little mules from her recently launched signature Manolo Blahnik collection for her red carpet arrival, when it was time to perform she decided to rock the stage in her higher, pointier, shinier RoSa Slingbacks. We are so flattered that she wore them, and I personally can't help feeling that she felt so good in them, they just might have given her an extra boost onstage to deliver that strong, soulful and downright sexy performance.

Backstage, Mel Ottenberg, Rihanna's stylist, took this cheeky pose of her. Beautiful lady. Obviously she had to squat to get her heels in the pic. Thanks RiRi - you rock in RoSa!

Walking in Ultra-High Heel Stiletto Platform Shoes

It has occured to me that since the last "RoSa Platform Shoes" post, RoSa High Heel Platform Stilettos have been redesigned, with an even higher heel (but just as gorgeously slim and spiky) and deeper platform and here I am strolling around in them with ease and a somewhat carefree attitude. I did like our older platform styles (of which there were many), but I love these even more.

     
If you would like to own a pair of these spectacular shoes, we have plenty to offer you, and you can choose from Black Leather (as worn by me here) or glossy Black Patent, in either a traditional court shoe or Open-Toe style, and also a lovely Ankle Boot. 

Like all RoSa Shoes, they might cost a little more than many other shoes you might come across in shops or on the internet, but unlike the many cheaply made, mass-production shoes currently flooding the market, these are made by our Italian shoemaker exclusively for RoSa Shoes in small production runs, using high quality leather for the upper, lining and sole.  So, what are you waiting for? Here they all are -at  RoSa Shoes.  Happy Teetering!

Three Things A Woman Should Never Do When Wearing High Heeled Platform Shoes

Much has been said and written about the perils of wearing high Platform Shoes and the apparent ease with which women fall off them. As a RoSa Shoes High Stiletto Platform wearer, I've thought about this quite a lot.

I must start by saying that, if Platform Wearing is approached in the right spirit, in the right circumstances, and with the right amount of care, the risks really are minimal, with the benefits far outweighing any perceived danger.  "You have to say that" I hear you cry... well, yes, of course, I do want people to buy and enjoy my RoSa Stiletto Platforms, but I also speak from long experience.  (Oy oy, not that long!)

I've come to realise that there are clear similarities between Platform Shoe Wearing and other extreme urban movement forms - Parkour, Free-Jumping, or l'Art du Déplacement for instance.  Whilst there are differences between all these forms (the main one being that Platform Wearing is the only one, as far as I know, where the participants wear high heels), they all embrace the same spirit of adventure, they all require (and help develop) physical and mental discipline and strength, and they are all aesthetically pleasing (well, I know which one I prefer but hey! whatever rocks your boat....)

But one wouldn't set off to swing and jump one's way through the urban jungle without observing certain rules.  From an experienced Platform Wearer, here are the three main "Don'ts":

 1. Don't get "off your face" on artificial stimulants (without an arm to hold, preferably belonging to someone who is not also "off their face" or wearing platform shoes).

2. Don't walk on rough pavings (without an arm to hold, ditto above).

3. Don't walk in badly lit areas (without ditto).

Oh and, if you do really have to do all three, here's a fourth - don't walk out of a nightclub or restaurant late at night into a deafening horde of paparazzi yelling and whooping and disorientating you with their camera flashlights, so that you stagger and fall forwards and end up all over the media the next day with the press mercilessly laying into you for stupidly wearing Platforms you can't manage, when of course things would go so much better without their mindless bloodsucking interference. (If you've watched the recent video footage of Helen Flanagan's fall from her "Louboutins" , you'll know what I mean) -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xvr7iT4KBlw

Woops!

Remember these things, and you'll be ok.  

 

Long Pointed Toe Stiletto Designs from RoSa Shoes

Who was it who once said (about pointed toe shoes) "There's no such thing as too pointed"? Actually, I think it was me.  Apparently, plenty of other people agree, as since its reintroduction into the RoSa Shoes collection, our Long Pointed Toe Stiletto has established itself as a firm favourite amongst the RoSa Wearers Worldwide Community.



So much so, in fact, that we've decided to mark the seventh anniversary of RoSa Shoes by adding more designs to the High Heel Stiletto Long Pointed Toe range.

The latest one is this gorgeous Black Leather Court Shoe, with Black Patent brogued heelpiece and toe with lacing detail. Here you can see me wearing mine in my garden on my birthday in May.

Described on the RoSa Shoes website as a "classic and supremely elegant early 1960s-influenced design", this style represents our original purpose in setting up RoSa Shoes - to recapture, perhaps even to improve upon, the original, extended-point, high heel stiletto styling.

Other designs now with this wickedly long pointed toe are our classic Slingback Shoe, shown here in shiny Black Patent Leather but also available in plain Black Leather

and our Buckle Court Shoe.

Our popular Open-Sided Court Shoe will soon be available with the Long Point and also currently in production in our Shoemaker's Workshop in Italy are some exciting brand new styles. Their arrival will be announced in our Newsletter, so visit the website to subscribe to this if you haven't already! 

Ok, so it wasn't really my garden in the above photos, it was the beautiful Sheffield Park in Sussex.  But a girl has to have something to fantasize about doesn't she?  You see, I don't have to fantasize about Shoes as my every wish is always granted.  It's wonderful having your own Shoe Design company ;)

RoSa Shoes in 2012 - Stiletto Boots, Silk Scarf and Long Pointed Toes

So much has happened here at RoSa since my last blog entry, I hardly know where to begin.

The best thing is to get straight to the point - literally, the point. A very long one. At the end of last year, we were pleased to make available on our Ultra-High Stilettos the famous RoSa Shoes extra long pointed toe.

Wickedly long, this point extends well beyond the natural toes, giving a streamlined, sexy "retro" look reminiscent of the very longest points seen back in the heyday of the early Stiletto, the late 1950's, early 1960's, known then as "winklepickers". Ridiculous name for such a beautiful design but there you go. I think winkles were big in the sixties. I certainly wouldn't have wanted to get winkle juice on my toes, though. I'd have got someone else to pick my winkles for me.

These long points are at present available as an option on the Ultra-High Court Shoes (black leather and black patent) as in the picture above and on our Ultra-High Boots.

Which brings me nicely onto another new RoSa development to appear on the website in recent months - fabulous Ultra-High Stiletto Knee Boots.

As well as the two pointed toe shapes, there are also Stiletto Platform Boots, all of them with those pencil-thin vertiginous stilettos we're so well known for. This is me wearing a pair with the long pointed toe (click for larger picture)...



The headscarf here blowing in the breeze is our new Silk Square Scarf, introduced recently to celebrate our Stiletto collection - illustrated as it is with pictures of RoSa Shoes. Although others have combined shoe pictures into a silk scarf design (notably Manolo Blahnik and Salvatore Ferragamo) we believe we are the first to successfully include extreme stiletto shoes like ours in a classic design.


See what we did there? Subtly substituted all the "horsey" imagery usually associated with the classic equestrian-style scarf designs (eg. "Brides de Gala" by Hermes) with a selection of RoSa stiletto shoes, and blended them into a luxurious setting of belts and chains. Clever, eh? It's not that we don't like horses - we just prefer shoes.

And what better way to wear one of these scarves (if you don't like purple, then try black, red, pink, mint green or blue...) than that mysterious style favoured by so many elegant women in certain smart areas of London from the late sixties onwards? (A popular trend which, for some reason, has gone largely unacknowledged by fashion historians and magazine archives). Well, you may prefer to wear yours in another way. You can run it up the flagpole if you like. But, to my mind, folded into a triangle and tied in a single knot high on the chin, just brushing the lower lip, is by far the best.

I'm told it's flattering, seductive and elegant - but I just like it because the silk feels nice on my skin and, oh yes, it saves on lipstick ;)

Why Hobble Skirts and High Heels?

"The Little Black Hobble Skirt" has arrived at RoSa Shoes! We're known for our Stiletto collections, so you may be asking why Hobble Skirts?

The simple answer is that nothing else looks as good with Stiletto-heeled shoes as a Hobble Skirt.
One reason for this is that the curve of the rear outline of a (well-designed) Stiletto shoe echoes the feminine curves of the wearer from the waist down (the "rear" in fact lol), never better shown than when clad in a tight skirt. Here's Yours Truly obligingly demonstrating for you:

A second reason why a Hobble Skirt and a pair of high Stiletto Shoes are inseparable companions aesthetically (and practically) is one of movement. The first thing you do when you put your Hobble Skirt on, before donning your Heels, is to stand, and then walk, on tiptoe to go and fetch them. If you've never worn a Hobble Skirt (i.e. a skirt which restricts movement below the knee) try tying something non-stretchy (rope, ribbon, dog-lead or whatever comes easily to hand) around your knees. How is it easier to walk? Flat-footed or on tippy toes? And, more importantly, what looks better?


And of course it works the other way around. When wearing vertiginous heels, one's stride is shortened. This is a question of mathematics.... or maybe science. Whatever the reason (moving on quickly) it makes perfect sense to slide yourself into your Hobble. You're not going to be leaping about with manly strides in your heels, so why not go the whole way with the look? Your Hobble Skirt magically becomes perfectly manageable when coupled with High Heel Stilettos! And you'll look fantastic!


Of course there will be the occasional hazard. Negotiating hills, for instance, can be fun in a Hobble Skirt and High Heels. Gentle downward slopes can increase the pitch of your foot, already peilously steep inside your shoe, to challenging proportions. Keeping calm and assertive in the face of such adversity is the key - all very character strengthening. And anyway you can remind yourself that the journey back will be so much easier. Going uphill in Heels is a piece of black forest gateau. Unless your'e wearing a Hobble Skirt of course. Which you will be. This takes hard work, determination and quite a bit of puff. Wearing a Hobble Skirt can therefore also be seen as part of your daily fitness routine.


Further exploration of RoSa Shoes' venture into the wonderful world of Hobble Skirts will be the subject of later blog entries. I'm sure you have many other questions. Such as "why are all the Hobble Skirts Black?" and "why are they not called "Pencil Skirts?" or even "Shouldn't Hobble Skirts only be Ankle-Length?". Or you may be wondering, "How the **** do you get upstairs in a Hobble Skirt?"

These and other questions will be explored. In the meantime, you can see how I cope with the predicament of walking on a sloping driveway in this video "Hurrying Uphill in Hobble Skirt and High Heels". Also features "Teetering Downhill in Ultra-High Heels"...

Beehive Hair and Growing Old Disgracefully

After the addition of my sixties-style pics to the RoSa Shoes Gallery last week, I was surprised to see something rather similar to my beehive hairstyle on Jean Paul Gaultier's Paris catwalk models the very next Saturday.

This is me:


This is them:


Mind you, I know the great man has to get his ideas from somewhere. In the 1980's, legend has it that he could often be seen wandering about in London's Kensington Market soaking up influences from the up and coming street fashion designers. He may even have encountered our early handmade "Roger and Sarah Adams" shoe designs in Kim West's "Heels of London" shoe department. (Madonna certainly did - she bought a pair). Now it seems he's looking to yours truly for inspiration in styling his ladies. Not that I'm not flattered. Of course I am. And it was only a matter of time.

What's gratifying to see is the homage paid by Gaultier to the beautifully coiffeured, towering hairstyles of the early 1960's. For far too long the word "beehive" has been synonymous with the Amy Winehouse style of "up-do". No disrespect to Amy but, let's face it, hers is more like an abandoned bird's nest. Not at all like those earlier elegant, smoothly sculpted wonders.

The main difference between Jean Paul's models' beehives and mine is that they just had wigs plonked on their heads, whereas mine was lovingly created over a period of an hour or so. Oh, and theirs were grey, and mine ..... isn't. This is because (in their case) Gaultier's theme was that of "growing old gracefully" and (in my case) because ... I don't seem to have grey hair.

By the way, to complete the sixties look in this series of photos, I wore a pair of shoes from the new RoSa range of Ultra-High Stilettos. The Pointed-Toe version of course.


There are also some very cute Round-Toe designs on this (five-inch plus) heel more reminiscent of a slightly earlier era, the 1950's - but these must be the subject of another blog. In the meantime, please excuse me as I have to rush to the shops to buy a few more cans of hairspray.