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Some
individuals are willing to spend thousands of dollars to own special occasion shoes. For example, Forbes magazine states that American women
spent almost 17 billion dollars on fashion footwear between October
of 2004 and 2005, nearly 10% more than in 2003. Celebrities spend a
whole fortunes on shoes just like the main character, Carrie Bradshaw,
in the popular drama series the Sex and the City. Such great passion
for special occasion shoes is explained by their ability to decorate,
comfort, and last, practically, for decades with no or little care.
Indeed, today’s fashion designers are presented with a challenge
to satisfy special needs and tastes of their savvy consumers to build exclusive
and one-of-a-kind footwear. In addition to fulfilling customers’ needs,
designers are in ongoing creative battle with competition, which makes
them constantly to search for new ways to stay in this tough business.
Almost always a decorative element of this type of shoes makes a difference
in designer’s paycheck, and consequently designers invest a huge
amount of time in the shoes’ special design. And while every consumer
expects designer type of shoes to be comfortable and durable, he or she
can argue about shoes’ overall style. Shoes’ beauty and presentation
is the key to special brand differentiation.
Special occasion shoes could be decorated with leather, fabric, plastic,
and stone – all of the highest quality. And these materials are certainly
carefully selected and inspected by the chief designer in the house and
then put into work. For example, Michael Fink, a senior fashion director
for Saks Fifth Avenue, says that such types of shoes are usually very expensive
primarily because of materials. He explains that “leather and the
pattern and type of wood they're using, the jewels, are the beads hand
done, how rare are the feathers - because a lot of shoes with feathers
are using feathers that can't be gathered anymore, from the archives of
the couture feather houses.” In addition, Andrea Santoni, a famous
Italian shoe designer, is using the highest quality hides for his special shoes, which he personally selects with a lens.
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