Shoe Crush

I just titled this post 'Shoe Crush'.  I wasn't thinking and the phrase 'shoe crush' came out of my fingers.  In fact i was completely and utterly preoccupied by the violence in X-Men: The Final Stand that i pretty much went on autopilot.  And that's when 'shoe crush' came from no-where and blindsided me.  Unexpected. Uninvited. Unnerving. Don't get me wrong, i love the shoes from Nicolas Ghesquière's Fall collection for Balenciaga - i mean LOOK AT THEM. But at 22, i don't think i have ever used the term "crush" in my life, and so it has caught me completely off-guard that it has snuck into my vocabulary now.


I have never been someone that gushes, which i hope is not taken as i don't get excited about things because i do, but i'm not really the kind of person that does a forward roll, squeals 'omgomgomgomgomgomg i LOVE your handbag' whilst smiling (always smiling) and drawing on a positive from every piece of clothing their peer is wearing .  In fact, it is only in the last year or so that i have found it natural to compliment someone on their outfit, which i guess boils down to an innate shyness that i have shed as the years have gone on, and the thinking that i find a lot of what is said about clothes is superficial and quite often over-done.  Commenting on someone else's appearance is one of those 'quality rather than quantity' things, as although a compliment will always make someone else smile - one which is made with sincerity can make a day.


So why does it seem that fashion and gushing go hand in hand?  Publications and press releases are filled with phrases like 'shoe crush', 'love, love, love' or 'fantasy fantasy fantasy!!!', but why? From a cynical point of view, it seems that the clothes cannot talk for themselves and the public are faced with the hard-sell from representatives that are eager to increase sales and profit.  The independence of the consumer is diluted as every week those "in the know" push another item that OMG you will just die without.   


Or could it just be fashion's affiliation with the excitable woman that spends 30 days frantically screening magazine after magazine until the first of the month when she will blow the whole of her pay-check in two hours, that makes the cliche of describing those shoes as crush-worthy, or that coat as the partner that will never leave you, a necessity? I mean, girls only love clothes, men, and chocolate...right? 


I'm stumped. The thing is fashion IS exciting.  It is full of cliches and you do get caught up in the hype which begs the question, could it be approached in any other way?  Does this make me a cliche?Designers are not only selling clothes, they are selling a heroine, a lifestyle, a brand; and perhaps the public are content with being spoon-fed this as they are led into another world. Perhaps i am too? It's the never-ending quest to find adjective after adjective, superlative after superlative.  But i guess i wouldn't have it any other way...


Images via Style.com


AMENDMENT:  Having written this post, this advert has popped up in Waterloo and haunts me every morning...