Lanvin

The first time that I saw Lanvin shoes was about two years ago. It was a warm summer day, the shoes - patent leather slingbacks on a huge wooden platform - were standing on the very top shelf in a very nice Midtown boutique called Chucky's and I was not impressed. Yeah, I'd heard about this brand before (and it would be hard not to since the majority of my friends are obsessed with everything Lanvin); I had also seen picutres but the reality proved to be somewhat less glamorous than I expected.
The slingbacks were put back on their top shelf and half an hour later, I walked out of the store clutching happily at a box containing a new pair of espadrilles by my favourite Emilio Pucci.
-After all, not everyone is a Lanvin person, - I was telling my friend Lisa later on and she was staring at me like I just confessed having descended from Pandora.
A year passed by; my friends and I went on regular shoe expeditions (or shoexpeditions, as we called them) to Barneys, Bergdorf and Saks, especially during sale seasons. The nice Midtown boutique Chucky's was not forgotten, either. Lanvin was everywhere, in every possible way or form and my friends, still obsessed with everything coming from the parisian brand, dragged me over to where Lanvin shoes stood proudly on display hoping that one day, I would have a long-awaited revelation and abandon Cavalli, Pucci, Luitton and Co for their favourite Lanvin.

Tough chance; still not impressed. They were losing their patience with me; I couldn't understand their persistence: with me out of the Lanvin picture, there would be more shoes for them!
-Well, I guess you're just not a Lanvin person, after all - said Lisa on a warm summer day of 2008, when the two of us were ramaging through yet another Bergdorf shoe sale, jumping from one shelf to another and probably looking even crazier than our usual selves.
--Wow! Look at these! - my scream made a melancholy sales guy jump closer to the emergency exit door; the next moment, however, he pulled himself together and asked if I needed any assistance (and I can only hope he did not mean calling the loon brigade).
And that was my revelation moment: another pair of slingbacks, this time, silver on a golden square heel and made of the softest crinckled leather made that happen. Unfortunately, they didn't have them in my size but as my friends proved, persistence usually pays off and eventually, I tracked the silver slingbacks on the Internet and finally added them to my shoe collection.

Here they are (also representing my first attempt at shoe photography).