Selfridge's Shoe Gallery

Shoes are big business so off I went to Selfridges to see their new Shoe Gallery. This was my second visit. I went to have a look last weekend and it was heaving. Way too many people to enjoy what is I guess meant to be a pleasurable shopping experience – even though I am not in the market for women’s shoes. So second time lucky I thought. Maybe if I went earlier in the morning it would be less busy. But sadly it wasn't, there were still throngs of people.

The idea of a gallery, in my mind anyway, is somewhere where things are shown off and displayed to their best potential. Things in galleries are prized, special and to some considered artworks. So the Selfridges Shoe Gallery is not quite a gallery in the traditional sense; not really a gallery at all. More a space where designers and luxury brands either have concessions; Christian Louboutin, Chanel, Gucci, Fendi, Repetto etc or shelf space; LK Bennett, Paul Smith, Kurt Geiger etc. But reading the Selfridges blurb about the Shoe Gallery one would imagine being transported to another dimension where Jamie Fobert has not only created shoe galleries but 'apartments' as well. What happened to plain old English. It's a shoe department in a shop! I shouldn’t be too harsh because I do like Selfridges. But I hate the pretence.

Now onto the shoes. I took a look at two ‘iconic brands’ Louboutin and Lanvin. There is no doubt that they are beautifully designed shoes. But, and there is always a but with me, they are not so beautifully made. For the prices they charge I would expect close to perfectly made shoes. Turn over a Louboutin and what is striking is the lack of symmetry of the soles.

The Lanvin ballet pumps fare no better.

Firstly they are not made in their country of origin, France, a must I believe for luxury brand manufacture unless the expertise is to be found elsewhere. But there is no expertise exhibited in the manufacture of the Lanvin shoes, well none that I could see. The stitching is all over the place. They look like they have been put together by people in a hurry. And this brings me back to this whole notion of the luxury brand. I still question the use of the word luxury to describe any of these products unless the luxury is being able to afford £300.00 + for a pair of shoes.

But price is not ultimately what luxury is about.

Do we really need to queue outside Louis Vuitton?

Fashion weeks have now come and gone, New York, London, Milan and Paris and it got me thinking about the sales. I don’t know why because they are least two months away. In any event I started to think, again, about luxury brands. As I always do. And the thought that sprung to mind was.... Why do you have to queue outside Louis Vuitton?

Surely luxury is about exclusivity. When you think about it Luxury is about exclusivity but luxury brands are not. Increasingly the products produced and indeed consumed are available anywhere and everywhere. No longer are Bond Street, Madison Avenue, Rue Saint-Honoré to name a few the shopping destinations for exclusive goods they are simply destinations where conglomerates maintain a ‘Flagship’ presence. If you want to buy Dior or Chanel you could venture to an outlet store.

So what is exclusive about these so called luxury products? It’s not really the price if you can buy them at reduced prices, nor is the actual goods considering they are mass produced and sold all over the world.Yet people flock to the stores throughout the year and especially during the sales and stand in line patiently waiting to buy something that is so readily available.The idea of exclusivity is, well quite odd. Luxury brands are now building larger and larger stores, appealing to the spectacle of shopping. These cathedrals of consumption do nothing more than encourage people to spend money on more and more things that are desired rather than needed; desire created through hype and rhetoric and nothing much else. You could join the throngs that visit the newish 15,000 square foot Louis Vuitton store on Bond Street, be pushed and shoved to see the spectacle that may be an art instillation, rather like a travelling freak show. Exclusive? I am not sure. Or you could simply wait and queue for discounts during the Louis Vuitton sale.