If you’re Broadway bound, as a die hard shoe lover there is one must-see show this season –Kinky Boots! Yeah, you read right. Kinky Boots, the movie from a few years ago starring Golden Globe Awards nominee, British actor Chiwetel Ejiofor, is a major buzz now playing in theaters on Broadway!

Shoeholics magazine was invited to the press presentation day and opening night. Like anyone else who had seen the movie before we were curious to see what the theater version would look like. Forget the fact that legendary singer Cindy Lauper is the music composer or that Harvey Fierstein is the playright –we simply had to see the boots! During the presentation, we had the honor of meeting the man behind the helms of making the stage costumes. The award winning costume designer, Gregg Barnes was more than happy to share some of his sketches with us prior to the opening night. He drew from the likes of the late Alexander McQueen’s tartan collection from a few years ago and iconic cartoon characters from New Yorker magazine covers for inspiration, among many other things.

Gregg spiced up the costumes a bit more with vibrant colors and sparkles, appropriate concept for theater which also helps to bring out the energy in the actors wearing them on stage. He then collaborated with New York based shoe manufacturers LaDuca and T.O. Dey to bring the colorful jaw dropping boot sketches to life while baring in mind the need for the stage dancers and actors to move easily with comfort during their performances. Like many designers, Gregg was faced with many disappointments of heel breaking during production until he was able to get it right after many prototypes. Nobody wants to see disgruntled actors live on stage as a result of tight shoes and broken heels! Gregg was persistent on getting it right. Judging from what we witnessed at yesterday’s full press preview, the result was spectacular! It’s one thing to see a colorful sketch on paper but it’s a different matter to see it live moving about right before your eyes.

One of many sketches by Gregg Barnes (on the right) inspired by New Yorker magazine iconic cartoon covers.

Gregg Barnes costume design sketch inspired by Alexander McQueen tartan collection

The entire show was beyond what we had expected. Billy Porter’s character as Lola was a complete mirror image of Chiwetel Ejiofor right down to his voice! Stark Sands as Charlie Price had the audience near tears during his heart wrenching solo performance when he gave up on the factory. Speaking of solo performance, Billy Porter’s drag queen character brought the house down with his near resemblance of Jennifer Hudson’s groundbreaking solo performance in the movie “Dream Girls“. At one point we completely forgot Billy Porter is a man in a dress and thought he could easily play the late singer Whitney Houston in a movie biopic! Yes, the man can sing!

Actors Billy Porter as Lola and Stark Sands as Charlie Price

By the end of the show, the entire theater was on their feet in thunderous applause. If any of them had any hangups about drag queens or transvestites before seeing the show, it was long forgotten by the time they left the building. On life imitating art, vanity aside: a lot can be learned from the show, for each and everyone of us to be more open minded and respect each other unconditionally!

The show is indeed “Gone with the boots FABULOUS!” Check out the show!

Speaking on behalf of all Shoeholics who would end up seeing this show and have to leave the theater salivating over the boots. The show leaves one wanting more, especially after seeing the endless parade of couture looking boots that closed the show! Here’s a free advice for the producers: The show to consider its own line of boots for sale and we would be the first in line armed with our credit cards to scoop up every pair without bating an eyelid! Broadway shows are known to sell just about anything from their shows as souvenirs at the theaters to guests. So why not Kinky Boots? Producers, can you hear the cash register ringing and this idea being a great source of more revenue? We hope you are reading this. *Hint*

The impressive cast members in some of the jaw dropping boots on stage!

Billy Porter working his magic as Lola on stage

Tony Award winning costume designer, Gregg Barnes

Editor Tinu with Cindy Lauper at the Kinky Boots theater in NYC.

Editor Tinu in her very own pair of Swarovski covered Kinky Boots at the theater.

The frigid winter is almost but a memory while the crispy air of spring is right round the corner just in time for some of the fashionable Jelly shoes featured in this issue. Jelly shoes have never looked so stylish. And as the April showers subside, some of you will have your hearts and minds focused on bridal showers! And on that note we proudly present our spring (April-June 2013) Shoeholics magazine print edition dedicated to our members and readers planning on tying the knot sooner or later. The issue is packed with shoes and bridal theme editorial spreads (for men and women) that would inspire your very own ensemble for the big day.

The Shoeholics editorial team had a fantastic time putting together the bridal themed ideas and concepts seen in this issue and hope that you will enjoy leafing through the pages festooned with loads of gorgeous photos like garlands of icing on a wedding cake. More importantly, we hope that this issue will make your life easier when many brides and grooms are swamped with choices and easily overwhelmed by the pressures of preparing for that special day. Every decision made during the weeks and months leading up to the big day play an essential role in the success of the event, perhaps none as important as the right shoes for the occasion that will have you standing on your feet for hours on end! Remember, your shoes are the only things connecting you to earth during that emotional day! Our models: Christopher Minaya (a former US Marine Corps Captain recently voted as P.Diddy’s Ciroc first military ambassador) and Brittany Erler (Major Model Management) certainly played the part well by representing the perfect couple in our bridal themed editorials.

Now all you have to do is to sit back and unwind while taking in some of the concepts and styles in the editorials and hope they will inspire you. And for those of you down under in Australia and in the southern hemisphere like Brazil, South Africa where the winter months are about to commence, fret not. Featured stories and editorials in Shoeholics magazine are timeless; you can apply just about all of it to any season of the year. There will always be rain and weddings all year round.

This issue also highlights the uniqueness of Compassion Couture’s dedication to Vegan fashion and Alessandro Libani’s “Felix Espadrilles”, a line of casual chic lounge footwear

Besides our worldwide subscribers who get the publication delivered to the convenience of their homes and offices, Shoeholics magazine can now be found on the shelves of many independent newsstands and major store chains in the United States, Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, Italy, Sweden, The Netherlands and now the United Kingdom being the newest addition! We have all of you to thank for the continued support.

To help celebrate our growth and to show appreciation to our our readers and members, Shoeholics magazine has partnered with 5 designers featured in the bridal issue jointly sponsoring our biggest contest yet. We would like to take this time to thank Giorgio Venturi, Harlem Nights and Andrew Lock for offering free shoes to our male winners. And for the ladies, we are equally grateful to Tiffany Chimere and Angela Nuran for the free shoes for our female winners. For complete details on the contest, please click here. You do not want to miss the big bonanza!

To participate in the contest, you will need a copy of Shoeholics magazine. Get yours sent to you right away or visit any of the local newsstands/stores listed on our retailers page.

Set design by Toriola Famuyiwa

Makeup/Hair by Renarda Joy

Models Christopher Minaya and Brittany Erler at Major Model Management

Photography by Tinu

First of all, you need to ignore the “private sale” cited on the invitation above. There’s nothing private about the sale that turned out the longest line in sample sale history!

A true testament to the strength of social network and the purchasing power of Chinese budding fashionistas was seen today at the once in a blue moon Roger Vivier sample sale. The usual fashionista crowd who normally frequent the designer’s sale were shocked to find themselves wrapped around the long city block of the 24hour post office waiting at least 1.5-2 hours to get inside the Soiffer Haskin loft hosting the sale just across the street. And who was ahead of them? Hundreds of Chinese students armed with their parents’ credit cards had already been there since 7am waiting for the 10am sale to begin. To while away the time, they came prepared with their books to study while waiting! They were no slouch students either. Many of them were clad in top notch designer gears from Chanel, Prada, Hermes, Louis Vuitton, et.al. Some even spotted playful animal toy shoes by Adidas! These hardcore fashionista teenagers and young adults waited hours to get shoes and bags by Roger Vivier costing anywhere from $300 to as high as $2500 (that is half off their usual full price).

A few of the staff manning the crowd were equally surprised by the turn out. The almost 2000 people turnout (within a few hours of the door opening) would be a record for any sample sale ever! We decided to investigate a little further by asking some of the students how they heard about the sale. Many of the students cited a tweeter feed that went viral on a Chinese version of Twitter. A Roger Vivier store only just opened in China a few months ago which of course helped established the luxury brand in the country. However, the same could be said of many other designers with stores in China who also have samples sales in the US, but we have never seen anything quite like this before!

24 year old FIT student Michelle Zhao bought 4 pairs of shoes, 2 bags and 2 belts after forking over $2000+, while her friend Victoria (20 yrs old) slashed through $6000 for 16 pairs of shoes! She said she was buying them for her sisters and was busy shipping some of them at the Post Office across the street when we spotted her. Victoria flew from California to New York just for the sale! Both said their parents are helping to fund the purchase. So they where sure to get something for their mothers as well. Good call, considering mother’s day is next month.

If planning on attending the sale, be prepared to spend at least 1.5-2 hours waiting in line if heading there today. Don’t have the time to wait? Opt for another day after the first wave of rush has tapered off. The sale is on till Tuesday, April 9. Once you get in, it’s a sight for sore eyes –a shoe playground where you can expect to spend hours gawking and counting your pennies trying to figure out which style to pick! The possibilities are endless. Enjoy!

Get your copy of Shoeholics magazine and enter a chance to win a FREE OF SHOES!

Some little known facts about the famous papal red shoes.

The red shoes worn by Popes dates back to the early Roman times. Kings of Rome and Pontifex Maximus (high priests) wore red boots!

Popes became the Pontifex Maximus, and adopted the red shoes when Christianity became Rome’s official religion.

Red shoes are worn by the pope, but not many recent popes have opted for them (aka Pope Francis). Benedict XVI actually brought the trend back after some time of discontinued use.

Some people say the red is symbolic of the blood of martyrs.

They were rumored to have been made by Italian luxury designer Prada but they are infact manufactured by papal shoemaker Adriano Stefanelli located in Novara, Italy.

The red papal shoes are one of the only remnants of the former red color of the papal garments group from ancient times.

So far we haven’t seen the newly appointed Pope Francis in the red shoes. We can only assume there must be at least 200 pairs of several shades and styles of red shoes in the papal closet. That would definitely qualify him as a true Shoeholic, a man of style.

Paul VI, John Paul I, and John Paul II were buried in their red leather papal shoes.

This might look odd to a lot of you giving that these are old worn out shoes were talking about. Nevertheless, we can’t deny a genius craftsmanship as this. We’ve seen nothing quite like it before.

French designer Baptist Eviry made a patchwork leather sheet out of his old pairs of leather shoes just like you would a quit. He transformed the sheet of leather with suede on the other side, into what he refers to as the “Little Shoes Throw Pillows”. And as you would have done with a pair of shoes, he buffs it with hot wax and shiny polish finish to give it that luxurious glow. All that hardwork and recycling fetches him about $1200 a pillow when sold! Can’t make the trip to cast off old shoes at your local thrift shops? This is not a bad way at all to recycle and reuse old worn out shoes to decorate your home or to get a pretty penny in return.

Rihanna lit up the stage unapologetically in a series of mind blowing thigh high boots during her “Diamond” world tour in Montreal just a few days ago. She had kept the fans waiting for about 2 hours but made up for the delay, reminded the fans that the show was worth waiting for in a collection of jaw dropping stage outfits…ahem boots! Forget the music, the boots alone were worth waiting for and in our opinion, they speak volume! If all the boots could talk, they will all together say, “Gorgeous!”

Speaking of boots, more styles are featured in the Jan-Mar 2013 print edition of Shoeholics magazine, now in stores.

Forget about the term “Knockoffs” which we addressed in the Jan/Mar 2013 issue of Shoeholics magazine, in stores now. Here’s something we stumbled into recently and would like to invent the term “Hybrid Copy” or “Hybrids” to describe when 2 styles/components of shoes become one, a new concept starting to pop up in the marketplace with designers like Jeffrey Campbell taking the lead.

The art of knocking off/copying other designers has been a touchy subject plaguing the shoe industry for decades. Designers doing the copying all point out that consumers buying the less expensive copied products are not the same as the consumers who would venture into luxury stores to pick up the expensive and original equivalent. This is still an open debate in the industry. While arguments continue to brew over that matter, some designers are taking it a little further by stirring the “melting pot” a bit by combining 2 different looks to become a whole new look all by itself. As if the consumers are not confused enough. Now, they have even more reason to make their brains work overtime when they spot these designs in stores, wondering “where have I seen this part on the shoe before?” Or perhaps chime “Wow! That’s something new I have never seen before!”

It will all depend on how well tuned in the consumer is to shoe designers and their original concepts enough to know where each part of “the new look” was derived from. Well, as the saying goes, “there’s nothing new under the sun”. Pretty much everything that exist today were derived and inspired by something that existed before them.

You can read more about this subject in the Jan-Mar 2013 print edition of Shoeholics magazine where images of original designs are paired with the “inspired” versions. Featured below are some of Shoeholics magazine pages of what we uncovered and shared with our readers worldwide. Also included in the same issue are comments made by our members on Facebook about this subject. This particular issue can still be found in stores.