Wicked Wednesday-4/14/2010 AND An Ode to Southern Belles

I am a child of the 80's and the TV shows and characters of the 80's (and a good portion of the 90's) were my babysitters, best friends and guru's.
While I was a big fan of Growing Pains, Who's the Boss, Saved by the Bell, and Full House I find that those characters had no lasting impact on the woman I that I grew into. The same cannot be said for the characters from The Golden Girls, Designing Women and Beverly Hills 90210, those women had a massive impact on me and my personal sense of style.


I will not go into my obsession with Brenda Walsh of 90210 (on this post anyway) but I do want to talk about the GREAT Blanche Deveraux(Golden Girls) and Suzanne Sugarbaker(Designing Women).


Blanche was the original cougar, with an endless string of southern gentleman making their way through her tropical themed bedroom. Her clothes matched from head to toe, she got married in red and called her father Big Daddy. She was the aged Southern Belle who never gave up her vitality, personality promiscuity or style. Blanche taught me a few major lessons, like never tell anyone your real age, you can set your own rules, it's ok to need friends.


Suzanne was simply special. A former beauty queen, she lacked professional direction but retained her beauty, spirit and a sense of entitlement yet she was a good person. She lived alone in a huge mansion and walked about her home in negligee's that rivaled ballgowns, had a maid that practiced voodoo and she paraded around Atlanta with her pet big Noel(a gift from Consuela the voodoo maid). While she was quite thin when the show first started she had a significant weight gain during it's run, yet you could not contest that she was the most beautiful big girl or not.
Suzanne was who I wanted to be, she taught me the joys of tiara's, the importance of shopping, that one could retain grace in adversity and that beauty could be found in all forms. I do not wear tee shirts to bed, I do not own pajamas with pants and I do think nightgowns or are only for special or romantic occasion, this is all because of Suzanne.


These women were amazing, I was entirely too young to be watching the very adult Designing Women and Golden Girls, I had no idea what menopause was, what it felt like to have an empty nest or to be divorced but I knew one thing for certain---these women were FANCY!!! They wore silk dresses to work, wore negligee's and peignoirs not pajamas, Suzanne wore tiara's and sat at a vanity to comb her hair and they wore heels every where. The sound of Blanche's heels clicking whenever she walked onscreen is ingrained in my memory as is as the sight of Suzanne's swirling layers of chiffon sleepwear. To me they were the very epitome of femininity.
This brings me to this week's shoe porn selection, the Rosazissimo sandal by Christian Louboutin. The moment I stumbled upon a photo of this sandal my mind instantly went to Blanche and Suzanne and the feather slippers they wore.


Very sleek and clean yet the Rosazissimo sandal features a slim heel, ruching and a feather adornment. To me they seem inspired by the marabou slippers that were popular in the 80's and that can still be found at many lingerie shops. They are a 500 times improvement on their predecessor yet the retain the whimsy and allure of the pouffy original. Also this is an actual shoe as opposed to the 80's bedroom slipper.

They are increasingly difficult to find right now but came in three colors, Scarlet, Cobalt and Ivory. My personal favorite is the cobalt. That shoe in that lovely shade of blue is the perfect wedding(and wedding night shoe) to me.

I do not own this shoe and I'm not sure that I'll have $795 to spend on a feather adorned shoe no matter who absolutely gorgeous it is. But I absolutely appreciate their beauty and the memories they brought of the brassy belles that I grew up watching. I would say that when comparing this sandal to a lover I would say it's the bride, she is lovely and soft yet has an absolute sense of whimsy and delight about her.