tres chic

I stumbled on the coclico website a few months ago and was impressed by the simplicity and the beauty of this shoe line. Of course I was drawn to yet another nude bootie. This seems to be a problem for me. Cocolico is based in NYC and its creator, Sandra Canselier, credits her childhood in the French countryside and love of NYC as inspiration for the line. Additionally, it appears from the website that the line is made with an eye towards "sustainability". They use meat industry by-product leather and vegetable tanned leather.

Now, I find this very interesting. Sustainable fashion is all the rage and there is no real uniformity in how the term is applied to the fashion industry-- is it environmentally friendly, recyclable materials, just wages? Recently, the Financial Times explored the issue of "sustainable fashion" asking what the hell constitutes green fashion and arguing that designers themselves don't really know. Alexandra Sinderbrand at The Huffington Post replied that the lack of uniformity in the definition is by design-- the luxury industry relies on excess and reduces green fashion to a bunch of sound bites to detract attention from the fact that we must learn to do with less new stuff.  Really, anyway you slice it "sustainable" must mean buying less-- that's the bottom line. That can mean different things to people-- buying quality not quantity, buying vintage/thrift, updating pieces with a tailor, buying accessories to reinvent your wardrobe...the possibilities are endless. I know I have a tendency to buy too much and this in part is why I stared my little blog-- an outlet for contemplation prior to a purchase. For me fashion is art-- not all beautiful things are meant to be purchased some are for inspiration and appreciation. Enough said there.

Regardless of this debate, I love the shoes. They are high on my list of spring purchases but for now I am window shopping. Which, I may add, is very French of me.