Flat-hunting
Entrepreneurial shoe designers and childhood friends Patrizio Miceli, Cyril Saulnier and Pierre Jacquet have achieved the unimaginable: convincing chic Parisiennes to give up their Manolos - and about nine centimetres - for flats. Their unisex footwear line Babouche is inspired by the pointy, Moroccan slippers of the same name, but features fabrics and design details that are less souk, more city. Sinbad, their original model, comes in rainbow-coloured calf leather and costs Ffr459 (HK$482). Then there's Tendance (Ffr459), available in funky floral and animal prints; Jeans (Ffr459-Ffr599) in indigo, delave denim or recycled Levi's; Serpent qui pique (Ffr799) in python and, for evening, Smoking (Ffr559) with a sexy, black tuxedo stripe down the centre. Madonna is a big fan of stars and stripes style Peace (Ffr559). Downtown designers Xuly Bet, Timothee Pic and David + have also come up with limited-editions for the company. For more information and a list of international stocklists, log on to their fun, interactive website
www.doyoubabouche.com. From next month, customers will be able to order online; until then, simply send requests to
[email protected].
Giddy up
While we may be a long way from the Wild West that inspired the clothing range, Hong Kong is home to the world's first free-standing Wrangler shop, in Festival Walk, Kowloon Tong. All aged timber and terrazzo flooring, the concept shop contains copper and leather fixtures recalling the hardware on a pair of classic Wrangler 13MWZ jeans - still favoured by 99 out of 100 rodeo riders, with their high back, broken twill weave and pressed cord label.
School uniform
A/X Armani Exchange is partaking of the spirit of the season with a $250 signature T-shirt being sold to benefit Sower's Action, a charity set up to improve education on the mainland. Available in black, white, red and blue, and packaged in a sleek silver tube, it is a fine stocking filler and 100 per cent guilt-free. It's on sale at A/X shops in Pacific Place, Admiralty; Fashion Island, Causeway Bay; Canton Place, Tsim Sha Tsui; Cityplaza, Taikoo Shing; and Festival Walk.
