style

Runway shows, designers, stylists and fashion bloggers will be blasting the full fall fashion story over the next few weeks.  It can get a bit overwhelming.  Our advice -- look those over, and take into account the fact that stores will promote fashion trends based upon their buys. Style is a very personal experience.  Save your money for those items that make you look and feel fabulous.

Celebrated fashion designer Abi Ferrin, 30, whose Los Angeles success was derailed by a bad relationship, tells how she left California in 2006 "with less than nothing, $50,000 in debt" - and made her comeback in Texas.

The career of fashion designer Abi Ferrin, 30, may appear an out-of-the gate success, with a 2003 young-girl-makes-good start in Hollywood, where she dressed the starlets, to beating the 2007 field in Stanley Korshak's Texas' Next Top Designer award, to showing at this year's New York Fashion Week and winning an ever-widening circle of acclaim and clients.

Recently my husband and I visited Barcelona and environs to celebrate our special anniversary and a friend's birthday. At my age, I don't toss out numbers. I just realized that I have been married longer than the age I admit to. But back to the trip. I was struck by the daring and innovative architecture that loomed over the landscape and the enticing store windows at eye level that were provocative works of art.

Melanie's story, Statement Shoes, is the winner of the second of round of voting in our Good News Girlz Shoe Challenge. Our first round winner was Suzanne's story, The Single Greatest Pair of Shoes in Beverly Hills. Suzanne and Melanie will receive $25 gift certificates to Nordstrom. We bet they'll use them for shoes!

Voting begins today on our final batch of shoe stories. They've been sad, funny, empowering and ultimately hopeful. Please take a few minutes to read through the six entries in our poll and cast your vote for that one that speaks to you.

Inspired by her life in Paris as a student and then a journalist, Rosalind de Rolon is launching spectacular insider trips to France, beginning with Mother-Daughter Paris & Royal France during Spring Break 2011. (For information, visit www.RoseJourney.com)

In 1981, as a young journalist, she was invited by the French Foreign Ministry to cover Parisian high fashion.  The senior editor of the newspaper Le Matin provided her the introductions necessary to enter that very private world. 

Inspired by her life in Paris as a student and then a journalist, Rosalind de Rolon is launching spectacular insider trips to France, beginning with Mother-Daughter Paris & Royal France during Spring Break 2011. (For information, visit www.RoseJourney.com)

In 1981, as a young journalist, she was invited by the French Foreign Ministry to cover Parisian high fashion.  The senior editor of the newspaper Le Matin provided her the introductions necessary to enter that very private world. 

As a result of being in the fashion business for twenty years, I've fallen into a habit of creating metaphors for clothes that relate to life. I've given quite a lot of thought to shoes.

Shoes are the foundation of life, the things that connect you to the earth. If you invest too much in how they look and don't pay close attention to the fit and feel, you could cripple yourself in the future.

Thank you for your votes - it was close - Tamara will be wearing the red patent leather kitten heel pumps on her date.

Check back on Monday when we will have a new shoe dilemna for you to help solve.  Your participation in the voting process enters you into a drawing for a prize!

Do you have a shoe dilemna? Email us at info@goodnewsgirlz.com!

Christian Louboutin was in Dallas working with me to fit models and put the finishing touches on a Stanley Korshak fashion show for the Leukemia Society. It was 1998 and to the best of our knowledge, no one had ever produced a shoe fashion show in America before. We were making shoe history together.

Christian Louboutin was recently quoted as saying that about 3,000 women worldwide each have over 500 pairs of his shoes. But the prize for top customer has to go to Danielle Steel who owns at least 6,000 pairs of his fabulous red soled heels. In related news, Mariah Carey had to build a special closet to house her 1000 pairs of shoes.

One of my earliest memories is throwing a sandal out the window of a moving car. I didn't like wearing shoes and the car window was open. Imagine my mother's frustration when we arrived at our destination. My relationship with shoes has had its ups and downs-marred by violent acts on both our parts from that first shoe incident until the present.

Get your dancing shoes ready! The next Good News Girlz challenge is all about shoes. From flip-flops to high-tops, from ballet slippers to stilettos, we love them all.

We want your stories about shoes. How do you relate to shoes? What is the influence of shoes in your life?

My name is Katherine Sloan, but my friends call me "The Women's Studies Major," because I notice sexism and use the word "empower" often. I became a feminist in high-school after experiencing the controversy from my newspaper editorial about our cultural tolerance of the misogynist lyrics of mainstream rap music.