Eco-Chic White House Flair Couture-sy of Payless

I hope that you had a great time with the weekend drama on the Emmys and the season finale of Drop Dead Divas on Lifetime TV.  I hope my post will give you some Monday Motivation. ;) 

If you’ve been even near a magazine this September-eve, you have definitely heard of Isabel Toledo’s new shoe line for Payless Shoes.  Ms. Isabel designed that to die for sage dress and coat combo that First Lady Michelle Obama wore to the presidential inauguration back in January 2009, putting her on the fashion map.  The New Jersey native of Cuban decent went all out with extremely graphic designs for her first shoe collection looking to make high fashion accessible to all.  (http://www.payless.com/store/catalog/subsubcategory.jsp?trail=1016%3Acat10283&subCatId=cat10113&catId=cat10088&changedFacetValue=&brandId=&categoryType=&addFacet=1016%3Acat10113)  And let’s be clear, this collection is not for the wall flower. :)

I spent my Friday afternoon trying out her new haute designs at my local Payless Shoe Source and was pleasantly surprised with the quality of materials used in her collection.  Because they are the featured shoe in every magazine, I could not resist trying on the ‘High Ghillie.’  While being incredibly comfortable and easy to wear, the rubber sole of the shoe is very yellow, almost like a taxicab.  

I then moved on to try something a little more my style, the beautiful ‘Toreador Pump’ that is like a present wrapped in a red satiny bow.  The d’orsey style fit my foot like a glove and was very comfortable due to the extra padding in the ball of the footpad.  The big feature of this heel is that it has a texturized rubber sole for tons of traction making it perfect for all urban terrains including cobblestone crosswalks, marble office foyers, and carpeted cubicles.  The additonal rubber sole also helps with shock-absorption when hitting your daily 10,000 steps. ;)

Curious about her flats, I then tried on the ‘Pom Pom Flat’ because it was too cute not to!  It has a faux fur pom pom sitting in the middle of a pilgrim style buckle detail that adds a real punch of sass to your basic black flat.  It also comes with a rugged, texturized rubber sole for serious pavement pounding.

These are all incredibly well priced ranging from $34.99 to $54.99 and a real bargain with their BOGO (Buy One Get One 1/2 off) promotion.  And, the really great under-advertised bonus of Isabel’s entire collection is that they are all man-made materials for the eco-chic veganistas out there.  This gal is bringing us affordable eco-chic White House flair couture-sy of Payless and we love it!