The Shoe Girl's Blog

5.16.2012

Behind the Scenes...Photo Shoe-t

I know, I know. Almost a month without posting, I totally suck. I hope you follow my Tumblr because I update that almost daily. It's so convenient.

It's been 10 months and this divorce thing is still really affecting me. I don't know why but I find it hard to do the things I used to love to do. Blogging included. BUT... this isn't a therapy session its a muthafuggin shoe blog so let's get to it!

This last Friday we shot for the new Fall 2012 Cece L'amour and Penny Loves Kenny lines. IT WAS SO AWESOME!! We had a really great team of super talented people and we had a lot of fun. Like, probably more fun than you're supposed to have when you're working ;) We shot it at the beautiful Biltmore hotel in downtown Los Angeles and shot from 10am to close to 10pm. Crazy long day!

I'm no longer designing for bebe. I've handed it off to another designer who's got some great ideas and is going to have a lot of fun with it. I'm now concentrating on my own brand, Cece L'amour... my baby. And a really fun brand named Penny Loves Kenny. We own both of those names and I think it's awesome to be designing for the 2 brands that my father's company actually owns. It's more personal.

Anyway- here's a look behind the scenes...

The best part about these shoots was that I got to use my beautiful friends as models. It's so INSANE that I have actual friends that are this beautiful.
The amazing and ridiculously gorgeous Skully Smith for Penny Loves Kenny...

Me in my Cece L'amor floral mary janes, deciding which shoe to shoot next...

Up next, another stunning friend of mine, Dianna Ryan for Cece L'amour.

These are my favorite for fall!!

And me again, in rare form. FLATS!? Yep. Sometimes you gotta get on the roof of the historic Biltmore hotel in your Chucks. ;)

Love you all!!

XOX,

4.25.2012

Morocco's Inspiration

Hello friends! If you follow my Tumblr or Instagram you know I've been in Marrakech the past 2 weeks :) I was really inspired by some things I saw around town and in the market and wanted to share...

The Marrakech airport is so beautiful...

So much color and rich detail. It's so awesome to think that this is half of my heritage. But as beautiful as the city is, there is also so much poverty and it's so awesome to realize that my dad came from a small town in Morocco and built this amazing company I now work for.

Anyway, let's see if any of these cool Moroccan details find there way into my upcoming footwear collections. I leave for China tomorrow to start my Spring 2013 shoes! ...always on the go!

XOX,

4.11.2012

Cece L'amour on Endless.com

Another amazing online retailer is now carrying Cece L'amour! At the time of this post Endless.com has six styles!!

You guys, I'm beside myself. I've decided to buy a pair myself to support the brand. haha
I'm still waiting on Zappos 'cause they'll have the Leeah in black, which I love. Endless only has red as of now (which is really more of a pink)

Heels.com added 2 additional styles and they now have 6 styles total. I couldn't be happier!

I'm currently working on my 4th season and I'm really excited to show you guys what's next.
Thanks for your continued kind words and support. I love you guys :)

XOXO,

Bio (blah blah blah...)

So, a little about me and why I think I can call myself The Shoe Girl.

My name is Celine and I grew up in Huntington Beach, California. I like to joke that I was born in high heels, and although that's obviously not true, I was born with the love of shoes in my blood.
My father, a former professional soccer player, came to the US from Morocco in the 70's. He started off as a shoe salesmen and had a natural talent for it. He worked his way up and eventually co-founded a company called French Follies. They made cute little espadrilles and ballet inspired shoes. From there he went on to Guess and Charles David footwear, where he eventually became President of the company and brought it to its height of popularity in the late 80's.

I was so lucky to grow up around shoes. I was the only girl in the 8th grade wearing the kick ass ankle boots Guess was famous for... and remember those Guess jellies?? Yep. I had those too. And at a whopping hundred bucks a pair, let's just say I made a lot of new friends when I came to school in those! That's the first time I felt the power of a hot shoe.

In the 90's, my dad left Charles David/Guess Footwear to pursue a new venture... Bebe Footwear! It was his first shoe license, and it was super successful. Soon after he started his own line with his namesake, Joey O. Since then his company has held the exclusive licenses for L.A.M.B. Footwear, Harajuku Lovers footwear, Charles Jourdan footwear, Laundry by Shelly Segal footwear, Antik Denim footwear, Playboy footwear, Zinc foowear, Hale Bob footwear, Badgley Mischka footwear, Mark and James by B.M. footwear, Betsey Johnson footwear, Betseyville footwear, Jill Stuart footwear, JLO Footwear, and True Religion Footwear. Awesome, right!? :) did I type "footwear" enough?

So... like I said, shoes are in my blood! I realized this at an early age, when I would go into my mom's closet and pull out her shoes and clear off my book shelves, fill them with shoes, and put a sign up that said "Shoe Show". I didn't really know what it meant, other than that was where my dad was always flying off to. Shoe shows. I wanted to be a part of it!
I went to design school in Milan, Italy when I was 20. My professors at Ars Sutoria taught me all about making shoes, including sketching, pattern making, leather tanning, and lots of technical shoe stuff. It was intense.

From shoe school to designer! After graduating from my shoe program I went back home and started working as the assistant to the designer of my dad's company, Titan Industries. At the time, we were only making bebe and Joey O Footwear, and were about to go after our second license, JLO Footwear. I was a part of that project and I loved it! It was so exciting putting what I had learned to use. I was off to China and working my butt off. I was the assistant to our head designer for a little over a year when I got offered the job of taking over as the designer for Playboy. It wasn't anything I had ever thought I would do, but it was a chance to be my own designer! No more assisting!!! I took it! Then, a few months after accepting the position as designer for Playboy, I was offered another line; Zinc footwear! I took it!!! I loved working with Zinc. The clothing was cute and the shoes were much more "my style". Later still, I was given the job as designer of JLO footwear.

I launched the debut collection (and every collection thereafter) for Harajuku Lovers in August 2008, and in May of 2009 I took over as designer of Betsey Johnson footwear until Steve Madden bought out the company in October of 2010.

Currently I'm designing for Bebe footwear and just launched my own line, Cece L'amour, which I am very excited about.

I love my job! I get to work with shoes every day. It's my job to look at shoes in magazines, online, in stores, and on the streets. It's a dream job honestly, and I feel lucky every day. My obsession is my job... So cool!

So anyway, here I am. Here's my blog. I hope you've enjoyed reading it so far. It's been fun for me and I hope that shows. :)