the girl in the leopard loubs

When I was out on Gloucester Road the other day, doing errands, I saw Kaya (or Yoshi, her nickname) from a distance and, I swear, my eye was so drawn to her feet that they looked this large & clear to me, from a distance.



Thanks to you bloggers (okay, and LFW), I've developed such a hunger for height on feet, ridiculous height, and especially, a hunger for Louboutins. (And THESE Louboutins, specifically, altho other brands, like Asos & Office, are doing nice knock-offs). So much so that I was amazed to read that he's only been doing it since 1992: I somehow thought they traced back to Chanel days, and he was like a zillion years old (or no longer on this mortal coil. But thank goodness, he is! Alive, and well.). In this relatively short space of time, Christian Louboutin, as you all well know, has created something so iconic, with those shiny red soles, that he's even patented it.



But I never see them on the street. Not during the day, anyway, which is when I'm doing my street shooting. What I see on the street is usually footwear like Annie, yesterday: comfortable, cosy, Ugg-like footwear. Which is why this was such a 'find' for me. I mean, Kaya wasn't just, as they say, wearing those Louboutins: they were clearly wearing her, leading her along like two wild twin unruly puppies.



I thought she was with her friend, or perhaps, a sister, but it was her mother! Who was having some kind of conversation with her about whether to let me shoot her. I chose this background because I liked the texture of the cheap wood next to the animal print, but she was so painfully shy shooting her that the more I clicked, the more she seemed to try to literally climb into the background. She gave me this title, by the way, when she emailed me. 'Hi, it's Kaya, the girl in the leopard loubs'.

P.S. UPDATE:
Just heard from Kaya. She said it's okay to write what she told me after, that she was self conscious about being shot (altho she has her own blog) because she was afraid she'd look fat. That makes me absolutely mental: I had my stint of being too thin when I was a teenager. Now that I'm happy in my own skin, I eat what I want. But I'm aware I'm a fidgety person who burns a lot even sitting down. Still, it scares me when slim girls start talking like that.

Our bodies look different from our own perspective. Perhaps it has something to do with the position of our heads: it throws it all out of proportion.

Anyway, I thought that was a brave thing for her to let me tell all of you, and I'm hoping this will start an honest dialogue - as Alice has written recently in her blog, Little Miss London - about how the fashion industry can set up unrealistic expectations of body perfection. In her case, she hates her thighs. Do you have a part of your body you hate? Mine was my waist: that's where I put on weight. Now, I embrace my big belly! ; )

Oh, and sourcing: sweater dress from erin wasson x rvca • headchain by low luv • jersey/leather panel leggings by helmut lang • bag coco bag by aleander wang