Ruby Slippers open New York Fashion Week

05-09-2008 10:06

Dorothy's 70-year-old ruby slippers from the "Wizard of Oz" were redone by contemporary designers, and put on show in Saks Fifth Avenue's shoe department last night, to serve as the opening celebration of New York Fashion Week.

The event showed off styles by the likes of Christian Louboutin, Manolo Blahnik and Roger Vivier, and was used to highlight eight days of previews, of next season's fashions.

The centerpiece was one of five pairs of slippers designed for the 1939 film by MGM costume designer Adrian Greenberg. This pair, known as the Arabian Test Slippers, never made it into the movie because they were too exotic looking with their elf-like toes, but they were used in screen tests. Actress Debbie Reynolds owns the shoes and lent them for the event, which raised money for pediatric AIDS research.

Manolo Blahnik's take on the infamous slipper were in a wearable red satin with a jeweled flower as decoration, and the Jimmy Choo shoes were in a snakeskin material with a zipper detail on the back of the ankle.

Vivier, meanwhile, imagined his shoes as a platform pump covered with Swarovski crystals and a pilgrim buckle, and Louboutin's shoes had satin scrolls on the toes and fabric flower petals at the ankle.

Singer and fashion icon Gwen Stefani offered a pair with clunkier wooden heels from her fashion label LAMB, and Oscar de la Renta's design were a deeper, darker red with a bow at the ankle.