Melissa/Vivienne Westwood AW12

I feel so bad that you've been left post-less for so long. I've had a busy couple of weeks where computer time has been limited. I've stuck to updating The Shoe Girl Diaries and left PHP on the back-burner. I'm constantly thinking of new posts and taking photos, so it's frustrating for me when I don't have time to write it all up! Anyway I started collecting the images for this post a month or so ago and now I'm finding more things to add to what I already had. I've seen so much Melissa/Vivienne Westwood over the years that I'm beginning to get confuzzled as to what's new and what we've already seen. 'Flats' I don't pay much attention to and the Skyscraper court lost me a while back (waaaay too many colours to keep up with!). So here's my maybe not quite concise guide to AW12. By the way these styles are already trickling into most stores... 

I'm going to start with a completely new style, the Protection boot (£150). It's a modified version of the much copied bow/button/tassel bootie from previous seasons (really is there a high-street store that hasn't knocked these off?). Cuban heeled, short cowboy boots are all the rage for AW12 (not entirely sure why), so I guess these are 'bang on trend'. They come either flocked or shiny in Navy or Nude and Black or Aqua respectively. Anyone that loved the previous boots, I'm sure will be excited to get their hands on these.

Remember the mule that was introduced? It has also had a mini-makeover and definitely for the better I reckon, with the addition of a skinny ankle strap. It's funny how a small detail like that can completely change the look of a shoe. The Mule II, is priced £140 and available in orange, black, grey or purple (loving the latter). I think they're super pretty!

Another small change has been made to the Skyscraper Chain shoes which you'll recall had an ankle strap with different width chains & orb dangling? This season it's all about pearls, which happen to be my favourite thing! I would think if you owned the previous style you wouldn't really be able to justify owning both (says the girl with 10 variations of the Lady Dragon!) as they have been produced in similar colours. You get two rows of pearls along with the plastic strap and I think it's a nice touch. The Skyscraper Pearl are £180, which I think is quite expensive personally and available in nude, black or blush.

Now for the Skyscraper III with the wonderful new addition of...glitter! Yes the court is now fully sparkly in either Midnight (black), Red or Gunmetal (silver grey). They will also set you back £180, but I can tell many will want these for their Christmas party wardrobe. As for the regular Skyscraper court, as I mentioned in my introduction I've kinda lost what's new and sometimes they reintroduce colours the next season as 'new' when technically they're not, so I'm just going to ignore them altogether in this post.

Gillie or sometimes Ghillie are a completely new style and available in a whopping 6 shades, although you'll find the green and blue harder to find. The other colours are black, red, rose (the pearly pink looking one) and nude and are available for £140. You can definitely see the inspiration from VW's main line in these shoes and I feel they are instantly recognisable as a Westwood style.

For flats, we have the Divine pump which I originally thought was available in Nude, Red and Black but have since spotted in Navy and pale Blue. I think I'm correct in saying it's a completely new style, so these 2 shades are also new rather than SS12's. I like the addition of the colourful orb on it's own and they are closed toe, they'll set you back £85.

Finally I saved the best until last. Just two new colours of Lady Dragon slingbacks and I can actually hear you hollering when I say this....the globe is back!! It was only ever available for one season (I own the purple/green pair) and because of that, they became rather popular once they were sold out/harder to find! I love the classy colours they've chosen this time, much deeper than what we saw previously because this is a winter collection. Both are 'glitter' shades in Amethyst or Sapphire although I think it's more obvious on the Amethyst pair. I have to be sad and admit I almost cried when I saw a full-size image of the Amethyst colour (I was feeling super emotional that day!), they are just so freakin' pretty and definitely the one style I'll be saving for. I have to be more selective with my shoe purchases now, but I really, really want these and think they'll be a gorgeous addition to my wee bubblegum-smelling collection! The LD Globes are priced at £130 (may have to wait until sales next year!).

What do you think, will any of these be winging their way into your collection?