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Tuesday 13 September 2016
Irregular Choice Alice: Lost Your Muchness
Last weekend I set about photographing the remainder of my Irregular Choice Alice collection. I'm in my element in this situation; surrounded by shoes and strange bits and pieces! Last time we had a tea party theme for My Cup Of Tea in pink, so I thought I'd contrast with Lost Your Muchness this time. Being a lover of quirky boots, I was thrilled by All Mad Here ankle boots from the first collection, so imagine how excited I was that we were getting "proper" boots in the second collection. Yes, I may have mentioned it more than once! Upon seeing the teaser, I immediately fell for these-they remind me of Irregular Choice's Babi (Blythe) mixed with All Mad Here and Curious Feeling (also from the 1st Alice collection). A three-way hybrid!
They sit below the knee on me and unlike Babi, are not pull-on, but have a full length inside zip. I tend to size up in boots, especially those without fastenings, but I decided to buy both sizes of these to check anyway. I actually could've gotten away with my usual size (5/38) surprisingly. The foot itself is fine in length and width with no issues at the widest part of your foot (which is usually where the problem lies for me), but around the ankle of the boot, where my foot starts to go up into my leg (front), the boots are really tight there. They do zip up though and without any struggle. The 6/39 (size up) are a more comfortable fit with more room for movement and the fit is a little less close to the leg than in the 5 (especially around the upper part). Obviously in the smaller size I'd struggle to wear them with socks or thick tights, which may be the decider for you, given they are more of a cold weather style. So I really debated which one to keep (the 5 were a neater, slimmer fit overall, which was really pulling me), but in the end I kept the 6. There wasn't much in it. To look at them, I didn't think the leg looked generous in these boots and indeed the fit feels and looks slimmer than Babi (which are quite baggy on me) on, so I'm genuinely surprised I fitted both in that sense. My legs aren't the chunkiest, but certainly not the slimmest either, if you're looking to compare. There's measurements that might help you out on the IC website if you're still stuck. I'm really pleased with the fit anyway, I like that the leg is more tailored looking, especially around the ankle area.
The boots are mainly blue, made from a slightly metallic finished material which glistens, like a wet-look from afar. There's also a blue boucle denim type fabric, with multi-coloured slubs throughout. There's a scalloped silvery grey trim all around the boot, which subtly twinkles in the light (but sadly didn't translate in these photos-my video on Instagram shows this better). There's a blue glitter heart on the side of each boot at the top and these details mirror Babi.
The shape of the toe however is completely different. These have a flat, rounded toe, whereas Babi featured the more cortesan-like pointed toe. There's no platform on these boots.
The heel is Alice, the same mould we saw in the first collection. She sits at 4" and the base is one of the smallest in character heels. Her dress expands (outwards and backwards) towards the lower part of the heel, so the overall feel is still somewhat chunky, though they don't take on a wedge-like appearance like the bunnies or unicorns. There's no right or left heel, but Alice isn't symmetrical (as you'd expect) with the full skirt of her dress falling naturally. She is painted and glazed, wearing her trademark blue dress, white apron and tights and black shoes. She's one of the more intricate character heels with tiny details such as eyelashes, 3 colours in her eyes and streaks in her hair. She neatly keeps in line (mostly) with the shoe at the sides and back and there's no smaller, sticky-out bits to worry about.
The soles are the same as my Tea With Alice from first collection and are different on the left and right boot. One shows a close-up of Alice drinking from the bottle and the other a shrunken Alice struggling to balance the bottle. The main picture on the sole blends into an all-over Alice In Wonderland print which is mirrored in the lining of the boot. As I mentioned in my last post, the boxes for all styles are the same and the same as the first collection too.
Down the side of each boot there is a large still from the original animation and the right and left boots depict differing settings (like we saw on All Mad Here). The left boot shows the talking flowers scene with the rocking horse-fly. I thought this was adorable in the film, so I'm pleased to see it here, but don't think I realised until now, that it featured on my Flowers Can't Talk soles last time (duh)!
The right boot shows Alice at the head of the table at the tea party with the Mad Hatter and the March Hare. The inner sides of the boots have this really cool material, which again looks a little wet. It really shimmers in the light with a rainbow, oil-spill type overlay. I'd love to see more of this used, it's rather stunning in the flesh. I popped a video on my Instagram Stories of it when I first got them, but will post it to my main page too, so you can see.
I'm just as in love with these boots as I expected to be. The uppers are really cute and unique, but the addition of a character heel is what really does it for me. You can find stockists here if you wish to get your hands on these. I updated the list again last week, but will do so again today or tomorrow. What do you think, do you like these?
Deffo an update of Blythe's Babi. I've noticed old designs sneaking in every season, like that blue scalloped dice heel being an update of a plainer blue heel with that same blue front.
ReplyDeleteYes, Hypolita!!
Deleteoh they do look very beautiful!!!x
ReplyDeleteLove them!
DeleteIC's Alice collection was insane ❤
ReplyDeleteAgreed, utterly brilliant!
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