P.S. Zein won. Boo.

I’m currently not in a pro-Nike phase, because the quality of their shoes have degraded to such a level that a 150 JD Nike shoe really isn’t much better than its fake counterpart downtown for 5 JDs. I’m also especially annoyed at how the canvas material traditionally used to make Converse shoes has changed to plasticy BS after Nike acquired Converse in 2003.

But anyway, I guess sometimes when a person takes the trashy stuff they produce to produce something acknowledged as trashy, it’s actually cool. The Nike Trash Talk, in collaboration with Steve Nash, features an upper that’s made of leather and
synthetic leather pieces collected from the factory floor. In addition,
the mid-sole uses factory scrap foam, and the outsole uses less toxic
rubber and incorporates Nike Grind material from outsole manufacturing
waste.

Not only is it recycled, it also looks pretty good.

(via Uncrate)

Nothing much has changed since last year. I didn’t watch the Oscar-nominated bunch of movies for 2008, and I didn’t hear of 96% of them either (though for honesty’s sake, I did watch and love Ratatouille). I also do not watch the Oscars in my life, as I cannot think of anything more boring to kill a few hours of my year on [Oscar surprise face].

While I might not care for who grabbed an Oscar, I do love to see what the happy, shiny people wore to the red carpet. It always proves the same old something; if you don’t have taste, you really can’t work it together, no matter how many stylists style you, how much money you have, if its Gucci or Chanel, or how many Oscars line up your shelf at home.

And now for Hollywood’s plastic wonder people…

The Went-to-the-Oscars-Drunk Group:

I’m afraid I have no idea who this is, but it doesn’t matter, because she’s trying to look like a MERMAID. I hope she keeps this dress for next year’s Halloween party, because I haven’t seen anyone dressed as Little Mermaid in a while.
Check out the green lady behind her too, who’s dressed out like a little teacup. I know Disney had some limelight yesterday with they’re brilliant Ratatouille, but that is not a good enough excuse to have a communal Disney-themed Oscar night.

This is definitely the worst outfit I have ever seen. She looks like Paris Hilton’s pocket-pooch dressed up.  The shoes too. What the hell was she thinking.

This marks my ultimate Oscar upset. The usually well-dressed Penelope Cruz absolutely looks witchy in this frumpy outfit. It looks more like an abaya with cut-off shoulders and the scarf wrapped around her waist belly-dancer style. Eww.

A cross between a garbage-bag and bride of death is never a good idea, Tilda Swinton, whoever you are.

I’m sort of getting depressed at how ugly this year’s dresses are. What’s up with the gloves lady?!

Arabian-nights meets Elizabeth Taylor. Haha. Check out her shoes too. They have BUCKLES on them.

The fabric guy at Soo2 IlTelyan downtown called. Now that you’re done with his fabric, he wants it back.

Wow, I’m HYPNOTIZED.

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The Fire-Your-Stylist Group:

What are my grandmother’s curtains doing in the Oscars?

What. The. Hell. Is. Jessica. Alba. Wearing.

That’s just a worse version of Jessica Alba’s dress. It reminds me of
the display mannequins of Indian tailors in Riyadh, especially with the
rest of the fabric trailing down like that.


The Cruella Deville look was never cool.

Is she pregnant? If she is, then this dress isn’t that bad. If she’s
not, then it is. Regardless, I totally hate the jewelery-thingy-collar.


Not hideous, but it is frumpy. Is frumpiness fashionable this year or what..?

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The Wow-You-Look-Good-Tonight Group:

And no, not because it’s red, although that might give it some points. It drapes her body gorgeously.

I put this here because I think Cate Blanchett worked great with her pregnancy. She looks elegant and comfortable. I like that.

I can’t figure out if this is “Could have done better” or “You look gorgeous”, but it’s certainly pretty. Especially when compared to the rest.

I don’t know why Renee Zellweger always looks the same. But this is a nice dress on her anyway.

It’s orange, but it’s pretty. I think it’s my favorite Oscar dress.

Keisha Whitaker obviously changed her stylist. She actually looks very good this year- very elegant in an understated way.

Who do you think looks the best and who looks the worst?

This ad is about Adi Dassler, the creator of Adidas. It’s interesting, but I guess I’d expect something better, more informative, and more original from Adidas about their very own Adi.

[via 2:48 AM]

I’m not usually the sort of person to randomly offer Googled tips, but this particular tip is so useful that I feel obliged to share the whole beauty of it.

The scenario: my darling mother got me a drop-dead gorgeous pair of red suede pumps (after all, a girl could never have enough pairs of red shoes). Problem is: their leather was painfully stiff, blistering my feet as quickly as I say hello (and trust me, my tongue runs at 200kms an hour). For a minute, I thought about giving them away, but then I quickly decided I’d be an absolute idiot to give away such gorgeousness, and that a much better idea would be to equip Google Almighty to find a quick fix.

Naturally, Google gave many tips, including but not limited to:
a) tossing them in the freezer.
b) oiling/waxing them.
c) throwing them in a hot tub of water.
d) peeing in them.
e) putting wet newspapers in them and leaving them over night.
f) soaking their inside with a coat of rubbing alcohol.

I decided to try options b and f, and they seemed to be the most logical. I oiled the insides of one pair (the left pair which was already a lot more comfortable) and soaked a cotton ball with cheap Jordanian rubbing alcohol and stuffed it in the other pair.

Verdict: Forget about oiling shoes, it doesn’t do shit. It just makes them slippery, which I’m betting will make it even easier to get blisters. On the other hand, the alcohol was amazingly successful at doing the job. I let them soak for under 5 minutes, and the right pair is now a lot more comfortable than the initally-more-comfortable left pair. The alcohol both softened the edges and stretched the shoe itself.

It is absolutely flattering to be featured in this month’s Pulp magazine, in article appropriately entitled, “Cyber Junky”. To check out the article, get a hold of the latest Pulp issue at most supermarkets, libraries, and any Aramex media stand.

The toot team was also featured, so check that out here.

Not to preach or anything, but here’s a really cool infograph about high heels. I think that high heels are hot, but since I’m the ultimate sucker for comfortable shoes, I don’t wear them more than a few times a year. It is amusing how much hotter the little illustrated woman is in her heels, I mean, the artist even changed the dress and the pose to match with the hotness.

[via Boing Boing]

New York Magazine has a really cool article about really ugly shoes that somehow became trendy. They start their timeline of ugliness at 1966, with the infamous German sandals that Westerners are still so fond of wearing.

It is always easy to tell a non-Arab from the way their dressed, regardless of how Arab their skintone and facial features are. They always seem to be wearing a backpack or a messenger bag, khaki pants, a dull-colored tank top, and a pair of German sandals similar to the pair above. My Arab sense of style never really understood how anyone could strut such hideous footwear.

The time line then moves to 1971 with the clog, but naturally, having been born in the 80’s, I have no memories of that portion of the timeline lest for the clog revival of the early 90’s, when the “sabot” was extremely fashionable in the Arab world. I am not aware if it was fashionable abroad as well, but I can easily say that the heavy wooden sabots are the main reason I still cannot run properly. At the peak of their fashionability, I was barely a child of 7, and it is REALLY hard to run in leather-and-wood footwear. I can still remember the woody clanky noise produced by simply walking in them…

Moving over to the late seventies in their timeline and the mid 90’s in my memories, to the reign of the Doc Martins. Although I wasn’t much of a fan of their sexless shape, I remember that they were very, very cool at some point. I even had a British physics teacher who would only wear Doc Martins, a color-changing green pair that turned blue depending on its angle!

 
Actually, at that point in my early teens, I was more of a sexless sandals person :) They were very cool in Jordan, complete with socks, a woven-fabric backpack slung low, and jeans ripped vertically at the side of the leg. Such a fashion crime to commit, but on my defense, I was 12, and it was very comfortable to wear to daycamp. I still see some people wearing them, mainly Westerners dressed up for a “safari” in the deserts and malls of Jordan.

 
I am always amused by the very touristy outfits of tourists.

The timeline of ugly shoes seems to miss a very important addition to ugliness in the 90’s- the Spice Girl platform shoes, which every teenager at that point is surely guilty of wearing. It was so cool at that point, and they were admittedly very comfortable.

Skipping over to winter 2004, just a few measly years ago, we come upon the hideousness of the Ugg Boot, still being sold at fashionable retailers worldwide (in Amman, you can find them in this season’s Pull and Bear collection). You see, I really, really like boots. I even think that suede boots lined with fur can look really, really cute, but alas, there’s something about Ugg boots that is just absolutely and appallingly not likeable. Perhaps its the way the toe curves in such circularity, or unflattering flatness of the sole. Ugg boots make me feel like I’m looking at a pair of shoes turned inside out, or at an Eskimo crossed with a normal person.

Next comes Crocs, which I’ve seen on display in many stores around town but which I’ve yet to see anyone wear, and perhaps that’s a good thing. I mean, my childhood clogs reinvented in more comfortable material seems to bring out rather bad memories. Namely that I never could figure out how to pronounce sabot, French for clog.

I can think of many more ugly shoes that I have been victimized by fashion into wearing, but on the brightside, I have a gorgeous new pair of overpriced, uncomfortable boots to coo over. Aren’t they absolutely gorgeous?

So, what ugly shoes are you guilty of wearing? :)