This must have been a fantasy imagined by a fashionista: Dorothy's 70-ear-old ruby slippers from "The Wizard of Oz" were redone by contemporary designers and landed in Saks Fifth Avenue's shoe department _ which is big enough to have its own zip code.
A party Thursday night showing off styles by the likes of Christian Louboutin, Manolo Blahnik and Roger Vivier served as the opening celebration of New York Fashion Week, which starts eight days of previews of next season's fashions Friday morning.
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.
Jenny Oz LeRoy, the granddaughter of "Oz" producer Mervin LeRoy, wore a pair of red rhinestone-covered pumps by Louboutin. "I feel very nostalgic here, but also very at home," she said. "I have a lot of red shoes, including a pair of Chuck Taylor All-Stars."
Stuart Weitzman thinks the Judy Garland film is a favorite of most shoe designers, including himself. "`The Wizard of Oz' along with `Cinderella' _ and those two great pairs of shoes _ hooks girls on them for life," he said with a laugh.
Weitzman has sold several pairs of his ruby slippers, slingback sandals with a red crystal-covered bow and more crystals under the toe. 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.
Blahnik's shoes were in wearable red satin with a jeweled flower as decoration. Sergio Rossi's snakelike gladiator sandals were on trend and especially noteworthy, and the Jimmy Choo shoes were in a snakeskin material with a zipper detail on the back of the ankle.
Gwen Stefani's fashion label LAMB offered a pair with clunkier wooden heels _ perhaps better for clicking together since they won't scuff as easily _ and Oscar de la Renta's were a deeper, darker red with a bow at the ankle.
Guiseppe Zanotti offered something more practical for the yellow brick road, a pair of ballet flats with a beaded rose on the toe box.
