Halo Shoes Blog

As you may know, Halo is a small shop and we, like most others, are feeling the slowdown.  So, we started our sale last friday and were getting ready for the holiday panic but along comes Mother Nature with different ideas.  We've been having snow storms since last Saturday and my kids managed one day of school last week.  People were pushing hard to get things done.  Huge inconvenience at this time of year.  We just aren't a hard core snow town but after several days of having to move slower and initial shock and dismay of being limited by the weather seems to have come and gone. People are realizing you can only go so fast and get only so much done.  The shop has been open quite a bit.  Sales certainly haven't been huge but when customers stop by, the rush to get somewhere else isn't there.  

 Saturday evening. 

People have been coming in, getting warm and comfortable.  There's been lot's of good conversation.  Just hanging out and catching up or trading stories about the weather and it's all positive.  There seems to be a "let's make the best of the situation" contentedness in the air.  You can fight the economy, you can fight slow sales, you can fight the shopping crowds, but you can't fight Mother Nature.  Somehow, these storms seem to have reminded us to keep things in perspective.  It is what it is.  Go out and enjoy!

It's time for our Winter / End of Season sale to begin. Most items, including Dries Van Noten, Costume National, and Cydwoq, will be marked down by at least 20% and with time, we'll be adding product and marking down product even more so check back regularly.  

On Thursday, December 11, Halo Shoes will host (including snackie bits and some bubbly) a trunk show for jeweler, Shannon Miranda.  Shannon has been a long time customer and stops by the shop every week to say hello to the shoes.  She's a wonderful person and is one of our favorite people around Halo.  

Aside, from being super fun, she's a jeweler with a loyal and growing cliental.  One her very cool concepts is to create a finger print pendent or charm made from silver. The prints can be from children, spouses, or special people and can be worn by moms, dads, grandmothers, and other special people.  Shannon will typically create a charm bracelet or pendent on a necklace but I think it can be whatever form you'd like. Personally, I think this is a very cool way represent your special one and an excellent alternative to a store bought charm.  It's up you whose finger print you want close to you.

 Example of a bracelet: 

And a pendent:

Shannon also has a full range of jewelry (rings, ear rings, etc.) which she will be showing at the trunk show. The following are some of her more popular necklaces.

 Hope to see you on Thursday.  Cheers! 

A couple of shops are having a little sales event / open house on December 3, 2008.  It will be Hot Box Betty, Emily Jane Jewelry, and Halo Shoes.  We will be offering 20% off most everything in the shop (there are some exceptions) and some nibbly-bits and sparkling drink.  The shop will be open until 8pm.  Hope to see you there.

On Wednesday, flew to Milan in the AM, dropped my bags off at the hotel and headed to the exhibition.  The shoe show is held at a new facility on the outskirts of Milano.  The pictures don't do the place justice.  It's HUGE.  This is the entrance area right outside the metro exit. 

Then you walk for a while to get to where you want to be.

This is the outside of just one of many exhibition halls which are HUGE.

And, then you end up in a exhibitor's display area.  This is Moma's.

It can be a fairly chaotic situation.  Buyers from all over the world are doing the same thing; worrying about the same things, looking at the same shoes but ultimately, make different choices for our respective customers.

This is in NDC's booth and the guy on the right is NDC's french designer and the guy on the left is their Japanese agent.

Right now I'm in Milan buying for the shop.   It's late Saturday night and I can't sleep so I thought I would blog a few notes about the trip.  It's a fairly stressful time because within 4 days I will make decisions that affect about half my year's sales.  This trip I took a little detour to visit some good friends in Amsterdam.

Combine some serious bouts of jet lag, alcohol (and other "stuff") and tearing around Amsterdam on bikes, time becomes a little lost.  I apologize for the blurry blog. After arriving in Amsterdam some my friends Andrea, Adam and their Dutch friend, Rik, (who was renamed Rikdiculous) directly took me to to a bar called Gollem.  So many tasty beers to be...well tasted. This place must have been hundreds of years old and to think of the amount of good beer consumed is... well, probably historical.  And the place was the size of a postage stamp.

The next day was spent on bikes.  So much fun racing around the city through the canals and bridges.  Portland likes to think its a bike friendly city but its nowhere near Amsterdam.  Bikes have the right of way no matter what and if a car and bicyclist are involved in an accident, the car is immediately to blame.  I felt pretty confident on the bike knowing that.  Below is just a small bike stand.  Keep looking down the sidewalk. There are others much bigger.  Also, seeing the number of women riding their beater bikes in high heels was like the clouds parted.  

Played tennis a couple of time with my friend, Adam (see below) a tennis pro from Portland and played in one of his social hit arounds.  Incredibly international group with guys from Surinam, South Africa, Czech Republic and Holland.  Afterwards, we all drank beer and talked tennis.  Big surprise.  Guys are the same everywhere.  I found out that in Holland, after field hockey and soccer, tennis is the next most popular sport.  Oh, and everyone plays field hockey.  There were afternoons where it seemed like every other girl was carrying a hockey stick on their bike.  The people of Amsterdam are very relaxed and very friendly.  It's amazing how many speak english and so willing to converse.

The shop is so full right now and we're scrambling to create space in the back for all the new shoes arriving.  I would show you a picture but it's kind of embarrassing.  Kierre (rock star sales girl) has been mad a work trying to make space...she likens it to playing Tetris.  But, this afternoon, as soon as the UPS man left, she stopped everything, tore into the new boxes and started trying on...(sorry about the mess!)

Camilla Skovgaard designs some pretty incredible shoes.  Her shoes for this fall do not disappoint.  They're definitely on the sexy side but the intelligent sexy side.  Just smart and sexy.  Who doesn't like something or someone smart and sexy?

Freshly unpacked, a couple of smart ankle boots...

And, just unpacked a very intelligent boot.  This boot is designed to be very tall on the leg and the fit is absolutely perfect.  Its made from stretch leather.  Everything works for this boot! Smart and sexy!

Also, we received our re-order of Camilla's #8001/Black 

which we have on sale on the website.  This shoe was by far her most popular style and, as a result, has carried it into the fall season.  Smart lady!  The sale will only last for a day or two now we have the new sizes in. 

Creating a good, interesting, and eye catching window display is not easy and I've come to the realization/conclusion I've no skill is this area.  But, fortunately for the world of good, interesting, and eye catching window displays, there are a amazingly creative people like Tracy (of the Matisse boutique and dance fame) and Claire (of the Por Que No? tacos and da Vinci dance fame who by the way, has the very unenviable task of trying to teach my middle schooler dance. He's a bit mischievous.) who, today, collaborated on one of the crazier windows we've had.

Tracy is a master (or would it be mistress) of finding and acquiring items that only other than God would know where to look. Check it out...vintage Benz and Audi hub caps.

 And...how much more bizarre? A motorcycle made from more bizarre and unrelated stuff.  An ammo case! Vintage steering wheel.  

Claire hauling stuff...

To be continued...

One of my favorite times of the year is when I start receiving shipments for the new season.  I'm constantly asked what's coming and I usually get a sideways look when I say I don't really remember.  It's mostly true because right now I'm buying for Spring / Summer 2009 and those shoes are sharp in my mind.  Fall 2008 becomes a bit of a distant memory so, when the new boxes start to arrive, I'm super excited (surprised) to see what I've ordered. 

As owner, I get the very envious job of being errand boy.  Here, I've just returned from the PDX airport with my truck filled by the Vialis shipment out of Spain.

 And from the truck, I lug the cartons into the shop.

Now the hauling and lugging are done, I become the anxious buyer.  The exciting moment is opening the shoe boxes which is when I know for certain how well the shoes will sell.  At the shows, I'm pretty confident about my buy but there's something about getting the shoes into the store that really confirms what I've done.  Sometimes there will be a shoe I'll pull out of the box and think, "What was I thinking!".  That's not the case for Vialis Fall / Winter 2008. I'm really happy with all the shoes.  Two styles fresh out of the box:

 Oh, the shop ends up smelling great from all the new leather.