Famed shoemaker Christian Louboutin has turned out heels in leather and silk, but he’s adding a new material to his portfolio: glass.

For a new collaboration with champagne-maker Piper-Heidsieck, Louboutin created a glass slipper that connotes both Cinderella fantasy and Parisian decadence. The shoe flute is packaged as part of the $500 Le Rituel gift set, which also includes a bottle of champagne. It will only be sold in select Neiman Marcus stores and online at www.le-rituel.com.

Drinking out of a lady’s shoe is a tradition that dates to the 1880s, when Russian counts celebrated ballerinas by drinking out of their toe shoes. Later, the tradition was picked in Belle Epoque Paris on the stages of the Folies Bergere and other cabarets.

“There is something a little bit corny of drinking out of a shoe,” Louboutin says. He wanted to suggest something sweeter. “I thought of Cinderella,  so the shoe became a symbol of the lost person.”

“I started very precisely [working] with the shape of 17th century glass that was not dedicated to Champagne but for liquor,” Louboutin says. It was a Portugese glass that he twisted into a heel, and then attached a shoe. (The shoe does not reference a specific shoe.)

Louboutin blushed slightly when asked if he had ever sipped bubbly from a lady’s shoe. “Yes,  I did. Very bad experience,” he says. “It’s provocative. It’s odd for women [if you] drink out of their shoes. It’s nothing you would do to just any woman.”

“[But] I did it… and it worked.”

Joyce Culver/ 92nd Street Y

From L to R: Cindi Leive, Robin Givhan, Ashley Olsen, Isaac Mizrahi

Glamour magazine hosted a panel last night on the future of women’s fashion at the 92 Street Y. Glamour editor-in-chief Cindi Leive moderated a lively discussion between designers Ashley Olsen, Isaac Mizrahi and journalist Robin Givhan. The conversation ranged from Michelle Obama’s style influence to skinny models on the runway. While Givhan was sardonic and thoughtful, and Olsen geeked out for moment when discussing how excited she gets over branding, it was Mizrahi who stole the show. Herewith, some of the evening’s most colorful quotes on fashion, culture and style.

On designers’ ideal woman:

Robin Givhan: Who is that fantasy woman that they are sketching for… she’s still 5′10′, size 2 and about 21. On a good day.
Cindi Leive: How old is she on a bad day?
Givhan: 16.
Mizrahi: Imagine that you had just cooked this unbelievable souffle and someone said, Would you prefer to present it on an earthenware plate or this gorgeous exquisite plate that’s been made by some crazy artisan?
Givhan: I am not earthenware!
Mizrahi: Compared to Karlie, honey, I don’t know. Earthenware is a good thing to be called…

On using curvy models:

Mizrahi: I remember  when I booked girls that weren’t obese but…they were real girls. There was one who was a stripper. And you could feel the energy in the room just go down. You could feel the energy, just going, “No, I’m sorry.” Closed books. Pens went down. They were angry.  And I never did it again, because I thought, why rile these women? It takes a lot to rile a woman. It takes actual breasts…but when they’re implants, they’re perfectly fine.

On the recession:

Mizrahi: For years and years, designers, merchants and consumers have been saying what is this? This is crazy, [prices] are getting out of hand.

What we’re going through is…a necessary thing to get us to something that actually functions. Clothes in stores will have some mystery again. They won’t be marked down 10 minutes before they hit the floor.

On style icons:

Mizrahi: [When I was growing up, style icons like Tina Chou and Ines de la Fressange,] you could never find them in head-to-toe designer looks. It would be a Chanel skirt with a T-shirt from Hanes and dime store pearl earrings. Something fabulous and perverted about that.

But the problem now, when you got to these places that are supposed to give you those options, there’s so much fashion! There’s so much fashion now at Target!… How can you find elemental things that are exciting?

You [used to go to] 14th Street and get some crazy sweat pants. Now 14th Street is Alexander McQueen. There’s no absolutely no other choice. It’s fashion…or die.

Where is the real low thing? Where are the jelly shoes that you find that are sick because they’re so great…Everything has air quotes around it now.

Ben Gabbe

Betsey with Aldon James

The dress code at last night’s National Arts Club award dinner was black tie, which meant that designer Betsey Johnson arrived wearing a pink tutu, a chartreuse jacket, electric blue capri pants and a neon printed shirt over a tangle of sparkly necklaces.

The irreverent fashion designer was honored with the 2009 Medal of Honor for Lifetime Achievement in Fashion, an award whose past honorees include Arnold Scaasi, Oleg Cassini and Carolina Herrera. Her work as a New York designer was cited, as well as her oversized personality — a trademark of her work for the past four decades. (Her in-house model at the start of her career in the 1960s was Warhol muse Edie Sedgwick.)

Johnson is one of fashion’s “great bright lights,” said National Arts Club president Aldon James. “Betsey is indomitable,” James said. “Fashion is always at our cultural round table, and tonight she’s at the head of the table.”

“It couldn’t be more appropriate, with the fashion industry under such stress due our economy,” he added.

Johnson, who first tried her hand at fine art before turning to fashion, said she was beside herself over the award. “It’s the biggest, best, fair-square celebration from the last place I’d dreamt of,” she says. “It’s the big bang.”

Her work emerged from the ’60s cauldron of Vietnam and rock n’ roll, not unlike some of the present day’s political and social upheaval. Are there lessons that she can impart to a struggling younger generation?

“You have to love it through hell and high water, drought and feast,” she said. Complacency is the death knell of talent, she warned. In contrast to being asleep on the job, designers need to catalyze their fears, she explained. “There is an excitement about having nightmares.”

Comparing turmoil to a hurricane that prunes the weak trees, leaving behind only the hardy, Johnson said, “Hard times always lead to something great.”

Designer Giorgio Armani has described himself as “dictatorial” in running his fashion empire. On the catwalks of Milan, Mr. Armani is simply known as “King Giorgio.” Santo Versace, who hails from a rival fashion fiefdom, sees Mr. Armani in a more democratic light.

On Monday, Mr. Versace sent a letter to Italian President Giorgio Napolitano nominating Mr. Armani for a seat in the Italian Senate. While most of Italy’s senators reach the office through parliamentary elections, a handful are appointed by Italy’s president as so-called “senators for life” in recognition of their lifetime achievements.

“Armani is the best candidate to receive the nominee for senator for life,” Mr. Versace wrote in his letter, which was emailed to The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday, adding that “the image of our country would’ve been very different without” Mr. Armani’s success in fashion.

If Mr. Napolitano approves the nomination, the white-haired 75 year-old designer will join an Italian Senate currently dominated by allies of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s center-right government. There, he will be expected to cast votes on issues ranging from Italy’s annual budget to measures aimed at pulling Italy’s economy out of its deepest recession since World War II and helping victims of the L’Aquila earthquake.

Mr. Armani’s political leanings are “not important,” Mr. Versace said in an interview. Mr. Armani’s nomination, Mr. Versace said, aims to beautify an Italian political landscape that has recently been marred by controversies surrounding Mr. Berlusconi’s personal life and legal woes. “No one can do a better job than Giorgio Armani in showing the beauty of Italy — the Italy that we desire,” said the 64 year-old Mr. Versace.

Mr. Versace is well placed to push for Mr. Armani’s candidacy. Apart from being the brother of designer Donatella Versace and a 30% stakeholder in Gianni Versace SpA, Mr. Versace is also member of the lower house of Parliament and of Mr. Berlusconi’s right-leaning People of Freedom.

Mr. Versace said he had been unable to speak directly with the designer before making the nomination. However, Mr. Versace said he had been in touch with Mr. Armani’s niece Roberta Armani, who handles public relations for the fashion house. She was “very happy” about the nomination, Mr. Versace said. A spokeswoman for Giorgio Armani SpA said the designer was “unavailable” to comment on the matter.

Christian Cota

Cota’s florals and layered designs are a recent addition to Saks Fifth Avenue’s third floor at its New York flagship.

“The response has already been incredible, especially with our younger customer looking for an entry point into designer [clothes],” says Saks president and chief merchandising officer Ron Frasch. “The collection excels because of Christian’s use of novelty prints and the construction of the silhouettes and pieces that balance elegance and detail.”

For Spring 2010, Cota showed a collection full of flowers. “I’ve never been a floral person but this season I really wanted to capture beauty itself,” Cota says. “It was about the flower being broken up, and then re-sewn together almost like a garment.”

His textiles this season included a cage-like lace made by stitching ribbons onto fabric, then melting the fabric away (but leaving an intricately coiled pattern behind). Another dress uses a similar technique, where the topmost layer of a stacked fabric is gently burned away to form a pattern out of small holes that reveal colorful silk beneath. But concepts will only go so far: “No matter how many concepts I have, at the end I make sure it’s something a woman would love to wear,” he says.

AFP / Getty Images

Yohji Yamamoto Spring 2010
Click to view more photos.

Yohji Yamamoto, like Rei Kawakubo of Commes des Garcons and Martin Margiela, is one of those few futuristic designers credited with influencing other designers with his concepts.  His outfits, often with deconstructed tailoring, dark colors, and avant-garde shapes, have a cult following and often wind up in museum exhibitions as well.

Mr. Yamamoto seemed to be riding high in the economic boom, opening a sizable New York sales office to handle retail sales and press relations. But the New York press office closed last summer - a sign of the slowing sales that many designers have been struggling with. His sportier Y-3, a licensed collection with Adidas, has drawn huge crowds to its New York runway show each season - it was once held in a basketball stadium.

He showed his namesake Yohji Yamamoto collection in Paris last Friday at a show with a notably smaller audience than usual, raising questions about whether he cut the size of the show to save money. The show was also safer — more wearable and sellable — than his highly conceptual shows usually are - with long dark skirts and white blouses.

AFP / Getty Images

Yohji Yamamoto

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that avant-garde designer Yohji Yamamoto has filed for protection from bankruptcy, citing debts of over six billion yen, or $67.8 million.

The company plans to keep operating while under bankruptcy protection.

The news comes just a week after his signature runway show in Paris, and under one month after a memorable Y-3 show in New York that featured an impromptu soccer game with a photographer from the photo pit.

Conde Nast Archive / Associated Press

An April 1950 Vogue cover by Irving Penn

Legendary fashion photographer Irving Penn created some of fashion’s most iconic images over his six decade collaboration with Vogue magazine. He died last night at age 92. Goodbyes and eulogies started on Twitter late last night and continue through the morning.

@womensweardaily (Women’s Wear Daily): Master photographer Irving Penn dies at 92. WWD looks back on his career

@Fashionista_com (fashion blog): RIP Irving Penn. You will be so greatly missed.

@vanityfairmag (Vanity Fair magazine): RIP Irving Penn. Here are six covers he did for Vanity Fair in 1983/84

@NARSissist (NARS cosmetics): We’ll miss you Irving Penn….

@Jess_Stam (model): R.I.P. Mr. Penn xoxo

@heidimount (model): Very depressing to hear about Mr. Penn.

Plus, a round up of other news from the last day of Paris shows:

@MAC_Gordon_E (vice president, Makeup Artistry, MAC Cosmetics): I’m backstage at Giles. The last MAC show of the season. Its like a delicious dessert after a really long meal…in four cities!!!

@glamour_fashion (Glamour magazine): E! news just reported that lady gaga will guest star on an upcoming episode of gossip girl. SET YOUR TIVO!

@_BoF_ (fashion blog): The kitten heel makes yet another appearance. This time at Giles Deacon

@womensweardaily (Women’s Wear Daily): Prince just announced two impromptu concerts the Grand Palais this Sunday.

@vogue_london (Vogue.com UK): Heidi [Klum] is changing her name.

Six Scents

The Series Two collection from Six Scents

When designer Henry Holland was asked what a perfume bearing his name might smell like, he told perfumer Stephan Nilsen, he wanted something that suggested friends gathered on an overstuffed purple couch.

“Sometimes, musk can be a big, puffy white sofa,” Nisen says. “But he said purple.  He said he liked some flowers, lilac and mimosa. To me, those smell purple so I added those notes to give a purple connotation to it.”

Nilsen and five colleagues at fragrance company Givaudan teamed up with six fashion designers, including Phillip Lim, Toga and Henrik Vibskov, to create a limited edition perfume set. This is the second series of the “Six Scents” collection; bottles retail for $95 and  are sold only in high-end boutiques like Paris’s Colette, New York’s Henri Bendel and Milan’s 10 Corso Como.

For the perfumers, the project was a welcome chance to take a break from the constraints of creating a fragrance with mass appeal — the over 200-year old Givaudan is behind scents such as Christian Dior’s J’Adore, Yves Saint Laurent’s Opium and Thierry Mugler’s Angel. But creating a  personal scent has its challenges.

“We would say ‘lemon,’ ‘lemon drop’ and then ‘candy.’  But then someone else comes in and says, ‘lemon, no, that’s floor cleaner.’ ” Nilsen says. “If we all came from the same background with the same cultural references,  it would be a lot easier.”

Perfumer Rodrigo Flores-Roux, who just finished working on the new Calvin Klein fragrance CK Free, says he instructed designer Richard Nicoll to think about things that he liked to eat or smell. Within a few days, Nicoll told him about his fondness for fennel salad. The resulting scent, “Nicoll 17,” includes notes of Florentine fennel, black basil and caraway seeds.  “I wanted to evoke the pollen of the flower, the crunchiness of the leaf but also the transparency. It’s white and opalescent,” Flores-Roux says. “For the earthiness [of the bulb], I  used some woodier notes and touches of patchouli.”

“We tried to stay away from something very girly,” Flores-Roux says. “Even if [Nicoll's] fashion is ultra feminine, he approaches it as sartorially masculine. I wanted this to be a little bit genderless.”

Yann Vasnier, who was paired with emerging menswear designer Damir Doma, opted to compose a scent using only all-natural ingredients. All-natural ingredients are rarely used due to their rarity and expense. But Vasnier, who is responsible for Marc Jacobs’ new women’s perfume Lola, says the earth tones and layered textures in Doma’s clothes called for it.

“It has a contemporary feel to it,” he says. “I  think woody notes are back and really trendy right now.  They smell new, in a way.”

AFP / Getty Images

Hermes Spring 2010

Tennis ,anyone?

Hermès designer Jean Paul Gaultier used grass turf to cover the floor and seats of the industrial warehouse where the elite house of Hermès showed its spring ready to wear collection on Wednesday evening in Paris.

It smelled good. The champagne that was handed around (before and after the show) seemed fitting. And the tennis theme left wide room for a collection of clothes that was sporty, jet set, and even preppy.

Tennis skirts, shirt dresses, and V-neck Great Gatsby sweaters dominated the looks - each of which was accompanied by a bag of some sort — bags and leather goods being a huge part of Hermès’ business. Many of the bags Hermes was promoting were oversized Kelly bags - some big enough to be suitcases.

One white and gray crocodile Birkin - what a fortune that will cost? - had a twin in the front row, sitting primly on the lap of a guest.

And now we know that it’s hard to find a fashion model that can play tennis. Part of the show’s gag was to have two models walk the runway, then pull out rackets and start hitting a ball back and forth at the head of the catwalk. Or that was the idea anyway. They dissolved into giggles at first, unable to hit the ball even once. As they warmed up, they began to hit the balls - even managing to konk a few guests on the head. All in a day’s play.