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Talking To The Shoes | Valentina Cirasola | Designer

20 Jun 2010 2 Comments

by Valentina in Friday Fashion Tags: #HighHeelsShoes, #ShoeBox, #ShoeCloset, #ShoeStorage, #ShoeStyle, #ValentinaCirasolaAuthor

For someone who is used to walk every day on high heels is not easy to fall off the shoes. It takes balance, full concentration and a lot of attention to where the feet are going. On high heels, women cannot afford to be clumsy, or they will lose their “good impression”. High heels dictate a straight up posture and a very feminine coquetry attitude.

During the centuries, shoes gained more importance and became more visible as the skirts became shorter. They went from being simple strips of cloth to wrap around feet so the feet wouldn’t have to touch the ground directly, to the leather sandals the Romans wore. There were shoes on stilts as high as 20” to get through rain and muddy streets and then there were heels from low to medium made of wood. Shoes with heels in the XVII Century were made of silk, brocade, embroideries, and laces to be matched with the colored silk stocking.
Leather boots also came into fashion, high up to the knees and above. In the ’60s Mary Quant invented the forever young “mini skirt” and high boots became an adorable addition. I wore them both shamelessly.

Shoe heels also grew in height according to the forever changing fashion rules.

In Venice, the red heel for both men and women was considered a very sexy element of the shoe and it was an “attention grabber”. Showing the red heel from underneath the dress meant looking for trouble!

Shoes are a fetish, status symbols and the tradition of a nation. Some are real object d’art, some are impossible to wear (see the skeleton stiletto in my photo).

Their magical power is to turn the feet, a nonsexual part of the body, into a sexual excitement. That’s why we can’t have enough of them in all colors and styles. In Italy, during my growing up, I had a new pair of shoes at the beginning of the school year, generally brown, one new pair for Christmas in black for the elegant gatherings with family and friends and one pair of sandals for the Summer. Three pairs were all I had and they were supposed to last at least a couple of years. All the people I knew had the same custom or just about. Now, living in America, I cannot begin to count how many pairs of shoes I own and just like everybody else, I fell under their spell.
(Vertebrate heels by Dsquared )

Growing up in Italy, I often accompanied my fancy young aunts in their shoes shopping. I remember the salesperson asking if they wanted two strings or three strings sandals. The merchandise in Italy was never and still isn’t exposed for the customers to reach, touch and try on. Salespeople are there to find what you are looking for, they are your gofer. Sandals with two strings were a best seller, more exposed the feet were the sexier they looked. To me, now living in America, it isn’t any more a question of how many strings, it’s a question of how many pairs I can fit in the shopping cart and I like it! Thanks for all the choices available to me.
We all have such an irrational obsession with shoes that we must plan the right space for them in our homes.

One of the relevant aspects of my profession as a designer is to know how people are going to use their container furniture from kitchen and bath cabinetries to closets. I must know all their habits in order to design their wellbeing and comfortable living.

How to make a morning dressing process less stressful and be able to choose the right shoes for the right outfit without stirring ourselves crazy?
(Photo left: BH&G)

Take a photograph of one shoe per pair, print it from your computer and stick it on each box of shoes. It will be easier to find and match them with the outfit. Shoes will be talking to you much easier, instead of you losing time finding them. A walking closet, of course, is an ideal solution, where clothes and shoes can be displayed as your own shopping store. As an interior designer working in remodeling all kind of spaces, it is very important to me and to my clients to have an organizational team at our disposal. The team is made of professional organizers who know how to get us through an elimination process easily and painless before we start any demolition and remodeling project. This is my precious added value to my customers.
A simple order is the foundation of all good things.

Fashion Services

https://valentinadesigns.com/services#fashion-services

Valentina Cirasola is an interior designer, in business since 1990 and a former fashion designer. She helps people realizing their dream spaces in homes, offices, interiors and exteriors. Valentina is also a published author of three books:

Amazon: http://goo.gl/xUZfk0

Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w

Living Life Without Limits | Valentina Cirasola | Author and Designer

30 Jan 2010 Leave a comment

by Valentina in Books Blog Tags: #ComeMiaNonnaReturnToSimplicity, #ItalianFood, #ItalianLifeStyle, #ItalianTableCustom, #ValentinaCirasolaAuthor, #ValentinaInteriorsDesigns

I am a designer with a passion for cooking, most of the people who know me is aware of that. Writing and publishing a regional Italian cookbook has been the best thing I have done in 2009. I named my book with an Italian title and an English subtitle: ©Come Mia Nonna-A Return To Simplicity. The translation of the Italian title means As My Grandmother, the book, in fact, is dedicated to her, my nonna Pasqua, the person who taught me to love simplicity.

This book represents the quintessential of simplicity while being creative with food. So much so that it has attracted some restaurants in the area where I leave who want to feature some recipes from my book. “It would be really different to organize a book presentation if I host events at the local Italian restaurants in my area”, I thought. The idea is inviting, no author has ever done a book presentation in a restaurant, the idea is a novelty, I like it, let’s do it. After all, I learned to live a life without limits, right?!

On February 24, 2010, Cedro Ristorante Italiano in Menlo Park, CA has graciously offered to host my book presentation event. The dinner will feature food from my book, I will be the commentator, the historian, the story-teller.

The region I wrote about is Puglia, where I was born, on the Adriatic sea. It is a mixture of antiquity and modernity, Baroque architecture, ancient table customs, tasty and healthy food to die for, and the region’s warm people.

Barnes & Noble

The guests at Cedro Ristorante Italiano will have a unique opportunity to taste the delightful food of my land and will appreciate its elegant simplicity. Live music will fill the ambiance. Thank you in advance to all of you at Cedro.

The food of Puglia is in tune with all the needs people have today to stay healthy, eat good food to control the weight, cook fast because we are all busy, and save money at the same time, as the ingredients are inexpensive and can be found in any grocery stores, not only in gourmet specialty stores.

I cannot be happier about the interest that ©Come Mia Nonna-A Return To Simplicity has created. My book had a purpose and a message, I could not pass the opportunity to publish it when I did, it was the right time.

The book was published on Thanksgiving day 2009, that was a super good sign and made the best Thanksgiving I ever had! Thank you my grand Universe.
More book presentation events will happen in different Italian restaurants. Stay tuned! Ciao,
Valentina www.Valentinadesigns.com

Valentina’s book event: The Flavors Of Puglia Cedro Ristorante Italiano – www.cedroristorante.com 1010 El Camino Real Menlo Park, CA 94025 (on the corner of Merrill St. and Santa Cruz Ave) February 24, 2010, at 5:30-7:30 pm
Seating is limited

Please forward this blog to anyone you think might be interested in reading it and let me know what you think by leaving a comment below. Robert Taitano, a friend and business associate of www.wine-fi.com says: “Valentina – an International Professional Interior Designer is now giving you an opportunity to redesign your palate”. Author of the book: ©Come Mia Nonna–A Return to Simplicity
Amazon: http://goo.gl/xUZfk0

Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w

The Table Is A Lady | Valentina Cirasola | Author and Designer

25 Jan 2010 2 Comments

by Valentina in The Good Life Tags: #ComeMiaNonnaReturnToSimplicity, #HowToDecorateTips, #ItalianLifeStyle, #MiseEnPlace, #ValentinaCirasolaAuthor, #ValentinaInteriorsDesigns, Tablescape

In my Italian culture, the table has a masculine connotation when is used for various tasks: paying bills, writing personal notes, rest all the groceries that are waiting to be placed in cupboards and fridge. This is the case when the table is called “il tavolo”.
A curious thing happens when the table is dressed up for food, meaning for breakfast, lunch or dinner, suddenly it becomes a feminine genre and it is called “la tavola”.

This is my observation: In every part of the world, when a woman is invited to go out to a restaurant, she gets well dressed up and prepared for a few hours of fun. Is it for the respect of food, or for the person who invites her, I don’t know…? Perhaps it is only the anticipation of the simple pleasure of tasting food, smelling the aromas and flavors paired with good wines, while resolving life’s problem at the same time. I think that the answers to most questions in life are generally found around a dining table.

Ever since Roman times, food have been the special occasion to be invited to, breaking bread with people meant then, as much as it does today, to be trusted enough to be part of the host’s special circle. Even though the Romans ate half laying down on the “triclinium” a type of chase long, their low table in front of them was highly dressed in the fashion of the era and the guests had to appear in elegant attires. Think about the great holidays of the year and how much efforts women take to dress up the table. The purpose of that is to show off the food and enhance the flavor with the decorations on the dining table and all around it.

(Click on each photo to view it larger).

We eat with eyes first; a golden roasted Thanksgiving turkey would not look good if the dining table was not well dressed, right? For the holidays, I arrange tablescapes for my Clients and I teach others the secrets of a well balanced decorated table, just so the pleasure of being seated with nice people, eating and conversing can be prolonged well into the day. A decorated table also has the property of limiting calories, because it dictates a slow pace of eating, induces conversation, people diverge their attention on life matters and food becomes the way to a general pleasure and not the center of attraction.

On the contrary, when people eat away from the table, on their lap by the T.V., on the floor, on the sofa, they tend to eat more and until their favorite show is over, they have ingested an enormous amount of food, damaging themselves day after day. Driving, eating and drinking is the worse, as the attention is somewhere else and not on the road. At night, before I retire into my sleeping quarter, I prepare “la tavola” for the next day breakfast: tablecloth, which changes according to my mood, a scented candle to be turned on in the morning, place settings composed of plates, cutlery, cloth napkins, a coffee cup turned upside down on its saucer and the book I am reading at that time. I want to ease into the morning with a calm and quiet beginning, treating myself to comfort and beauty, accompanied by the sound of classical music and the fresh food I will prepare on the spot. My lunches are always sitting down for about an hour. I never work through lunch, or eat at my computer. Dinners are the delight of my every day, a relaxation time cooking familiar food and enjoying again a dressed up table for the evening.

I don’t eat at the Queen’s table everyday, but I want to be the Queen at my table each and every day. It’s the good life!

Please forward this article to anyone you think might be interested in reading it and let me know what you think by leaving a comment below. Thank you.
Valentina
www.Valentinadesigns.com

Valentina Cirasola is an Italian Interior and Fashion Designer, working in the USA and Europe. She combines well fashion and interior in any of her design work. She loves to remodel homes and loves to create the unusual.
Author of the book: ©Come Mia Nonna–A Return to Simplicity on
Amazon http://goo.gl/xUZfk0 and Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w
Author of the forthcoming book on the subject of colors: ©RED-A Voyage Into Colors.