Steve Madden. Or, Steeve Maddn, If You Prefer

I'm one of those people who just loves Steve Madden shoes. I always make a beeline for his section in department stores, and I can't walk past one of his stand-alone shops without browsing. I have been known to own two pairs of the same shoe, but in different colors, thanks to the magic of eBay and its discounts. And I can never resist an e-mail proclaiming loudly that half the stock is on sale for half price.

But for some reason, I never really noticed how ridiculous the Steve Madden naming system is. Now that I have, I can't focus on anything else. It's utterly asinine.

It seems to consist primarily of choosing various words, or names, and finding a way to misspell them -- even if that involves strenuously inserting extra letters. My black boots, for example, were called "Dynasti." I just bought some sandals called "Picaso," which is a minor offense, and I priced a pair called "Taina," which ... I don't even know what that means.

There are some doozies on the sale site, though. It reads like a list of character names in a bad Saturday Night Live sketch. There's some off-white jeweled shoes by the name of "Tamyy." And some tweed shoes called "Glayze," shiny gold pumps by the name of "Dazire," and some strappy heels entitled "Lushis."

You can buy a pair of white heels called "Mesmeriz," turquoise pumps called "Confeti," clogs -- clogs! -- named "Mickiee," and sequined fake Birkenstocks called "Fairytal."

There's Treazure, Elpasso, Taintedd -- that one might be my favorite, simply for how superfluous that extra "d" is -- Mirracle, and Lavishh.

It never stops! On Seleste, on Rudey, on Savanaa, on Blazze; on Bedazlle, on Evaa, on Sequent, and Glayze! But my most favorite reindeer of all? Ghandie. I'm sure the Gandhi legacy is incredibly flattered that the Steve Madden design gurus have perverted the name so that it might christen a beaded Birkenstock.

It's so over the top that it might be verging on genius. In fact, I hope it never stops. I hope now that Steve Madden is out of prison that he marches right into the office -- or, you know, march around his living room until the cuff comes off his ankle -- and screams that he wants more consonants. More vowels. More insanity. More EVERYTHING. Or, "evrrieethin," as his company will spell it.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to change my name to Junngle.

Or Jenyy... or Kariie... or Darring, or Demurre...

Comments

[Margravine]

Don't forget the Yenta. No. Really.
http://www.stevemadden.com/cgi-bin/SoftCart.exe/STORE/FAST/YENTA.htm?L+control+ghqk9667+1120283879

[Ari]

Wow- this could rival IKEA's naming system! Thanks for a good laugh anyways...

[CL]

And here the only pair of Steve Maddens I own are called Peter. BORING!

[Manolo the Shoeblogger]

The naming of the shoes by the various designers, it is something that is occasionally more than ridiculous.

For the example, the Bruno Magli has the shoe called the Leibniz.

Who would name the shoe after the 18th century philosopher? Ridiculous.

Muchos Besos!

Manolo

P.S. You blog it is super fantastic!

[suzanna danna]

hysterical, thanks for the laugh!

[F-M]

The rediculousness of the naming may have a small part to do with the copyright/trademark law. If "Ghandi", or "Desire" is the name of a shoe, that cannot be a mark of the trade, because it is already a common name, but if it is having a name spelled "Gaundiee" or some other bizzare mispelling, that CAN be trademarked.

And let me say right now that the Manolo shoe-blog is most superfanatstic.

[Mo]

But why must shoe names be trademarked? Is this a requirement?

[fashoenista]

Actually, this is a topic that has crossed my mind. The misspelling to me is rather annoying but the naming business is kind of weird. It seems that many designers these days name their shoes something--many times proper names. So are they going to recycle these names eventually? For example, are we going to have Isaac Mizrahi Skylar XX or something of the sort? And what about the christening process, how do they assign the names? Over a glass of champagne maybe?

[k]

yes, this annoys me very much as well. so much so, that i found your blog when looking for some explanation of it all. i think it might be because of the two d's together in madden? shopping at a steve madden store is great. however, online, where the crazy names are glaring at me, is horrible. at first, it thought i was seeing double. then, i was sure it was a typo. now i know the truth. it was intentional. oh well.