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"Have you noticed, over the past few years, how the prices of designer shoes have crept up&amp;amp;#8212;so much so that at luxury department stores, customers hardly bat an eyelash at price tags that regularly make their way up into the four-figures? Today&amp;#x27;s WWD talks to buyers and designers and explains why. Back in the good old days&amp;amp;#8212;or, at least, back in the Sex and the City 90s and 00s&amp;amp;#8212;high-end designer shoes (a.k.a. Carrie&amp;#x27;s Manolos) cost about $400. These days, you can&amp;#x27;t even get a heel for $400&amp;amp;#8212;try a super-basic Fendi ballet flat (at Barneys) or a Rochas loafer (also at Barneys). &amp;quot;The observation is correct, the prices have shot up dramatically,&amp;quot; Daniella Vitale, Barneys&amp;#x27; chief merchant and EVP of Barneys told WWD. Barneys&amp;#x27; average shoe is priced at $770. At Christian Louboutin HQ, the CEO Alexis Mourot calls price &amp;quot;a very sensitive issue, and we&amp;#x27;re taking it very seriously... When you price 500 euros in dollars, it&amp;#x27;s $750 to $780, you say &amp;#x27;Oh my God! $780 looks pretty high, but 500 euros isn&amp;#x27;t that crazy.&amp;quot; Then there&amp;#x27;s the rising cost of raw materials&amp;amp;#8212;which WWD cites as between &amp;quot;30 to 40 percent in the past year and a half.&amp;quot; And the elaborate designs that are so important in the shoe market right now&amp;amp;#8212;all of which drive up final retail prices. But don&amp;#x27;t worry, this can&amp;#x27;t last forever (or can it?). Designers used to rely on their handbag and shoe sales to float their entire collections&amp;amp;#8212;but now that people are buying fewer shoes (since they&amp;#x27;re so expensive), maybe the tides will turn. &amp;quot;When a young lady says to me, &amp;#x27;I went shopping for shoes and the average price point was $900&amp;#x27;&amp;amp;#8212;$900 used to be a coat,&amp;quot; Manolo Blahnik CEO George Malkemus told WWD, &amp;quot;I think that people may have taken advantage of the notion that &amp;amp;#8216;It&amp;amp;#8217;s all about accessories right now.&amp;amp;#8217; When [designer] ready-to-wear priced itself out of the realm of most consumers, shoes and bags were still affordable. Now, what&amp;amp;#8217;s happened is the shoe people and the bag people sort of lost control of that, and they are scaring off a certain consumer.&amp;amp;#8221; Have you been flabbergasted by the prices on designer shoes over the past few years? What are the most expensive shoes you&amp;#x27;ve ever saved up for? Has your appetite for luxury accessories diminished over the past few years because you&amp;#x27;re getting priced out? How are you finding your way around it? Tell us in the comments! PLUS... &amp;amp;#183; All Manolo Blahnik coverage &amp;amp;#183; All Christian Louboutin coverage &amp;amp;#183; What your shoes say about you, according to guys"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.glamour.com/fashion/blogs/dressed/2012/03/why-designer-shoes-are-so-expe>