Who will be America’s next great shoe designer? With three remaining contestants, two challenges left and only one winner…the heat is on.
Footwear News found seven aspiring designers and put them to the test to see who has what it takes to be the 2008 FN Shoe Star, sponsored by Nine West.The contest gives FIT design students the chance to compete in a series of challenges in hopes of landing the chance to work with Nine West’s creative director Fred Allard.The winner will receive a spot on the Nine West Design Team, which includes a one year full-time job at the company as an assistant designer, as well as a feature story in FN, in the June 16th issue and Ninewest.com
Melissa Cordero and the shoe she created for Bjork
This week, at the Nine West Showroom, the four remaining FN Shoe Star contestants including Ryan Baker, Melissa Cordero, Karen Hsieh and Melanie Maggio presented their work for the Red Carpet Challenge. Each contestant created a shoe to pair with a little black dress for a celebrity of their choice. Each entry also incorporated Swarovski Elements, a presenting sponsor of this challenge. The contestants presented their shoes to a panel of four judges, including celebrity stylist Patricia Field as a guest judge, who helped select three of the four finalists to move forward to the next challenge.
For the first time, the contest had a tie for the winning title. Ryan Baker, who won the last challenge and designed a shoe for Dita Von Teese, and Melanie Maggio, who designed a shoe for Nicole Richie, both walked away with the highest scores. The remaining contestant was Melissa Cordero who designed a shoe for Bjork. Unfortunately, Karen Hsieh who designed a shoe for Gwen Stefani was asked to leave.
Karen 
Hsieh and the shoe she designed for Gwen Stefani
The competition has three core judges: FN’s Editorial Director Michael Atmore, Nine West’s Creative Director Fred Allard, and FIT Representative and Chairperson of Accessories Design Department Ellen Goldstein. A rotating list of celebrity judges will critique each challenge, eliminating one contestant each round until the winner is announced at the Fashion Footwear Association of New York’s tradeshow industry party.
Over the next two months, the three remaining finalists will compete against each other in a series of two challenges testing their ability to create innovative designs that will keep them in the running to win the 2008 FN Shoe Star title.The next challenge will be the Grab Bag Challenge, where each contestant is required to create a shoe within a category of their choice, inspired by a place in Manhattan. The Grand Prize winner of the FN Shoe Star contest will be announced at the Fashion Footwear Association of New York’s tradeshow industry party.
FN will document the challenges in the publication and online at www.footwearnews.com. Nine West will continuously upload video coverage of the challenges and blog postings from the contestants on www.ninewest.com.
and the shoe she designed for Nicole Ritchie
Web Snob Partners
nice article. hope someone makes a reality show about this like Project Runway.
I don't think it will happen for now but you never know.
Cheers
Florence@theshoegoddess