Nan Goldin, photographer of the  sex-obsessed and self-destructive, has just shot a new ad campaign for none other than Jimmy Choo! Sweet Jesus — this is awesome, though I am surprised that Goldin would go so mainstream. Her works like “Ballad of Sexual Dependency” have been popular and controversial given the way she makes heroin addicts look oh-so-glamorous and the decadence of her photos almost remind me of Coleridge’s Kubla Khan and it’s opium-inspired dream (or nightmare like) quality. 

So what do Golding and Choo have in common? An understanding that decadent shoe shopping can be beautiful but deadly to the credit card? That which gives us pleasure can cause serious blisters?

Goldin’s ad campaign is akin to a couture Audubon spread with horses and birds (I love peacocks!). The model’s  basic, neutral clothes against the lush backgrounds allow the shoes to appear exotic but wearable.  For all the images click here.

So for me, even though I was over hip-hop lyrics which included references to Jimmy Choo since it’s easier to rhyme with than Christian Louboutin, I think I may be back on the band wagon. Louboutin, who has downgraded it’s brand appeal by now simply being the shoe designer who slaps red paint on the sole of anything that someone would pay $600+ for, is lolling in its popularity  while Choo, Brian Atwood and Yves St. Laurent are doing some really cool things with slippers.  

So cheers! to Jimmy Choo and to Nan Goldin for indulging me in the notion that buying shoes is like buying art.