Sepala by Mihaela Glavan Spring/Summer 2011 Collection

Spring is almost here and most of the Romanian shoe designers are almost done preparing the lookbooks for the Spring/Summer 2011 collections that will hit stores soon. First up, as usual, is Mihaela Glavan with the lookbook for her Sepala line.

First of all, the new collection is minimalistic. The intense creativity that she usually experiments in her Mihaela Glavan line, for example in the SS 2010 Mihaela Glavan collection, is left aside in favour of the clean lines.

The SS11 collection is designed around the classic pump shape, re-interpreted in a variety of  heights, colours and fabrics. There are some other shapes - like ankle boots, ballerina flats and summer boots - but the star of the collection is definitely the pump.

This spring, Sepala is all about lively colours: leek-green, purple, dusty rose, mustard, yellow and red. Needless to say how perfect they are for your outfits after the long winter and the heavy shoes you've been wearing. These colours might just work miracles for your state of mind too - I guess you already know the benefits of colour therapy.  To balance the colourful shoes, a fair part of the collection comes in neutral classical colours - black and nude. Therefore, there's an option for everyone!

What Mihaela has done for this Sepala collection - and it's a premiere! - is the fact that she quit using  the regular 8-9 cm classic pump and chose the limits instead. Determined by the general trends for this season's footwear, the collection features both kitten heels and platform pumps. But don't you think that these are just some kitten heels and just some platforms. The shoes keep Mihaela's originality and signature style: there's some PVC inserts, some fabric (de)construction within the structure of the shoe, some special stitches, all of which  transform the basic shoe.

The kitten heeled pumps come with a rather chunky heel, so there're perfect for all-day wear, work wear and any "wear" that means having them on your feet for an impressive amount of time. 

As I already  anticipated it, the collection features some cute ballerina flats too, which come in pastel suede and are as delicate as can be:

To complete the collection, there's the boots which come in several lengths and make good party footwear. Also, they're useful on those rainy days that we've been having since the weather turned so unpredictable. The detailing on each of them is amazing: colourful collar pads, strips of fabric beautifully sewn together, the deconstructive details.

The Sepala SS11 collection is available starting this week within the following locations:  the store in 9 Benjamin Franklin Street, the Romanian Designers Gallery in Cocor Store and the Irina Schrotter store in Baneasa Shopping City.

All in all, the collection is a great mix of shapes and colours, which you can play with to liven up your wardrobe, bringing it originality. Still, you wouldn't expect to see tall boots in a Spring/Summer collection and be missing sandals at the same time, would you? Well, since footwear fashion got so permissive and seasonless we can afford to experiment and wear any kind of shoe we please, depending on our style and mood. Also, since everybody is travelling so much and changing a lot of countries and continents, weather is no longer determining what you wear. You have to be ready at all times for changing weather, therefore the seasonal collections as we knew them are changing. But is it for the better? What do you think?

What do you think about the collection? Which one is your favourite?