Les Feets Fatales by Tabitha Simmons

Updated below with a photo of the designer in these shoes.

I’ve been watching a lot of film noir in black and white lately, and have developed quite a fondness for les femmes fatales.

Their shoes are always important; remember Barbara Stanwyck in Double Indemnity as she descends the staircase? All one can see are her calves and shoes, a gold anklet sparkling against the shadows.

Don’t worry: this isn’t an ode to anklets, but rather to an updated femme fatale shoe.

I’m swooning over Tabitha Simmons’s fall collection, available in person at Bergdorf Goodman and by post at Net-a-Porter.

This two-tone tan-and-black wedge (above) offers both attitude and grace—a perfect candidate for engaging in some fast-paced banter with a handsome but unsuspecting chap.

And these red and purple shoes (below) amaze me. Usually I run far away from anything that suggests kilty (kilts: yes; kilty: no), but this wonderfully eccentric but elegant silhouette would be a welcome addition to my closet.

Red and purple are, in my eye, the new neutral. And yes, I would love to wear the shoes with this Miu Miu dress:

In fact, these shoes might even make even the most discerning femme fatale yearn for Technicolor.

Below is a picture of the designer (also an editor at Vogue US) jumping in the first pair of shoes. Her husband, photographer Craig McDean, took the photo, in case the fine print is, well, too fine. I certainly think that the shoes are fine!!