Taymour has recognized the value

“I want to make bags that are conversation pieces,” says Hillary Taymour. The 20-something designer behind the Collina Strada label is sitting in her Williamsburg, Brooklyn, apartment,Save on Christian Louboutin Pump! All the Sales, All in One Place. flipping through her look book of handbags. They bear one-of-a-kind patterns on canvas, offset by leather accents, and are unconventionally shaped—hexagons, triangles, and trapezoids. Most luxury handbags, Taymour says, “all look alike. And they all have these little [label] tags on them so you can see who made them.” A Collina Strada, meanwhile, is made expressly to look uncommon—and comes tag-free.

Taymour has recognized the value in making a product that stands out, and tempering the size of her business to stoke demand.Welcome to Replica Louis Vuitton outlet online store and buy latest replica louis vuitton handbags together with free shipping and best service. She has skillfully straddled both ends of the retail spectrum, only in reverse order, winning the attention of bigger-name shops such as Target and Urban Outfitters to court boutiques “with more street cred,” such as Need Supply and New York City’s influential OAK. To stir up buzz, she frequently creates limited editions for her retailers, which typically sell out.

It’s a strategy that's paying off. Collina Strada has garnered a following among tastemakers such as actress Chlo? Sevigny, supermodel Shalom Harlow, and even America’s Next Top Model den mother Tyra Banks. “I feel like my line is a bit exclusive,” Taymour says. Her trick: creating her own textile designs, which start out as images she Photoshops—of flowers, parking lots, and statues—until they’re artfully distorted.

A graduate of the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising (with a degree in product development and business management), Taymour started making bags for herself in 2008 while working in men’s product development at Guess Jeans in Los Angeles. Her oversize and exaggerated take on the hobo bag was such a hit that she made some for friends at their request. With interest growing among her friends in fashion, Taymour anointed her line Collina Strada, the Italian words for “hill” and “road,” simply because those words sounded nice together, she says. Then, at the behest of a fellow designer, she took a few samples to Project, a fashion-trade event in Las Vegas. Anthropologie promptly placed an order.

Shortly thereafter, before even developing a full line, Target came calling—a game-changer for Taymour. “I hadn’t even shipped a season yet and I had an order with Target,” she marvels. “Ever since then, each season something big like that would happen, where I could just keep going.” With business growing, she left her job in 2009 and moved to New York City.

Taymour’s inspirations are diverse and serendipitous. The idea behind a leather harness, for instance, came while watching an action movie. “I wanted to make a fake gun holster but cooler—like a handbag.” And her bags’ trademark geometric, layered-leather design is lifted from patterned doors she saw while traveling in Casablanca and Marrakesh. Often her designs end up being ahead of the curve. Her chic, leather-accented backpacks are edgier counterparts to rucksacks from Madewell and Marc Jacobs. Her satchels,Find a great selection of christian louboutin boots deals ! Click on any of the links below. designed to fit snugly on a set of bicycle handlebars, speak to the hipster bike boom. And her playful leather harnesses, with pouches to hold money and lipstick, predated Lady Gaga and Rihanna wearing similar accessories on stage.

Taymour’s next challenge: maintaining the cachet of exclusivity while growing her brand. A little over a year ago, Collina Strada launched a clothing line and will debut its Spring 2014 collection in August. The line includes loose jumpsuits,Latest Trends in Wholesale gucci handbags, Wallets and more‎. leather sweatshirts, and silky, feather-light pants—many boasting her wistful kaleidoscope-meets-tie-dye prints. “I just want to make easy pieces that anyone can wear,” Taymour says. “I don’t want it to be throwaway fashion.”

She’s plotting an avant-garde shoe line now,There are numerous diversified high heels at christian louboutin shoes for sale. too, and taking meetings with high-end department stores—which she’s tight-lipped about. “It’s one of those things like, ‘We’ll see you again,’” the designer says, shrugging. “Stores that I’ve been trying to get into for years are now selling out of my purses. So, it’ll happen. I’m not worried.”

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High-heeled shoes

Now is the season when women take their freshly pedicured toes al fresco, often courtesy of strappy high-heel sandals or open-toed pumps that look fabulous but sometimes feel like the masochistic torture tools that many podiatrists insist they are.

Michael Liebow, a podiatrist in Bethesda, Md., pulls out a wince-inducing photograph of a foot X-rayed in a high-heel shoe: It reveals the ball of the foot at a nearly 90 degree angle to the bones in the rest of the foot. It does not look good.

The X-ray is a prop that Liebow says he shows to patients who “walk into the office in six-inch heels and say, ‘My feet are killing me! Why?’?” He says he tells them, “That is not how your foot has evolved to walk.”

To sum up his brief and frequently futile plea for foot health: Humans are meant to walk heel-to-toe,Shop cheap christian louboutin shoes,pumps,wedding shoes,sandals with low price in our discount christian louboutin sandals Store online. with the leg at about a 90-degree angle to the foot and the ankle joint employing a 60-degree range of motion during normal daily activities.

By wearing a high heel, Liebow explains, “you’re altering the position of the foot and how the foot is to function. Therefore, lots of bad things happen.”

Among the more common problems podiatrists say they see in women are calluses and, more painfully, corns, hard nuggets of keratin buildup caused by pressure on the skin.

With high heels,Save on Christian Louboutin Pump! All the Sales, All in One Place. corns develop up under the balls of the foot where the weight of your body presses down, and they feel like small rocks underfoot when you walk.

Liebow also sees capsulitis, a painful inflammation of the joints where the toes attach to the foot, and neuromas, or pinched nerves,Find a great selection of christian louboutin boots deals ! Click on any of the links below. where pointy high heels squeeze the toes. And when the heel is frequently in a high-heel shoe, it can cause the Achilles tendon (which connects the calf muscle to the heel bone) to tighten. When you kick off your shoes and the heel comes down to the floor at the end of the day, the extra stretching of the tendon can lead to a condition called Achilles tendinitis.

Wearing high heels can also cause inflammation of the connective tissue at the bottom of the foot, the plantar fascia. That can result in severe heel pain and the need for aggressive treatments such as oral anti-inflammatories, oral steroids, cortisone injections, walking boots and crutches.

All of these conditions can be incredibly painful, requiring corticosteroid shots and, ideally,There are numerous diversified high heels at christian louboutin shoes for sale. flatter and wider shoes. His patients will take the shots, but give up the shoes?

Women, Liebow says, “will wear their high-heeled shoes until their feet are bloody stumps.”

Take Danielle Pletka, vice president for foreign and defense policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute. She wears four- or five-inch heels to work most days; on a recent Tuesday, she towered in five-inch stiletto-heeled black Sergio Rossi open-toed booties.

“There are lots of things that impact the way you look that aren’t necessarily optimal for every muscle in your body,” says Pletka, who admits that she has some high pairs “that are uncomfortable, no question.” But, she adds, “you want to look nice. I always get nice comments on my shoes. And I like it.”

Erika Schwartz, a podiatrist who practices in Washington D.C., says that when she asks her patients to stick with heels less than two inches high, “some say, ‘Oh, you’re so cute! No, I’m not going to wear under two inches, but it’s very cute of you to say that!’”

Schwartz says she understands that many are in professions that demand a more fashionable shoe than the comfy, orthopedically correct footwear she wears to work. So she tells them to at least “walk in something else. Put those dress shoes on when you get to the office. Minimizing the amount of time that you’re standing or walking will minimize the issues that come along with such an unnatural position of the foot.”

Walking too long in high-heeled shoes can result in, besides all of the above, stress fractures, or cracks in the bones of the feet.

If wearing heels, Schwartz suggests that women avoid the thin, stiletto-style heel: “The bigger the heel, if it’s chunky or a wedge, seems to be better because the shoe has a wider base of stability. A skinnier heel and you’re more likely to have ankle spraining.”

Franklin Polun, a podiatrist with offices in Washington D.C. and Maryland, passes along advice that includes going with a rubber-soled shoe over leather,There are numerous diversified high heels at christian louboutin shoes for sale. because rubber is better able to absorb pressure on nerves in the feet. He also suggests shopping for shoes at the end of the day, when your foot is most swollen, rather than in the morning.

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Shoes For Orphan Souls sets sights

“I’m always glad to tell folks about the Shoes For Orphan Souls program,” said Keith Gombash, a Cleveland SHOES volunteer for the last five years. Gombash’s enthusiasm for the annual shoe drive is well fueled as he has personally placed new footwear on the feet of orphans, from Kentucky to Kenya.

“Orphanages in most countries aren’t anything like they are here in the states,” he said.

“I’ve seen children dress themselves for the day from a common pile of tattered clothing, rags by our standards, and they don’t have any shoes. A lot of the time the new shoes we take them are the only thing they can really call their own.”

Drop boxes for gathering donations for the Shoes For Orphan Souls program have been part of the August landscape in Cleveland and Bradley County for 13 years. It’s sponsored and managed globally by Buckner Orphan Care International in Dallas.

Since 1999, Buckner has distributed more than 2.3 million pairs of new shoes and countless thousands of new socks to orphans in 74 countries, including the U.S. and here in East Tennessee.

Gombash explained, “One of the things that drew me to this effort is the fact it’s mostly driven by volunteers. Not everyone can travel overseas to put the shoes actually on the feet of orphans, but a lot of us are able to [do so].” This and volunteers who live near orphanages served by SHOES help ensure that shipments of the new footwear get to and stay with the children.

“It takes people to buy and drop off the new shoes, the local volunteers who re-box it all to get them ready for shipment, as well as people to take them to orphanages to make this happen,Find a great selection of christian louboutin boots deals ! Click on any of the links below.” he added.

Gombash listed three reasons why a new pair of shoes is so important to a child:

Most important is disease. Without shoes a child’s foot will develop thick calluses because they must walk everywhere they go. Cracks in the calluses become ports of entry to young bodies for a large variety of pathogens — bacteria, viruses and parasites. A pair of new athletic shoes gives an impoverished child the extra edge he or she may need just to survive.

Second is education. In many impoverished countries “no shoes” means no entry to school. Education is the major factor in breaking the cycle of poverty.There are numerous diversified high heels at christian louboutin shoes for sale. Children who learn to read in turn have a family and teach them to read. Access to education can start with a simple pair of shoes.

Last, but very important, is self-esteem and thankfulness. The children who receive new footwear feel less cut off from the world. Volunteers who have traveled with the shoes from the Cleveland area in years past universally report the overwhelming joy the gift of shoes brings. To some children the personal notes of love and encouragement,Save on Christian Louboutin Pump! All the Sales, All in One Place. along with snapshots sent by shoes donors and stuffed down in the shoes, are as precious to the kids as the new footwear itself.

Buckner stipulates that all footwear must be new in order to conform to customs regulations. They report that there are about 145 million orphans worldwide.

“This all happens in August each year,” said Cleveland SHOES volunteer Bobbie Reagan, “so we can repackage and get the shoes and socks down to Dallas so they can get them out to children around the world in time for Christmas.There are numerous diversified high heels at christian louboutin shoes for sale.”

In keeping with the local volunteer spirit of this effort, each year a local trucking company, U.S. Express, furnishes for free a tractor-trailer and driver to get the regionally gathered footwear down to Dallas. For the last several years Cleveland area residents have helped to completely fill a large semi-trailer.

Collections began in Bradley County in 2001 when a local church, Westwood Baptist, became the first drop location.

To be a part of the SHOES program all you have to do is go to a local shoe or department store and purchase new footwear, then drop them into a collection box at one of the drop locations listed below. New shoes, boots, socks and shoelaces are needed for children from birth to age 18, but sturdy athletic type shoes are the best.

“Don’t forget to include a personal note of care and encouragement,” quipped Dave Whitaker,Shop cheap christian louboutin shoes,pumps,wedding shoes,sandals with low price in our discount christian louboutin sandals Store online. a local volunteer. “Stuff it well down into the shoe or securely attach it in some way.”

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Mike Cox steps into Ed Vos’ shoes

A veteran of the Canadian IT channel who helped build OnX into the Canadian channel leader it is today, Vos left the company last month to pursue other opportunities. He was named CDN’s No. 9 Newsmaker of 2011 for overseeing a number of acquisitions in Canada and a key one in the U.S. – Agilsys Inc.Save on Christian Louboutin Pump! All the Sales, All in One Place. of Cleavland, Oh. – that gave OnX a key platform on which to grow that U.S. business.

Cox came to OnX last year to run the U.S.There are numerous diversified high heels at christian louboutin shoes for sale. business for OnX, building that Agilsys base into a wider managed services play in the U.S. market. A veteran of the channel, he had previously served for eight years as president and CEO of solution provider Logicalis Inc, overseeing six acquisitions and growing U.S. revenue from $170 million to $600 million. Before Logicalis he held several senior positions with HP, including as vice-president and general manager of North American sales for the business customer organization.

“When the opportunity presented itself to come and run the U.S. business for OnX I jumped at that, and when Ed chose to leave, the board felt I was the right person to step up and run the larger company,” said Cox. “I’m very excited about it.”

As he takes on the new role as CEO, Cox said he will also continue to run the U.S.There are numerous diversified high heels at christian louboutin shoes for sale. business,Find a great selection of christian louboutin boots deals ! Click on any of the links below. relying a little more heavily on the U.S. leadership team. In Canada, Paul Khawaja has primary responsibility for the Canadian business as executive vice-president for Canada and COO of OnX’s cloud and managed services business.Shop cheap christian louboutin shoes,pumps,wedding shoes,sandals with low price in our discount christian louboutin sandals Store online. Cox will continue to be based at OnX’s Cleveland office, with frequent visits to Thornhill, Ont. He noted OnX will continue to be based in Thornhill, and three of the top five OnX executives are still based there.

Growing the company both organically and through acquisition will be a priority, said Cox, adding the company is definitely in invest and growth mode. In addition to continuing to grow OnX’s U.S. operations, he said opportunities in Canada as well as Europe – OnX has a UK office – will also be considered.

“(Deals would be) complementary to our existing footprint, business and portfolio,” said Cox.

He did mention he’d like OnX to be stronger in the networking space, to complement its legacy strength in the data centre market.

“Our challenge is getting sales people to represent our broad portfolio in a way that is accurate, correct and good for the customer,” said Cox.
OnX made a major investment in its Canadian business just over a year ago, spending $20 million to upgrade its data centre facilities here to Tier 3 status to target growth opportunities in the cloud and data centre with enterprise clients. It’s already paying dividends, said Cox.

“It’s a profitable business. We had new bookings in the neighborhood of $30 million last year total contract value in Canada, and we’ll do 1.5 times that in orders this year,” said Cox. “It made OnX a force to be reckoned with in Canada.”

It has allowed OnX to grow its managed services business, which Cox said is the fastest growing business for the company in both Canada and the U.S., with clients such as BlackBerry and eHealth Ontario. One strategy for OnX has been going deeper with these large enterprise accounts. Cox plans to complement that this year with an aggressive push in the midmarket.

“We’ll be bringing on new customers that want to look to a major player in the market to have their equipment hosted and managed, and our hope and expectation bringing on those customers for managed services is to be able to step in and sell them hardware and software too, and do the install, integration and professional services,” said Cox. “I think that growth engine for the company will be managed services. We’ll be able to take a complete portfolio to the customer.”

With an aggressive growth strategy, OnX may continue its climb up CDN’s Top 100 rankings next spring. It moved up to from No. 6 in 2011 to No. 5 in 2012.

“I wouldn’t be surprised to see us climb up a new notches,” said Cox.

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