Shoe Paparazzi

Alicia Keys promoted her “As I Am” Tour with a performance on the Late Show With David Letterman on Tuesday. Alicia has recently returned to the stage after a bout with a vocal injury. She wore a sexy mock turtleneck grey knit dress with long sleeves.

Her dress was definitely tight. Next time she should consider wearing a bra. She also wore a very interesting pair of black and grey sandals, which featured a thin grey strap across the vamp and a very thick black patent ankle cuff strap. I don’t see the appeal of sandals with these thick straps. She could have chosen a more delicate strappy grey sandal or even a peep toe pump to complement her dress.

I do love her jewelry. The big silver bangle bracelet and large moon shaped earrings are a great touch to this outfit.

I will say something for Alicia. She definitely has some booty and she isn’t afraid to flaunt it. This dress was a good example of how you can be covered up, but still sexy. The dress doesn’t reveal much skin but it is so tight that it doesn’t leave much to the imagination.

Check out Alicia Keys’ performance on the Late Show by watching this video.

Kate Mara looked just adorable at the Sak’s Fifth Avenue 20th Annual Spring Luncheon in Beverly Hills earlier this week.

Her outfit provides a lot of texture and detail. The zipfront dress has an unique “tabbed” material throughout. I really like the simplicity of the silhouette of this dress. It takes an old school 1950’s style design and updates it with a very modern looking fabric.

She also wears some texture on her feet with her snakeskin sandals. At first glance the shoes look a little dark for her dress but she makes it work. A lighter snake embossed pump would have been nice as well.

Whatever type of shoes she’s wearing, Kate looks very pretty. She has a delicate, natural beauty about her.

She might act like a robot and older than her age, but you can’t deny Katie Holmes is very cute. On a casual day of shopping in Beverly Hills, Katie looked great in her flared jeans.

Wide-legged pants were all the rage beginning last year and many women weren’t wearing them well. Petite ladies often wear them dragging on the ground, making themselves look even shorter. Here Katie wears them right with a nice high heel.

Keeping things simple, she doesn’t wear much makeup or jewelry and instead gives her outfit a little style with a pair of open toe high heel sandals. This type of shoe style is great because they can be worn with anything from jeans (as Katie can testify) to evening wear.

This season don’t just stick to black. Bright patent heels and shiny metallic sandals are a big hit this spring, even with casual wear.

Katie Holmes gets a lot of flak because of her robotic personality and her wacky Scientology-crazed husband Tom Cruise. However, she is definitely one of the celebs that dresses well. And that seems to be a rare find!

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Ugh! Leggings again! This time it’s Hilary Duff wearing a pair of black leggings and a white tunic-length tanktop as she headed to Starbucks in Hollywood.

This definitely wasn’t Hilary’s best day. Her hair is a bit of a mess and it looks like her eye makeup is leftover from the night before. At first I thought maybe she was coming from the gym (which might explain the leggings and messy look). But by her sandals, it doesn’t look like that’s the case.

Obviously everyone can get caught on a bad day, but Hilary Duff always looks so cute that I was kind of shocked that she was so disheveled.

Another thing is that I really want the HUGE oversized handbag trend would end. I actually like oversized clutches. But these gigantic bags that you could pack a week’s worth of clothes in are really too much for everyday use.

Well at least her flat sandals are cute … that’s the only redeeming thing about her look. Colorful and jeweled T-strap flats will be popular throughout the spring and summer of 2008. And I like her turquoise toenail polish too!

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Christina Ricci is looking super cute these days.

Here she is a casual green “dress” with flip flops. It’s not actually a dress, but more like a beach coverup. Nonetheless, she looks adorable. I love her hair color and her bangs, even just pulled back in a ponytail. She’s really transformed herself in recent months.

Rubber flip flops are okay for the beach, but I really don’t wear them anywhere else. Do you?

I’d rather put on a pair of cute colorful skimmers, or a metallic thong sandal for running errands, shopping and other casual occasions.

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Nicole Richie was also at the Prada Los Angeles screening of “Trembled Blossoms” at the Prada Beverly Hills Epicenter. She looked so happy in her post-pregnancy glow. I really loved her low-cut black dress and the cute “H” necklace (for her baby daughter Harlow).

But, what do you think abou the shoes? They aren’t horrible, but they just have too much going on. The peep-toe, cut out sides and lace-up front are just too much. Here, Nicole would have been much better off keeping it to a simple black patent peep-toe pump, or maybe a more simple black sandal instead.

Like many of us love to do, actress and singer Ashley Tisdale spent her afternoon relaxing and shopping. Here we see Ashley carrying many shopping bags and drinking an ice coffee. With her hair down and untamed, she looks very casual and comfortable.

One thing I’m not crazy about is her cut-off shorts. Sure, she’s just shopping at the mall but cut-offs? What do you think about cut-offs? Are they a fashion disaster or okay for a day of shopping?

The rest of her outfit looks cute, particularly her strappy sandals. As we mentioned these Roman gladiator sandals are popping up everywhere this spring. These types of sandals, along with bright patent slides are some of my favorite trends of the season.

Hilary Duff took some time out from her busy schedule to relax with some shopping. Here she is outside of Saks looking happy and quite cute.

But really … I cannot stand leggings everywhere. They are alright for the gym or lounging around at home. But celebs is wearing them with everything and anything. You can even see them on the red carpet or dinner out on the town.

Though Hilary is just enjoying a casual day of shopping, her brown leggings, oversized sweater and sandals really don’t work together here.

Speaking of her shoes, she is definitely following one of the biggest spring trends - gladiator sandals. Look for these sandals in browns, metallics and even bright colors this season. You can wear gladiator-inspired sandals with everything from dresses to capris … just don’t wear theme with leggings!

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Here Lucy Liu attends the opening party of a new Yves Saint Laurent store in Paris. Though I like Lucy, this dress isn’t attractive at all. The length of the skirt is all wrong for her. She needs something shorter to lengthen her legs. Here they look stubby because the dress hit her leg mid-calf.

The skirt is also too bubbly. It makes her shoulders look narrow and her body disproportioned. Lucy looks much better when she wears a more fitted style. Also, all black makes her look extremely pale - maybe it’s just the lighting. I’m not even going to mention the BIG cinched belt - UGH! Overall this dress gets a big thumbs down.

Let’s look for some redeeming qualities in Lucy’s outfit … her jewelry and her shoes are great choices. She also carries a small black and gold clutch in her hand that is probably adorable (if we could see it up close).

Her patent leather T-strap sandals are terrific. The crisscross styling is very popular right now and we’ll see it in many sandals for Spring, whether they are patent, linen or anything in between. The thing I like most about Lucie’s look is her bracelet! The woven gold cuff is just perfect for her. She could wear it with anything from an evening dress to jeans and it would look chic.

Oh well, better luck next time with the dress, Lucy!

Here Keri Russell and executive producer Ricki Lake laugh it up at their arrival at the New York Premiere of “The Business of Being Born” last week.

While the girls looking like they are having a great time, I was surprised that Keri was so casual, as Ricki was so dolled up.

Keri is a beautiful woman but at least could have put on some makeup and a dress for the event. At least she was wearing a cute pair of criss-cross strappy sandals. Though her casual outfit would have fared better with some black booties.

Ricki looks very adorable though. Her black patent peep-toe pumps coordinate nicely with her black dress. And I really loved the big gold earrings.

The dress could have been a little more fitted for more taste, but at least she bothered to get dressed up! I’ll give Keri the benefit of the doubt. Maybe she decided to drop by at the last minute just to offer her friend Ricki some support at the premiere and didn’t have time to get prettied up.