Cece L'amour on Heels.com

I'm about to board my flight to China (my blog's no mans land) but I just want to share with you that the 1st two styles are up on Heels.com!! There are more to come on Zappos and Amazon so keep checking! ;)

Just wanted to share the news cause I am SO excited!!! Also, check out my first editorial credit in April's People Style Watch!! YIPPEE! Sorry for all the !s

Big happy X's and O's,

Cece L'amour Shoes, Finally in Stores!!

It feels like it's been forever but I'm happy to announce that my first collection for Cece L'amour will be available at the end of this month!! YAY! The first few places to carry them will be Heels.com, Zappos.com and Amazon.com (so honored to have your support!!!)

Here are the styles that you'll be able to purchase...

♥♥(Katie)♥♥

(Christie)

(Heidi)

(Tanisha)

(Juls)

♥♥(Leah)♥♥

It's so awesome that the shoe names that made the cut are some of my favorite people in the whole world. My 3 very best friends, Katie (my sister) Christie and Leah are up there and that makes me so happy! Heidi was one of my bridesmaids and someone that people would often mistake for my twin. Tanisha worked with me at Titan for forever and was always so supportive. She's someone I can always talk to about anything. And Juls is one of my favorite friends to go out with! We always have an amazing time and I can ALWAYS count on her to cut the bullshit and be real with me.

So now you know the personalities behind the shoes. I hope you like them and will help spread the word :) I'd love to be able to continue making fun, girly shoes for you forever and ever and I hope to get better and better at making shoes people like.

THANK YOU to everyone reading this for your continued support. I feel so lucky to have so many awesome friends... I truly consider my readers to be my friends.



Big ol' XOX,

Happy Valentines Day

I just got back from Las Vegas where Footwear News Platform is going on! Trade shows are crazy and I'm glad to be home. We showed our lines and met with customers and I got to hang out with my favorite Beverly Hills Housewife, Adrienne Maloof :) Make sure you follow her on twitter for updates on her shoe line. 

Anyway, today is Valentines day so here are some V-day inspired images cause I love you!

Hope you had a good one!! 

XO, 

Tumbler Roundup Jan 2012

Aloha from beautiful Hawaii!! Here's what I've been up to so far in 2012.



I don't always wear flats. But when I do, I prefer cute ones... Miu Miu

Xmas gift from my awesome Parisian aunt ;) Balenciaga

The mean streets of Costa Mesa. Louboutin

Plastic shoes by Melissa

A prototype of my Cece L'amour boxes!

Leah and I going out on the town. Both Jeffrey Campbell. I'm on your right.

New purchase :D

Bedroom <3

Living room

Happy in my new chair

eBay WIN! Penelope and Coco

Perfect Jonathan Adler pillow

A package from Dannijo

Loving my new neon necklace

SHOES! left to right, top to bottom... lamb, i forget but will post when I get home, miu miu, balenciaga, casadei, gianmarco lorenzi, lamb, louboutin, jessica simpson, bordello, JC, cece l'amour, steve madden, nicholas kirkwood, penelope and coco... phew!

Love from Deer Valley, Utah

Love from Pupukea, Hawaii!

XOX,

New Year, New Blog?

Well no, not quite. But new me for sure! I haven't blogged in so long it feels so weird to be sitting here on my new couch in my new apartment... blogging. I miss you guys. I miss blogging.


Let's play catch up in case you're new here or it's been a while.


My life has changed in the following ways:
* I am now a 30 year old divorcee. Shitty.
* I moved out of my home (for obvious reasons) and am now renting an apartment a town over
* I lost about 10 lbs (yay) from stress and depression (boo) but am now getting into a happy place which means it's on it's way back on my body (BIG boo, but yay for being happy)
* I made my TV debut a few weeks back on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills
* I am learning the joy of buying less expensive shoes. Less $ = more shoes! DUH!

My old shoe set up was pretty cool...

Packing my shoes wasn't as fun.

Ok, so.... Let's start fresh with a little about me.

Hi! I'm Celine Ouaknine. I grew up in Huntington Beach, California. I like to joke that I was born in high heels, and although that's obviously not true, I was born with the love of shoes in my blood.

My father (right), a former professional soccer player, came to the US from Morocco in the 70's. He started off as a shoe salesmen and had a natural talent for it. He worked his way up and eventually co-founded a company called French Follies. They made cute little espadrilles and ballet inspired shoes. From there he went on to Guess and Charles David footwear, where he eventually became President of the company and brought it to its height of popularity in the late 80's.

I was so lucky to grow up around shoes. I was the only girl in the 8th grade wearing the kick ass ankle boots Guess was famous for... and remember those Guess jellies?? Yep. I had those too. And at a whopping hundred bucks a pair, let's just say I made a lot of new friends when I came to school in those! That's the first time I felt the power of a hot shoe.

In the 90's, my dad left Charles David/Guess Footwear to pursue a new venture... Bebe Footwear! It was his first shoe license, and it was super successful. Soon after he started his own line with his namesake, Joey O. Since then his company has held the exclusive licenses for L.A.M.B. Footwear, Harajuku Lovers footwear, Charles Jourdan footwear, Laundry by Shelly Segal footwear, Antik Denim footwear, Playboy footwear, Zinc foowear, Hale Bob footwear, Badgley Mischka footwear, Mark and James by B.M. footwear, Betsey Johnson footwear, Betseyville footwear, Jill Stuart footwear, JLO Footwear, True Religion Footwear, Joe's Jeans Footwear, and Adrienne Maloof footwear. Awesome, right!? :) did I type "footwear" enough?

So... like I said, shoes are in my blood! I realized this at an early age, when I would go into my mom's closet and pull out her shoes and clear off my book shelves, fill them with shoes, and put a sign up that said "Shoe Show". I didn't really know what it meant, other than that was where my dad was always flying off to. Shoe shows. I wanted to be a part of it!
I went to design school in Milan, Italy when I was 20. My professors at Ars Sutoria taught me all about making shoes, including sketching, pattern making, leather tanning, and lots of technical shoe stuff. It was intense.

From shoe school to designer! After graduating from my shoe program I went back home and started working as the assistant to the designer of my dad's company, Titan Industries. At the time, we were only making bebe and Joey O Footwear, and were about to go after our second license, JLO Footwear. I was a part of that project and I loved it! It was so exciting putting what I had learned to use. I was off to China and working my butt off. I was the assistant to our head designer for a little over a year when I got offered the job of taking over as the designer for Playboy. It wasn't anything I had ever thought I would do, but it was a chance to be my own designer! No more assisting!!! I took it! Then, a few months after accepting the position as designer for Playboy, I was offered another line; Zinc footwear! I took it!!! I loved working with Zinc. The clothing was cute and the shoes were much more "my style". 

Later still, I was given the job as designer of JLO footwear.

I launched the debut collection (and every collection thereafter) for Harajuku Lovers in August 2008, and in May of 2009 I took over as designer of Betsey Johnson footwear until Steve Madden bought out 

the company in October of 2010.

Currently I'm designing for Bebe footwear, Adrienne Maloof Footwear, and just launched my own line, Cece L'amour, which I am very excited about.

I love my job! I get to work with shoes every day. It's my job to look at shoes in magazines, online, in stores, and on the streets. It's a dream job honestly, and I feel lucky every day. My obsession is my job... So cool!

Betsey Johnson and I backstage before her runway show <3

Gwen Stefani and I after a L.A.M.B. runway show <3

Mark Badgley, James Mischka and I at a Nordstom personal appearance. Two of the NICEST guys you'll ever meet <3

So thats me, more or less.

My new shoe set up? Well OK since you asked... Here's a sneak peak but I'll be doing a full post on my new apartment soon.

:)

So stay tuned. 2012 is going to be a good year... Thank you all for your continued kind words and support. It really means so much.

LOVE and kisses,