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,

L.A.M.B. Runway Presentation

L.A.M.B.'s runway presentation was on Sunday and though Gwen was missing (she's finishing up recording with No Doubt on a super tight deadline) her presence was everywhere. Gwen has this way of weaving herself into every fabric, every stitch of her clothing and shoe lines. There wasn't a piece on display that I couldn't see Gwen wearing herself. 

She called this collection her "dream closet". Lots of black and white with pops of bright colors... here are just a few of my favorites.

 Obsessed with this jacket!

These are the shoes I wore to the show. I love that bright pop of cobalt blue to set off the black and white outfit. I guess Gwen and I think alike ;)

(all above images via Style.com)

This firey leopard print is so cool. 

I don't have my camera in NY with me so excuse the photo but this is what I wore.

(shorts- RVCA, top- T by Alexander Wang, blazer- Kimchi Blue, shoes- L.A.M.B.)

I was surprised at how on trend my outfit was with the show. I felt very cool, which doesn't happen often. haha

Love you guys! 

xox,

Neon and Skyscrapers

I just wanted to re-post this since I'm wearing this bra today and every time I wear it a girl will sort of catch my attention and quietly ask me where I got it... 

These are some seriously high, seriously amazing shoes. I'll let the pictures do the talking...

Crazy, right?

Some of you may remember that I was on the search for a neon bra a-la the always amazing Miss Gwen Stefani. (Click here if you're drawing a blank) Well I finally found one at Victoria's Secret! Yippee!!

The only problem was that it wasn't exactly what I was looking for so I had to do some serious altering. 

I wanted the sides to be see-through lace and this bra wasn't. I cut out the lining as you see here...

There was also a pornographic amount of padding in the bra that I had to cut out...

WOAH!

I made the foam padding into a queen size mattress for my guest room. ;)

(black jeans with studded suspenders- L.A.M.B, tank- BP, bra- Victoria's Secret, shoes- Gianmarco Lorenzi

Friends and Fashion Week... Fin

Wednesday was my day off from shows so you know what that means...
S H O P P I N G ! !

I got a bunch of amazing stuff but most importantly- THE SHOES!

These Miu Miu's are sweet and sexy! Yes please.

And these? These Alexander Wang booties are ridiculous. They are so high and uncomfortable but SO good...

I need to stress the height here

I mean, seriously. Yikes.

I'm in love. Shoe love is a polygamist love... But it's so good.


On to Thursday which was was the day of my last show. The L.A.M.B. show!
It was so fun and they were really good to me with the seating assignment. Betsey's people shoved me in the 8th row against the wall like a red headed step child, and you know what happened at bebe.
We were second row behind Debbie Harry and Tom and Tony from No Doubt. So cool.

And speaking of cool- look at this! No wait, listen first cause it sounds cooler than it looks.
My picture is on Vogue.com in the "front row" section of their runway coverage! I'm there along with some seriously cool celebs which in turn, made me feel pretty cool myself. Don't tell anyone that I'm really not, I wanna see how long I can fool them ;)

Now am I the only one, or does it look like I sniffed a fart?
I wish the girl that took this told me who she was. I would have backed up, pulled out an oil blotter, and smiled.
Here's my do-over. Happy me.

Anyway, the show itself was so fun and SO Gwen. Prints prints everywhere. I love how she designs things that she wants to wear herself. It comes across as totally her and 100% genuine.
A mix of dance music and classic reggae played loudly while Gavin and the boys from No Doubt bobbed their heads to the beat. It was such a cool scene, just like the lady of the hour herself.

Here are some of my favorite looks from the show

And Gwen herself. Such a cutie!

Gwen is truly amazing and sweet and talented and I am really honored to get to work with her. I'm so proud of her success in design and music and her family. It's really great to be a part of it, even if it's a teeny tiny part. I'm really lucky and I'll never forget this amazing time in my life.


After the show? The after party!

Now for my stalkerazzi photos of the night...

Before the show:

Our seats. My cutie pie little sister Katie and our friend Shin ♥ Oh and Deb.

The boys from No Doubt, there to show support. :)

After the show? The afterparty! More stalkerazzi...

Nikki Hilton...

Susan mother effing Sarandon 

Gwen!

Art by Mr. Brainwash