Last month, while in NYC  for Fashion Week, Greg and I popped into the offices of Miz Mooz located on a bustling Broadway Avenue. If you aren’t familiar with this fabulous footwear brand, read about them in this recent product review. Our readership is as enamoured of their fun colours, retro styling and cushioning footbeds as I am.

The Miz Mooz showroom and head office is located behind one of their stores, which in itself is fabulous. Can’t get closer to your customer than that! So we walked through the store first in order to get to the showroom. There we were met by delightful employees, Cheryl Matson and Jeffrey Bart, who made us feel right at home. I couldn’t resist wearing my own red Miz Mooz Alcott pumps to the meeting. Needless to say they received a standing ovation.

Miz Mooz runs an impressive and tight operation. You’d never guess that aside from retail staff, the entire company is seven people, and the oldest employee is 30. Quite the young and dynamic bunch.

Cheryl and Jeffrey ran us through both their Fall and Spring collections and I was in my element. The experience took me back to my buying days as I handled all sorts of samples and prototypes. So fun! As I browsed the showroom racks, I couldn’t help but shout out: “Those are in the YLF store!”, and “Oh! I have the apple green Carlitos. I love them because they are hip and comfortable!”, and “I have a friend who bought those boots in both colours because she liked them so much!”  What can I say? I’m a fan.

I asked about the origin of the unusual name and chuckling followed. Well, it turns out that aside from having a nice ring to it, “Miz Mooz” is a play on the Hebrew word for foreplay: “Meez Muz”.

The name is not the only Israeli connection. Miz Mooz also draws from Israeli footwear brand “Gazith”. According to Cheryl, Gazith is more of a sister brand than the Israeli Miz Mooz brand. “Our shoes share the same inspiration as Gazith, but we alter the line significantly to make it more suited to our market, and add our own styles. The Israeli shoes are a bit more… extreme!”

When I traveled to Israel last year, I did notice their fearlessly fashion forward footwear. I guess it makes sense to tone things down to suit the American market.

Cheryl explained that the unique distressed look of Miz Mooz footwear is created in a finishing process. “Whereas most shoes just work their way through the production line and are then placed in the boxes and shipped to customers, we have a team at the end of the line that polishes or distresses the product to the desired look, be it an extreme distressing with sandpaper or just a light burnishing with polishes. Each pair gets its own unique look through this process. It is a traditional way of making shoes — more hands on and less automated. We feel this process adds so much character to the product”. It does indeed.

The most interesting piece of information that Cheryl shared with us: black is their worst selling colour. “People don’t want to buy black footwear from us”. It makes sense. Why purchase black Miz Mooz shoes when you can choose from an abundance of happy colours. On that note, the next pair of Miz Mooz shoes on my shopping list are the Ansel oxfords in green or the Histeric oxfords in chestnut.

Another nugget to bear in mind with gift giving season around the corner: Miz Mooz recently launched a small menswear collection.

Our last stop before leaving was a wall of previous ranges. It was a great illustration of all that this little company has achieved in a short space of time. We look forward to many more winners from Miz Mooz.

Has anyone noticed Gap’s new logo? I must admit that I hadn’t until Greg brought it to my attention. The new logo was launched on Gap.com about a week ago. The typeface is Helvetica, which many designers regard to be over used, and there is an awkwardly placed blue square behind the end of the word. Now compare that to the outstanding branded logo we’ve identified with Gap for over 20 years – crisp white writing within a clean blue square. There’s no comparison.

I perceive the Gap as the quintessential American Store and identified strongly with their old branding. It is distinctive and simple. The blue and white combination was wholesome, clean-cut and denim friendly. In a sense, timeless. Very “Gap”.

At the same time, I realize that I can be resistant to change. Is that what this is all about? Is the passionate and widespread disapproval of the new logo just the result of us all being so attached to the old logo that we can’t accept a new one?

As a result of the new logo’s negative reception, Gap’s management has said that they are open to input. They have asked the public to share their design ideas through a crowdsourced contest. Well, that move made the professional designers angry! If you want killer logo design, you have to pay professionals to get it – don’t ask the public to slap it together for free using PowerPoint. Oh heavens. What a mess.

I understand that the evolution of a logo is a necessary part of a retailers journey. But perhaps Gap’s logo change should have been more subtle because, like me, many people become attached to branding that has become an institution. What do you think of Gap’s new logo? Do you prefer the old one? Do you even care?

Update: As Ana pointed out in her comment below, Gap has apparently reverted to their original logo.

A year ago my answer to this question would have been absolutely NAY, NAY, NAY! But today I’m a lot less emphatic. I still can’t vote yay, but I’m going with a much more gentle nay. And here’s why.

A few seasons ago, most legging styles resembled opaque hosiery at best. Cotton lycra knit legging styles were more substantial but the overall appearance of leggings was more like tights than pants. For this reason it seemed inappropriate to wear leggings as pants since you might as well have been walking around in your underwear.

Over the years, leggings styles have evolved and some are designed to look more like pants than hosiery. Like pull on Ponte knit pants, motocross leggings and legging jeans. They are thicker and offer plenty of coverage, much like a pair of skinny jeans. These types of leggings can be worn as pants.

So I guess the line has become more blurred. Some leggings styles are fine to be worn as pants whereas others function more like hose. It all boils down to the details and your definition of leggings.

I’m sticking to a more modest vote of “generally nay”, because there are too many tricky caveats associated with a general yay. What about you?

Remember fabulous Maria from Colour Me Happy? I arranged to meet her in Vancouver earlier this year after she wrote a very complimentary article about YLF (I happened to be in that neck of the woods for a wedding). We got on like a house on fire and it wasn’t long before Maria booked Autumn shopping time with me in Seattle. I was truly flattered and delighted to be hired by a very capable Designer and Colour Expert.

Maria and I spent a glorious two and a half days shopping together last week and it was an absolute pleasure from start to finish. We were very focused on the task at hand, but also laughed so much our cheeks were sore. Maria wrote about our shopping experience and of course, her words speak louder than mine.

And after you’ve read Maria’s post, subscribing to her blog and newsletter are a must if you haven’t done so already. Maria is full of tangible interior decorating advice and colour knowledge that will fill you up with happiness every time you walk through the door.

Thanks, Maria! I can’t wait to shop with you again.

Check out Maria’s post for more in action photo shots.