We’ve had our eyes on these Michael Kors sandals.

The stretchy straps guarantee a comfortable fit, the patent leather heels add some needed shine and the zippers, just a bit of rock ‘n roll—the perfect SS09 combination for a very reasonable $130.

Especially reasonable when you take into account Aldo’s knock-offs which forego stretch nylon and patent leather in favor of three stitched leather straps and a pointier matte black heel for $90.

Meanwhile, both remind us of these zippered Sergio Rossi’s. They’re now on sale for $536 and soon to be found at Zara in neon green, we’re sure.

—MELISSA ELLIOTT

The best bit of everything we learned this weekend: Trovata’s popping up.

We were in Montauk for Sergio Rossi’s dinner in honor Alexandra Richards’ Social Life cover, which was held at Sole East, when we learned that the back of the hotel will soon play host to a Trovata pop-up shop.

It’s kind of the perfect fit for John Whitledge’s nautical surf line and makes us worry about the damage it’ll do to our wallets.

What’s more dangerous than a beach town with nothing but beer, homemade ice cream, Tracy Feith, Screaming Mimi’s and Trovata?

The fact that Jessica Simpson has anything to do with making shoes still makes us want to rip our hair out and shout obscenities. And we think it’s safe to assume that it always will.

So when a dear reader sent us this beyond blatant rip off the pop-turned-country singer’s company did of this banded and beautiful Sergio Rossi pair, we went to the dark place. They play that “nothing but a t-shirt on” song on a constant loop there. We don’t recommend visiting.

What’s all the more infuriating is that Jess probably owns the designer pair in every shade they produced. Why can’t she just leave at least one area of commerce well enough alone?

We were in Boston yesterday, not shopping or playing, but hanging out at PUMA City.

The Volvo World Race, a hardcore nine month sailing extravaganza that kicked off in Alicante, Spain last October and ends in St. Petersburg, Russia this June, is docked in Boston for three weeks. Puma, a major sponsor of the whole race, has its own boat and team, too - they’re currently placed second.

A mini-village is constructed at each port and the centerpiece of this one is PUMA City - a pop up shop literally made out of the shipping containers it’s sent around the world in. The three-story, red structure’s open to the public and boasts a bar, a souvenir shop full of race wear, a Puma shoe store and a Puma apparel store full of exclusives like bikes, official sailing gear and new artist collaborations.

If you’re a big fan of Sergio Rossi, then we really hope you made it to that sale last week, because it looks like they’re closing all their US stores by early 2009.

You’ll still be able to get the shoes at department stores that carry the brand, but visiting the boutique on Madison Avenue is a pastime forever gone.

So that makes two boutiques on Madison - Sergio Rossi and Alessandro dell’Acqua - victims to the r-word we’re sure you’re sick of hearing.

Who’s next? (And what’s happening to these retail spaces anyway?)

As always, for more deals, Shop it.

When we heard from our Inbox that Puma and Sergio Rossi were collaborating on a capsule collection to be sold at Colette starting January, we got excited. We like Sergio. We like Puma. We love Colette. So this should work.

But:

They’re sneaker-heels. The last time I wore sneaker-heels, I was about ten and going through my Spice Girl phase - since then, I thought we all decided any sort of shoe that tries to combine high-heels with sneakers was out of the question, so much to our surprise, Sergio and Puma are doing just that.

We’re not exactly sure where one wears sneakettos, but we do know that considering the purple satin lace-ups and Mary-Janes with gummy white soles, we won’t be wearing the collection anytime soon.

It’s too bad. We love the parts (Sergio, Puma, Colette), but the sum, well, we’ll save our kicks cash for Lacroix + Gola.

—HAYLEY PHELAN

Oops. We put some time and effort into a Sergio Rossi DIY a couple of months ago.

They didn’t look perfect, but they were still fun and definitely had more character than these.

The paint drip started popping up in places both vintage and new, but Steve Madden got so distracted by Carrie Bradshaw’s shoes, he forgot to copy one of the coolest summer trends.

Which gave GoJane time to make what they call the “Stripe Colorblock Heel”. The drip is almost exactly the same. The problem is the high cut toe, the chunky-too-short heel, and the plastic looking sheen.

And for $18.99? We dare you to wear them more than once.

Reader Katie sent in this latest incarnation of the paint-drip phenomenon of Spring 08, in the form of a bed set from IKEA.

We’re a little surprised to see IKEA jumping on a fashion trend, even if it is a bit late, but we can understand their enthusiasm - we loved the look so much we even did a little DIY for you guys.

But it’s just now June, and we’re already getting sick of the purposeful paint splatters everywhere, even though we’re sure to see it until at least Fashion Week.

We suppose this could still be a cute way to get in on the fun, while it’s still fun, especially if you’re trying to figure out what to bring to your dorm for next Fall -

If you don’t mind sleeping on a trend, of course.

We’ve had grand plans of finding the perfect white dress at H&M and splattering it a la YSL. Or discovering the poufiest prom dress on which to duplicate Dolce’s wildy textured strokes.

But we might have been thinking a little too big.

The Sergio Rossi shoes on Elle’s March trend page, however, were the perfect answer to our painting DIY quest.

Since it’s pretty much impossible to find plain white stilettos under $30, we painted a pair of H&M heels white. After they dried, we penciled on a crude outline of dripping paint - as much as we would’ve loved to just pour the paint over the heel and go with it - we knew it’d be a disaster.

So we filled in the lines with blue paint, and voila! They might not look just like Sergio’s, but we actually like the visible brush strokes.

And from the looks we got last night, well, we’re either crazy, or we just made some really cute shoes.