After every conversation with my friend who works at Miu Miu, I find myself on the Italian fashion brand's website, combing the pages to see what amazing handbag or wallet I can add to my wardrobe. I came across this gorgeous pair of heels that made my heart skip a beat. Even though I can ask my friend to help me get these amazing Donna Jeweled Suede Pumps at a special price, I thought it would be much more fun to try to recreate it on my own. Plus, the do-it-yourself route would be much easier on my wallet.

For this project, I made my way to one of my favorite districts in Hong Kong - Sham Shui Po. This area is a mecca for all things fashion from fabrics, feathers, and trimmings to buttons and beads. I have ventured here many times before while working on different DIY projects, including my feather dress and Facebook Fairy costume.

Sham Shui Po:
Bead and crystal heaven
for crafters.

I focused my search to one particular street that has several crystal shops, pulling out drawers to find all the colors that I would need for my jeweled shoes. I was able to find the crystals in the varying sizes quite easily but locating the silver and gold rings that the crysals would be nestle into proved to be more diffult. Feeling desperate after an hour without finding these rings, I toyed with the idea of forgoing them. But I decided to visit one last shop on Nam Cheong Street and luck would finally be on my side. This shop not only had circular and diamond rings but also rings with crystals already put together. Woohoo!

One by one, I inserted the crystals into their appropriately sized rings and crimped the tiny teeth to secure everything together. I was happy to finally put my jewelry tools that I received as a gift two years ago to good use.

A rainbow of crystals

I found a pair of very similar black suede pumps on ASOS.com that would be perfect for this project. As soon as the pair arrived in the mail I began the final step of gluing all the crystals, being careful not to to have any excess glue showing on the shoe surface. I was a bit unsure about the look after I had attached the first ten crystals onto the shoe. I thought the shoe looked more like it had a bad case of chicken pox than anything remotely as elegant as what I was trying to emulate. But as I added more crystals, the shoe began to come to life.

Glue,
Glue,
Glue!

The final product is more beautiful than I could have imagined, having a very striking resemblence to the Miu Miu original. I just hope that I can walk in these uber high heels for an upcoming party and the crystals will not fall off. Note to self: remember to put super glue in one's purse as a precautionary measure. But all in all, what a successful and fun DIY project!