tacky or not tuesday: prada "creeper brogue"

okay, my darling readers, let's conduct an experiment:

this shoe is from kmart. what do you think of it?

image via the sun

and this shoe, this shoe is from prada. what do you think of it?

image via the sun

okay, okay, I know – silly experiment, but after reading that several fashion editors around the world consider the prada creeper the "it" shoe for spring/summer 2011, I had to wonder if the brand name was the sole (no pun intended) driving force behind that.

I mean, this shoe is UGLY (and androgynous, I might add). is it a brogue? a sneaker? an espadrille? they're horrible! (by the way, the answer to this week's question is "tacky." did I mention that these shoes are $900?!)

on the runway, prada paired them with bold, graphic, almost futuristic dresses, which I don't think worked too well, either (although, yay for models not falling down during their walks!):

image via the sun

and the ads make the shoes look fun and airy, light and carefree:

image via blavish

toned-down versions have already hit a few mainstream retailers, like asos/miko's suede lace-up creepers for $135:

you know, prada's creeper got me thinking about high fashion. how often do we follow high fashion trends simply because we're conditioned to? as in, prada says it's cool, therefore, it must be cool. 

my hope is that everyone approaches high fashion as sort of a springboard to think about what his or her own personal style might be. but blind adherence to anything, including high fashion, is a plain ol' bad idea.

what do you think, lovely readers? do you like the prada creeper? are there things about fashion trends that bug you, too? :-)