Tatum by Dolce Vita

The Preferred Fur: The Tatum by Dolce Vita put a dash of rabbit fur on a fab bootie.

You may have seen the Tatum gracing our homepage recently. It's a truly beautiful shoe, full of complexity and texture (and she's not afraid to flaunt it). Let's just take a moment to trace the highlights of this exceptional bootie. To start there's the whiskey-barrel caramel of buttery leather upper. This sits like a decadent dessert atop a five-inch cake stand of a heel. The rounded toe is uncomplicated and classic, a smart decision that doesn't detract from Tatum's transcending feature: a shock of rabbit fur bound like sheafed wheat by twin leather belts. Antiqued brass buckles and zippers melt into the scenery.

It's not your typical party shoe for the holiday season and that's why we're endorsing it as such. Leave the glitz to other, more dependent accessories like the Deux Luxe Navy bag with sequins shown above. We love the pile-on of textures here, and even we are surprised by how well the sequins compliment fur and leather. You know what it is? That navy and caramel/warm-cold tension. They push and pull themselves into a delightful stasis. Get decadent!

We all know fur is huge this season. We're glad to see Dolce Vita use the stuff with such artfulness. The leather belts create a sense of restraint, or, from the fur's point of view, bursting forth. Tatum sure has got a lot of tensions to resolve. Work that out on the dance floor, sister! Let's go!

And that where you wear this: out. Moving. Looking good out in the public eye. Your office holiday party. That other holiday party you "accidentally" crashed. (You've got to look good when photobombing strangers' candids.) Tatum can handle it because this bootie wasn't made for holiday, it was made for simply looking glamorous all the time in these months of weak, raking sunlight and blustering winds. Wear this with a dress. Wear it with a skirt. Wear it with denim, leggings, layered socks ... it can take it. The question is, where will you take her?

Lita Fab by Jeffrey Campbell

Get Medieval: The Lita Fab by Jeffrey Campbell brings tapestries into the fashion limelight.

We haven't seen tapestry this enchanting since our last trip to The Cloisters. Jeffrey Campbell is an artist with his shoes: once he settles on a form he works and reworks it relentlessly with materials updates and embellishments. Us? We are the connoisseurs. We benefit with each new iteration. The latest, the Lita Fab, eschews leather altogether for a rich tapestry fabric that is one part Medieval masterpiece and two parts your grandma's furniture. That adds up to a quirky-cool, sky-high heel with a hidden platform that will rock your look.

It also rocks some trends. The five-inch heel (and two-inch platform) is a comfortable ride and a high-powered bootie. Witness the influence of the laces craze with an eight-eyelet fabric lace-up front. The tapestry, for all its departure from the norm, has a distinctive animal print affiliation. Patterns are good; busy is better.

The Lita Fab is a lot of shoe, but it is an accommodating shoe. We can see this with high-waisted skirts or an ultra-dark selvage denim. Also, gray. (Gray denim is a secret favorite.) Keep the outfit minimalist and let the shoe bear the weight of the look.

Or not.

This is Jeffrey Campbell, after all, and restraint is not the first word that comes to mind. Take it the other way: distressed-to-destroyed denim; bold, chunky (gray) cable sweaters or sweater coats; an animal print clutch or leopard print catseye sunglasses; a carpet bag. Not all this at once, mind you; we'll be maximal, not louche. Take your cues from this shoe and amplify it somewhere else on your outfit.

The Lita Fab is just that: fabulous. We recommend doing it and yourself justice by being nothing less. Enjoy!