Fancy Footwork

Shoe-obsessed Kassie Rempel popped by the W offices recently to show us her latest project: A mini range of footwear, dubbed Lillybee, that features styles named for a handful of Hollywood types. Rempel, a former financial planner who runs her SimplySoles catalog business from the basement of her Washington, D.C. home, decided to take the knowledge she’s gathered from scouring the shoe market for the last few years and take a crack at designing. Thus, sprinkled among all the ladylike Bettye Mullers, Delmans and Taryn Roses in Rempel’s spring book are a few borderline-preppy looks, such as the Gwyneth (a mirrored metallic wedge) and the Halle (a peep-toe pump with a striped stacked heel) Even the Jessica (a retro number with contrast stitching) plays to Miss Simpson’s more demure side. Clearly, Rempel’s interested in mining the less-flashy aspects of these stars’ lives. “This shoe doesn’t need embellishments,” she says of the Gwyneth. “It’s pure and natural beauty turns heads and underscores the notion of ‘less is more.'”