I've always been a shoe girl. Before I was a handbag girl, a jewellery girl, or a dress girl, it was shoes that made my heart beat faster on any shopping trip. Sure, lots of girls are shoe girls but I would claim to be more so than the average; indeed I am a shoe girl to the point where my obsession has long been an area of much humour and ridicule from my friends and family.

My shoe obsession began at a young age. I proudly purchased my first pair of heels at the age of nine, for the princely sum of £2, fished out of the bargain bin at one of those giant budget supermarkets. They had laces, 1.5" rubber heels and toe caps, and much to my poor Mother's horror I insisted on wearing them to school on a daily basis, where they proved excellent attire for rehearsing Spice Girls song and dance routines in the playground (I always was Geri, and the shoes had an unfortunately tendency to fly off my feet during the trademark high kicks the routine required. In my defence, it was 1997, so let's not get judgemental here). The next significant shoe purchase I can recall was at 15, when I spend my entire month's allowance (£55) on a beautiful pair of round-toed louis-heeled vintage-style black suede heels. I cherished those shoes so much that I only wore them for the very best occasions, and even removed them and chose to walk quarter of a mile barefoot in the snow rather than get them wet. I brought them out of the back of my closet for my first university graduation, as the dress code stipulated 'small or medium heels' and every other pair I possessed at that time was over 3 inches.

Finally, at 17, I graduated to designer heels - a beautiful pair of bejwelled Kurt Geiger mules, presented on the spindliest of heels, miraculously discovered in my first ever foray down Kensington High Street and heavily reduced to a price that a 17-year-old school-leaver could afford. I think I wore them a grand total of 4 times before one of them was used as a handy chew toy by the family dog. I kept the other for several years as an ornament, a kind of homage to the shoe gods.

This love of shoes definitely does not run in my family. My Mother hated shoes, and especially hated the twice-yearly mission of shopping for shoes - as did I, as I was always forced into a pair that was at least 2 sizes too large and on totally the wrong side of the sensible line for my tastes. So, in a way, shoes became like the forbidden fruit - delicious and dangerous, and to be coveted at all costs. This early proclivity for impractical footwear was magnified in later years by constant fruitless shopping trips for clothes - after failing to find anything suitable fitting or flattering for my 5'2'', 35-25-37 frame, I almost always ended up in a shoe shop, squandering away my unspent funds. Shoes never let me down. Always available in my size, in a myriad of colours, never unflattering and fit nearly every time. It's hardly surprising that I ended up with over 30 pairs by the time I left university (for a poor student, I consider this quite a reasonable acquisition, facilitated by the requirement to weigh 48kg as a ladies coxswain - why buy food, when I could have shoes instead and also make weight?).

As someone who is very distinct in her tastes, I have a particular 'style' when it comes to shoes. My current preferences usually lean more towards the elegant - proportioned stiletto heels and almond-shaped toes. A bit of sparkle is good, as is a detail - bows, buckles, buttons. I'm a big fan of the slingback, rather than anke-straps or mules (my narrow ankles make the former seldom an option). Wedges, kittens, blocks? Nope. As I wear a lot of black, I quite like a coloured shoe, especially in a rich jewel tone or precious fabric. One of my favourite brands is Irregular Choice, which I've been buying for years - they make innovative and colourful pieces For dressing up, my weapon of choice is anything by Gina, although these are most definitely curb-to-cab shoes - a 5 minute walk on a damp street and these £600-a-pop beauties are as good as ruined. For other high-end brands, I'm still searching for my designer-shoe mecca - Louboutins, despite their price tag, can sometimes lean a little on the brashy side for my tastes (I'd rather not trot into the Mandarin wearing a 5" heel), Choos tend to be a little office-y and Manolos simply too conservative. All the more reason to continue searching!

Between the ages of about 18 and 22 you wouldn't have found me dead in a flat shoe, and there wasn't a heel to high for me - I was widely ridiculed for trotting round the lab, cycling and steering boats in 4" stilettos However, my die-hard heel wearing was tempered a couple of years ago by a move to London and a slightly increased desire for classiness and ease of movement - now I don't like much over 3", and 5-inches and platforms a la Kurt Geiger et al are definitely out. I've also begun to appreciate the ballet flat, especially the cute low-cut quilted types by French Sole and Chanel. Heels, when you think about it, are really a bit of a feminine paradox - on the one hand, we're using them to bring ourselves, height-wise, to the same level as men, and are able to stand up tall and look a man right in the face - a powerful thing. One the other, we're placing ourselves on pedestals that almost completely immobilise us, rendering us as beautiful but powerless exhibits on display. Since the early 00's, heels have got higher and higher (and more and more uncomfortable), almost to the point of become the modern equivalent of a corset. (Having said that, corsets, were as much a statement of wealth than anything else - only women rich enough not to work could wear the tighest of stays, so maybe the wearing of skyscraper platform heels is a way of saying "I can afford to take cabs everywhere"...)

These days I'm trying to be 'good' about buying shoes - I mean, in my line of work owning 6 pairs of swarovski Gina sandals is pretty much part of the job description and really not over-catering at all. Having said that, I was just idly perusing the offerings in Dubai Mall yesterday and a particularly innovative and delicious pair stood out, whispering to me that they would look perfect on my feet, so I'm not convinced that my recent abstemious behaviour will last til the end of my latest Middle East trip...

Hello, lovers!

Hopefully you all like the new-look website which I've been working on over the past couple of days. Changes are mainly cosmetic - I wanted a cleaner, classier look and colour scheme - but I've added a couple of additional pages as well.

A far more exciting development is the unveiling of the new pictures I had taken last month in one of the rooms of the my favourite hotel, The Corinthia Hotel in Embankment. These pictures were taken by the very talented Alan Thomas of At Glamour London and feature yours truly in a selection of delicious lingerie from Agent Provocateur and Beau Bra, stockings by Falke and vintage fox fur (all mine, of course, and it looks even better in the flesh...).

My favourite picture is featured below, check out the otheres in the gallery!

xx

Serena

Hello lovelies!

A very quick and belated post on my availability in March and April!

4th-10th March: not available

10th-15th March: introductory interviews (social) meetings only

16th-22nd March: available

23rd and 24th March: not available

25th March onwards: available

March 30th-April 18th: Qatar, Abu Dhabi and Dubai - please email for specific dates

April 19th-20th - not available

April 21st - available

April 22nd - available before 7pm/after 9pm

April 23rd-24th - available

April 25th-27th not available (in Jordan, Amman)

April 28th-30th - available in Beirut, Lebanon

Please note that for security, I do not post the exact dates of some of my trips on my site. If you wish to be added to my mailing list for a particular city then please email me with the city in the subject line. (For Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Doha, Muscat, Al Manamah and Kuwait City I will need to do some basic verification beore I can add you to the list)

Proper blog updates coming soon!

xx

Serena