DIY: The Puppy Slippers

I had been alerted of the existence of heavily, heavily discounted Stubbs and Wootton slippers---the Marc Jacobs “Stinky Rat” collaboration ones---and though I knew I was hardly keen on the design, I quickly sped off to the West Village boutique to purchase a pair. I spent the rainy walk to the store brainstorming ideas on how to DIY the shoes, and bought them knowing for sure that I didn’t have to wear them in the state they came in.

Stubbs and Wootton x Marc Jacobs “Stinky Rat” canvas slippers

I had always wanted one of those whimsically embroidered Stubbs slippers, as I’ve previously blogged before, and as seen on the hilariously stylish Man Repeller; but I’ve never had the chance to fork up a forkful of cash for a pair. And then I remembered my mother having a tiny collection of iron-on patches from the 70s, and how they could be the perfect cover-up to the rat embroidery. So I headed to the garment district to find some iron-on embroidered patches.

I wasn’t too fond of the rat and logo embroidery, but I knew iron-on patches would be a great quick fix.

Because the patches I chose weren't large enough to cover the existing embroidery, I painted over the embroidery with regular black acrylic paint, using a small brush to carefully blacken each blue character rather than just carelessly slathering black all over the top of the shoe.

painting halfway done

the unwanted embroidery almost completely obfuscated

In the spirit of Fauxvenchy, I wanted to go for a canine touch as a harkening back to the Rottweilers predominant in Givenchy Fall 2011. Alas, patches of vicious large dogs were not available, but puppies were at an abundance. Not that I'm complaining!

I had originally intended to plant this precious little golden retriever puppy on the left shoe, but I decided to swap him for a more charmingly sinister overgrown puppy, which you shall see in the subsequent photographs...

megapuppy mocked up on the left shoe

I ironed over the patches until they adhered to the shoes.

And here they are, my DIYed Stubbs and Wootton x Marc Jacobs "Stinky Rat" puppy slippers:

Upon taking the "after" photos in the daylight, I'd noticed that some of the previous embroidery is still in need of some paintbrush touch-ups here and there. Not to worry, I've now the perfect excuse to play with my puppies tonight.