via hotmusicbeat.com

Almost everyone knows the famous movie The Wizard of Oz starring Judy Garland and her magical ruby red slippers. In its style section today, The New York Times reported that celebrity designers like Gwen Stefani, Betsy Johnson, Jimmy Choo, Diane Von Furstenberg, and Manolo Blahnik are reinventing the Dorothy’s shoes to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Wizard of Oz. Two pairs of each shoe will go up for  auction planned for the fall of 2009. Swarovski and Warner Brothers came up with this campaign that will benefit the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation.

For some designers, like Betsy Johnson, creating clothing and accessories based on movies is not a deviation for the norm. She has already made a Wizard of Oz collection that included the Tin Man, the Cowardly Lion, the Scarecrow, and a rented dog that played Toto. Johnson’s sketches for the shoes certainly looked more lavish than Jimmy Choo’s design for snakeskin pumps that seem demure in comparison. Her goal was to make her shoes “as high as I could go, as sparkly as I could go and as fun and full of polka dots and a tulle bow as I could make them.”

Submitted by CGG Youth Reporter Christine Lenzo