After I swam my laps last week, I found a shady lounge chair near the pool and a back issue of Harper’s Bazaar.  Which is where I spotted these shoes from Stuart Weitzman’s new line, SW1.

When I was in Italy during college, I took an inordinate number of pictures of the marble mosaic floors of various churches.  (For marble, my favorite was Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome.)  And these heels bring me right back to Santa Maria Maggiore.

I find the pumps arresting: bold and original in their own right, and yet also engaged in conversation — across time and genre — with Italian Renaissance craft.  Two forms (church floors and shoes) that transcend their functions, becoming not only useful objects but also art.

Judging from the Harper’s Bazaar‘s article on SW1 (check it out here) creative director Alvaro Gonzalez’s vision for the line involves many such cross-disciplinary conversations.