A High Fashion Movie Tribute...

Because we all know that in L. Frank Baum's novel, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Dorothy's slippers are, in fact, silver.

We’re Off to See the Ruby Slippers

By ERIC WILSON

GIVEN the opportunity, the exuberant designer Betsey Johnson would be wearing ruby slippers just about anywhere.

That “The Wizard of Oz” is probably her favorite movie for fashion inspiration goes without saying. She once designed a collection that included the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, the Cowardly Lion and Dorothy (played by her daughter, Lulu) leading a rented Toto for the occasion.

“And those little Munchkins, I mean, really!” said Ms. Johnson, who is among a group of 20 designers now recreating Dorothy’s glittering ruby slips to commemorate the 70th anniversary of “The Wizard of Oz” next year. The consumer products division of Warner Brothers and Swarovski, the crystal company, came up with the promotion to benefit the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, with an auction planned in the fall of 2009.

Until then, the shoes will cover more ground than a Kansan in a tornado, with appearances at Saks Fifth Avenue and in Bryant Park in New York during the September fashion shows, at Art Basel Miami Beach in December and elsewhere next year.

Two pairs of each shoe, by designers like Oscar de la Renta, Diane Von Furstenberg and Manolo Blahnik, will be produced for the auction, said Brad Globe, the president of the Warner Brothers consumer products division, which has increasingly reached out to fashion designers to update the look of its stable of characters. (Ms. Von Furstenberg, for example, is working on a collection inspired by Wonder Woman.)

Ms. Johnson’s design was a slipper made into a high heel, “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,” she said. A sketch for a Jimmy Choo shoe is far more sedate, showing a red snakeskin pump with a caged toe.

Amy Smilovic, the designer of the contemporary fashion line Tibi, said she chose to add a spat to a pump, creating a sort of low boot with a cutout at the heel.

“We did ours in red crocodile so it would have a luxury feel,” Ms. Smilovic said. “And we added a flower for a more feminine look. We made Dorothy look tough and feminine at the same time, because she was pretty tough-looking in that gingham dress.”