For today’s Things That Do Not Suck Thursday, I’m going to give in to my girlier side and wax a bit poetic all at the same time. I’m not going to assault you with a haiku or anything, but I do want to talk about shoes for a brief moment. In my opinion, there are very few other things a modern woman can rhapsodize about other than shoes.
You see, I can look at shoes for hours without feeling bad about my life or my finances. Clothes? Not so much. I was tempted into browsing Old Navy’s site the other day and looking at all the reasonably priced clothing made me despair. Jeans for $10! Shirts for $7! The cuuuutest summer dresses for a pittance! All around me these affordable clothes swirled, enrapturing me with their so-close-and-yet-so-far accessibility.
You see, I buy clothes once per year. I spend the first six months enjoying my new clothes, loving them, giving them preferential treatment over the other clothes. As they fade or fray, I start the grim cycle that is my decision to buy new clothes. I’ll set benchmarks for myself: I’ll buy new clothes if I see a good sale in October. Sales will drift by and a new benchmark will be set, met, and overrun.
On and on until my clothes are in tatters a year later and I force myself to set aside a tiny amount of money to buy the essentials: a new pair of jeans to replace the one with the holes, three new pairs of shirts to take the place of the ones that are either too frayed or too faded to wear in public anymore, maybe a package of socks so that I’ll own socks that don’t have holes in them.
Then, because I only buy enough clothes to last me for half the week, I end up wearing my new clothes twice a week and they’re all worn to bits come one year later. Every year I tell myself I’ll buy more clothes for myself next year, and every year I’m proven a liar. Browsing through clothes is like a thousand tiny reminders that my wardrobe is less than half as adequate as I’d like it to be.
Shoes, though. Shoes are different. I can browse through shoes without feeling avarice because looking at shoes feels more like admiring art than shopping. Shoes, in all their myriad styles, heights, colors, fabrics, and decorations are beautiful to me. I like them on my feet obviously, but I like them nearly as well just about anywhere.
I ran into these shoes the other day and knew I had to share them, if for no other reason than they match the daffodils from yesterday:
Oh yum. Yes please, and thank you.
They’re Christian Louboutin. I love Christian’s shoes but I could pay a mortgage payment with two pairs of these beauties. He has a way of crafting shoes that do the same thing everyone else has been doing for centuries, just better. Some girls have a thing for Manolo Blahnik (thanks, Sex and the City), other ladies prefer Franco Sarto or Prada or Nine West. For me, it’s Christian Louboutin. His shoes, and these shoes in particular, are this week’s Thing That Does Not Suck because you don’t have to be able to afford them to admire them.
(for Kindle)
(printed book)
10 comments
Comment by Delisa on April 16, 2009 at 6:25 pm
For some reason when I was younger I used to hate shoes. I don’t know why, but I did, and could not understand why women loved them so much. Then for some reason, all of a sudden, I loved shoes!! And purses!! And I didn’t hate pink quite so much. I blame The Pill, but it could be a myriad of things. I love, love, love shoes now for some inexplicable reason. And for anyone that was wondering, yes that was me you saw last week at Nordstrom molesting the Manolo Blahniks. =)
Comment by Blanche on April 17, 2009 at 5:28 am
Shoe shopping actually makes me homicidal. But that’s mostly thanks to my obscenely small shoe size (5) – a size many manufacturers have stopped acknowledging full-grown women might have to wear. It’s not fun to look at shoes, even window shop, when you know that that even winning the lottery wouldn’t allow you to wear them since even the smallest size manufactured would fall off your foot.
If it weren’t for that little issue I might actually like shoes.
Comment by Erika on April 17, 2009 at 8:43 am
-Delisa, I always remember you having cute shoes in high school. I remember a number of very unfortunate incidents where I tried to borrow your leather boots only to come to a deep understanding of Chinese foot binding. Also, I had no idea Nordstrom was stocking Manolo Blahniks. I’m kind of interested to go see what they look like in person. It’s like going to the zoo, only better.
-Blanche, Wow, that is a tiny foot! I’m on the opposite side of spectrum with my size 10′s that few stores stock in all styles. You see, if you won the lottery you could hire someone to make custom shoes just for your feet. It’d be a win all around!
Comment by Blanche on April 17, 2009 at 9:49 am
One of my college roommates wore a 10. You can imagine that she didn’t find it amusing when I would put them on and act like a little kid playing dress up.
Comment by EdgellACE on April 17, 2009 at 9:50 am
They are FAB! I do to adore Christian’s shoes, can’t afford them, but do love them! Completely agree that shoes are art! I remember the days I use to bring home 3-4 pairs a week, before I had my own bills that is.
@Blanche – I feel you, I dont have a tiny foot I have a yard stick of a foot. Size friggin 11! What I dont get is I use to work at a shoe dept in a dept store while in HS, there were tons of girls who wore a size 11. Times have changed, chicks have huge feet, please produce these someone. It makes my heart sad when I see a FAB pair of shoes and they dont come in my size. I feel discriminated!
Comment by Erika on April 17, 2009 at 9:52 am
-Blanche, That cracked me up. She might not have, but I probably would have thought it was hilarious. I make fun of my GIGANTOR status all the time ;)
-EdgellACE, Oh man, I wouldn’t know what that would be like. What do you do with that many shoes every week? Do they have their own room? I dream of a walk-in closet someday, with lots of room for shoes. I still have my canvas hanging shoe organizer from college!
Comment by Blanche on April 17, 2009 at 10:55 am
@EdgellACE – Discrimination indeed! We need a shoe store that specializes in cute shoes for sizes <5.5, and then 10<. Then those lucky stiffs who wear 6-9.5 would have to be jealous.
@Erika – I have the walk in closet with one of those modular closet systems, including a double height shoe cabinet (with grids), and I have been unable to fill all of the openings because I can’t find shoes. Talk about depressing!
Comment by Erika on April 17, 2009 at 10:57 am
-Blanche, Man, that is depressing. You’ll have to fill it with beanie babies or something. Or develop some kind of weird spoon collection. Or win the lottery so you can fill it with LUSCIOUS SHOES.
Comment by EdgellACE on April 17, 2009 at 11:29 am
I had a wall of shoes for many years! Once my parents told me that I had to stop ‘Wasting’ money and they told me no more shoes. That didnt stop me, I use to buy them, store them in the trunk of my car for a couple of weeks, then I would sneak them into the house when they were gone. When I was finally able to wear my new shoes they would ask, “are those new?” My reply, “No, I have had these for ages, just havent been able to wear them!” Complete TRUTH! But sadly I had to give away like almost all of my shoes cause of a car accident. I couldnt walk in heels and that is what 80% of my collection consisted of. It has been almost 4 years since the accident and I can walk somewhat good in a pair of 2 1/2- 3 inch heels, I cant do it for long, but I will be damned if I go thru all my life with out heels, my own sort of continuation of physical therapy.
Comment by Erika on April 17, 2009 at 12:00 pm
-EdgellACE, Way to go! Don’t let piercing back pain keep you from looking glorious! Good strategy for keeping your parents from wising up to the new shoes, though so sad you had to sell them. Life is cruel sometimes.