my ideal shoes

[cimorene]

If I had these I would love them and caress them and call them George and wear them every day that it wasn't raining or snowing or below freezing.

My love affair with red patent Mary Janes goes back to age six, I think, when I first fell hard for a style that they sold at Wal-Mart. They had short flat heels - 100% regular little girls' dress shoes, but red of course, with little tiny heart-shaped cutouts round the toes. I wore those practically every day, with every hideously mismatched outfit (because my mom let me pick them myself), and they fell apart or were outgrown. I went through three pairs in two years before they stopped carrying them, I'm sure.

Red mary janes are my ultimate perfect shoe, no lie. I wouldn't pay £55 for them, but you can read their entry at Shoewawa and check out the source, Jones bootmaker (it's British), if you like. I'm confident I'll eventually find a good pair again.

Comments

[cimness.livejournal.com]

Being Aerosoles, they're probably more comfortable, but I do think those are a much less attractive shoe. The shape is a little clunky and awkward, and a slightly shorter heel would blend better with the retro feel they're going for there. Aerosoles can be very hit or miss this way with their pumps and dress shoes. And T-straps can be tricky - they have a definite retro feel, and by themselves look cuter than mary janes, but they also tend to look better without a foot in them than with, unlike mary janes, which are almost universally flattering. If you observe people and their shoes carefully, that high-ish ankle strap, even without the centre strap, makes many people's feet look weird and knobby.

The colour's also much less playful. I think it makes the mistake of waffling, as comfort brands often do, between conservative and trendy/youthful in a way that ends somewhere unfortunate - maroon, in this case, which isn't actually a good compromise between red and brown and would often look odd where you usually wear a brown shoe or a red one. Bright red, otoh, can often go with an outfit even if it doesn't match it, because it makes a statement.

[farwing.livejournal.com]

Heh. You're probably right, and I see what you mean about the color not being bold and funky enough. I'm just happy because they make shoes in 5 and 5.5, which is apparently what my shoe size is now, when it used to be a 6. I guess shoe sizes have shifted in the last several years, so finding shoes that fit me has been a bitch. *shrug* I'm just so used to shoes not fitting me anymore that I've sort of fallen in love with shoes that do.