quite pronounced shoe preferences
28 Jul 2021 08:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cimoreneYou know, in my 20s when my enthusiasm for and opinions about shoes were more likely to take shape in buying them, regardless of whether I would wear them (I definitely bought shoes that I only wore a couple of times because they weren't sneakers or winter boots so there was like, no occasion to - not even dress shoes, I rush to add, which are easy to wear to a wedding and then never again although I think in future I may just wear sneakers to weddings)... anyway, back then, I spent a lot of time just browsing shoe fashion, and blogging about it too, and I was REALLY mad that the fun shoes were always for children. Like Melissa, the Brazilian shoe company that makes jelly (remember jelly sandals?) in every shape imaginable including the iconic and famous Vivienne Westwood collaborations including the ones Bex wore at her wedding which remain my #2 coveted designer shoe that I wouldn'ẗ have been able to wear anywhere:
They came in lots of other colors later, and in fact you can still get them now although the hearts now have a metallic edge which I think isn't nearly as good. But this colorway, one of the original ones, is still the best IMO.
But anyway, even then I wouldn't have worn this style of heels, as I've always found them uncomfortable, but the reason these were my favorites was because these were the only fun shoes for adults out there, pretty much. Vivienne Westwood later released some other Melissa collaborations in the same style with cherries, bows, balls, and a little scepter (a few years later I think), but it took ages (five years? ten? it seemed that long) for them to even make the SUPER OBVIOUS flip-flop and ballet flat spinoffs of these shoes with the hearts, which was what I IMMEDIATELY wanted - and by then it felt too late to enjoy them! And meanwhile, even with this obvious inspiration the rest of Melissa's lineup was pretty much adult shoes that didn't really even look like jellies. I was INCREDIBLY bitter, because Melissa's shoes for little girls included a bunch with cat and rabbit faces on the toes and tails at the back (this was before Minna Parikka's iconic rabbit sneakers and before TUK's cat face ballet flats - but TUK's just weren't as cute and well-made. The cat face wasn't very appealing. And they weren't colorful.) (Nowadays I'd wear this like... on Vans slip-ons. Ballet flats don't seem worth the trouble.)
(Children's tshirts usually have way more great stuff like giant rabbits and allover dinosaur and spaceship prints too, but sadly I am really too tall, or rather my taste in tshirts is too midriff-covering, to wear little boys' tshirts anymore like I did as a teenager.)
Well, it FINALLY rained all day today so I had less than an hour of watering to do rather than four hours of it, and I spent the rest of the day tidying the shoe department, because the lady who's supposed to train me is still on vacation; and there were bunny-face sneakers and iridescent scaled sneakers with a little fish tail on the heel, to say nothing of the colors and everything, and once again, I'm just annoyed that nobody makes the fun stuff for adults. The kids' department didn't have any fantastic tshirts that I'd actually want today - they don't spend as much on design here at Tokmanni as they do at H&M, obviously - but they had plenty that I WOULD wear if they'd fit, whereas the least objectionable tshirts in the women's department are simple striped Marimekko knockoffs, because they don't even have any plain bright colors there, just pastels with horrible floral clipart and twee 90s-looking text.
...in fact through my 20s and early 30s the only really fun shoes I had were Vans. I bought a pair of the three-velcro-strip style (which is called Vans Prison Issue) in the butterfly-winged skull print when I was twenty-four or -five or something like that and I wore them out; and more recently when I was 32 I managed to snag a pair of the aspca cat-printed Vans classic lace-ups but they were one size too small and I wore those out too. Right now I'm really annoyed because I really need a new pair of Vans slip-ons but I haven't been able to find a print that's fun enough for the last several years, even though I managed to grab like the last pair of the tiger ones in Wax's size.
They came in lots of other colors later, and in fact you can still get them now although the hearts now have a metallic edge which I think isn't nearly as good. But this colorway, one of the original ones, is still the best IMO.
But anyway, even then I wouldn't have worn this style of heels, as I've always found them uncomfortable, but the reason these were my favorites was because these were the only fun shoes for adults out there, pretty much. Vivienne Westwood later released some other Melissa collaborations in the same style with cherries, bows, balls, and a little scepter (a few years later I think), but it took ages (five years? ten? it seemed that long) for them to even make the SUPER OBVIOUS flip-flop and ballet flat spinoffs of these shoes with the hearts, which was what I IMMEDIATELY wanted - and by then it felt too late to enjoy them! And meanwhile, even with this obvious inspiration the rest of Melissa's lineup was pretty much adult shoes that didn't really even look like jellies. I was INCREDIBLY bitter, because Melissa's shoes for little girls included a bunch with cat and rabbit faces on the toes and tails at the back (this was before Minna Parikka's iconic rabbit sneakers and before TUK's cat face ballet flats - but TUK's just weren't as cute and well-made. The cat face wasn't very appealing. And they weren't colorful.) (Nowadays I'd wear this like... on Vans slip-ons. Ballet flats don't seem worth the trouble.)
(Children's tshirts usually have way more great stuff like giant rabbits and allover dinosaur and spaceship prints too, but sadly I am really too tall, or rather my taste in tshirts is too midriff-covering, to wear little boys' tshirts anymore like I did as a teenager.)
Well, it FINALLY rained all day today so I had less than an hour of watering to do rather than four hours of it, and I spent the rest of the day tidying the shoe department, because the lady who's supposed to train me is still on vacation; and there were bunny-face sneakers and iridescent scaled sneakers with a little fish tail on the heel, to say nothing of the colors and everything, and once again, I'm just annoyed that nobody makes the fun stuff for adults. The kids' department didn't have any fantastic tshirts that I'd actually want today - they don't spend as much on design here at Tokmanni as they do at H&M, obviously - but they had plenty that I WOULD wear if they'd fit, whereas the least objectionable tshirts in the women's department are simple striped Marimekko knockoffs, because they don't even have any plain bright colors there, just pastels with horrible floral clipart and twee 90s-looking text.
...in fact through my 20s and early 30s the only really fun shoes I had were Vans. I bought a pair of the three-velcro-strip style (which is called Vans Prison Issue) in the butterfly-winged skull print when I was twenty-four or -five or something like that and I wore them out; and more recently when I was 32 I managed to snag a pair of the aspca cat-printed Vans classic lace-ups but they were one size too small and I wore those out too. Right now I'm really annoyed because I really need a new pair of Vans slip-ons but I haven't been able to find a print that's fun enough for the last several years, even though I managed to grab like the last pair of the tiger ones in Wax's size.
