SHOESday: double feature

I opened up a bit of a can of worms for myself last week asking for theme ideas - not because I didn't like the suggestions, but because they opened an internal dialogue about my reasons for starting SHOESday and ultimately my reasons for loving shoes. I mean, there are the obvious things - for me, shoes are a thing of beauty and, unlike many beautiful items of clothing, I can buy whatever shoes I want in my size - so while I can't buy designer (or designer-inspired) clothes, I can buy designer, or designer-inspired, shoes - and so I do!

It is often said that fabulous shoes can make an ordinary outfit look extraordinary, and I believe that. I'm also heavily inspired by the writings of the Manolo (not that Manolo!), who regularly advocates that no matter your income or occupation, you can, and should, always aspire to the superfantastic shoes. In his world, superfantastic almost always equates to (relatively) expensive, but he has shown you can find the very reasonably priced superfantastic shoe if that is what you are after.

I believe that the shoes you wear say a lot about you - although message interpretation is partly due to your choices (what you wear your shoes with, where you wear them etc) and partly in the eye of the beholder. With SHOESday, I am sharing a glimpse of me - but I'm in control of the message to a fair extent - so if you base your image of me just on my shoes, you probably think I never wear "comfortable" shoes, or "plain" shoes, or "practical" shoes. And of course I wear all of those shoes, I just don't choose to show them here - although that isn't to say that I won't, and just to prove it, and to fit into a couple of theme requests from last week, here are my most comfortable, plain, practical, black winter boots:

I bought these on sale last year ($60!) from David Jones, with the purpose of wearing them in New York in January this year - while I like to fit in to a city I'm visiting, rather than looking like a tourist, I didn't fancy trekking the length of 5th Avenue or wandering around the Met or the Statue of Liberty in my heels!! They are not the height of fashion but they did a great job in keeping my feet comfortable and warm.

So I can and do do ordinary shoes. In the end, I think you (and I) can see ordinary shoes all the time, on your (my) own feet, and on the feet of those around you. What I prefer to show are the shoes I consider to be superfantastic, for as long as I have superfantastic shoes. I work, so I have somewhere to wear these shoes. That won't always be the case (I do plan on retiring some day!) and I'm sure my shoe buying preferences will change somewhat as my life evolves (as it already has). But I hope I will always aspire to superfantastic shoes.

And I think these are my most superfantastic shoes of all (and they also fit into a theme request or two from last week):

I don't wear animal print as a rule but for these shoes I made an exception. They were ridiculously expensive but totally worth it. I can take on anything in these shoes (as long as I don't have to walk very far...heh!) and I love them.

I love the style, the cut, the elegant angle of the upper across the toes, the finely balanced heel, and the soft red shoe sleeping bag I snuggle them in before putting them back in their box after each wear.

And of course, the red sole. Everything.