Tag Archives: shoes

It took me exactly 246 days (the amount of days from the Céline show to ordering them), to get used to the idea of a grandpa sandal gone posh, but I am now officially, honestly and fully pro-’stock’.

I seriously thought these would never get anywhere near my feet and if anyone would have started a petition for a restraining order to keep them far far away from my street, I would probably have signed it.

Sure, my change of thoughts on the Birkenstock has obviously got something (or even everything) to do with them being trended by Phoebe Philo introducing something similar – though with a fur insole and a completely different price tag – for her spring/summer 2013 collection for Céline and I admit this in all dignity. Also, the perfectly nonchalant Bassike lookbook convinced me to actually get them instead of just throwing them in my shopping cart all the time. I know, filling and emptying digital baskets is a true waste of time and yet I do it all the time.

So I do not think I will ever hop on the not-complete-without-socks bandwagon – those are for bearded man ánd women (or models) – but despite the fact that some may recall these as the ugliest shoes ever invented, I love them.

One of the biggest perks of wearing these is that the bigger the shoe, the tinier your legs look. And since I am not blessed with the most feminine ankles out there – I guess my parents forgot to give me ankles when I was born – (I learned that these are called tankles (tank ankles) while watching a tv show the other day) these are probably as big as a shoe can get?

Ok, so close your eyes and imagine these with a crisp white feminine summer dress. Or with the flowiest silk pants you can think of. Still not convinced?

You could always use them to get some gardering done, but since I only have a tiled roof terrace and nothing to ‘garden’, I hope you will forgive me for wearing them out.

Sandals, Birkenstock.

Tags: birkenstock, sandals, shoes

A bad bargain is dear at a farthing, ‘they’ say. It is also a saying I regularly use as an excuse to splurge on something without having to explain to my non-fashion friends why it was worth every single penny (even if they are not interested in fashion, they somehow know all the prices?!). Truth is though, that saying is not always right.

For instance, I once bought a t-shirt from some mister Wang – with the perfect fit that is – that already showed pills after washing it (by hand! (in cold water!!)) twice. I mean, what the fluff? A little hole in one sleeve I got for free. (Now someone once told me the quality of the T by Alexander Wang t-shirts changed after they moved their production elsewhere, which happened right before I bought one.)

And so I went to COS, their man section to be exact. Despite the fact that I sometimes score one that passes away miraculously fast, those t-shirts last for years. And years (and shhh they are only 25 euros).

Still, occasionally I like to browse through the new collections of that same mister Wang.

What I am trying to say is that anyone – and with that I mean the ones being slightly obsessed with fashion – who tries to claim that they do not get just the tiniest bit more excited from buying designer than high street is a liar. Or is is merely me, getting blinded by the big guns every now and then?

Do not get me wrong, sometimes it obviously has to do with the quality of the product or the design…

But take some of the new shoe- and bag collection of Saint Laurent. The ankle boots could almost not get any simpler and yet they – as an appreciator of all things simple – make my heart melt. The price tag though is a whole another story, that does not make my heart melt, it makes my credit card want to melt. If it could think, it would want to melt.

Or the well known Céline shopper. No offense to anyone who paid for it and yes I LOVE it too (duh, I love all things Céline, almost all), but you are obviously not paying for the design, since it is not the most complicated bag ever. Ok, maybe a bit for the super buttery soft leather, but the bigger percentage of the amount it goes for is for marketing (in other words, we are paying for the logo, right?).

And of course we are always paying at least a little for the logo, whether it is something affordable or extremely expensive, but I have come to realize that the boundaries for what I am easily willing to pay for a bag or a pair of shoes are slowly fading. Not good!

I also realized that when I am on the hunt for something new to fill up the empty spaces in my wardrobe, the first thing I do is open all those big gunned online stores (think Net-a-Porter, Luisa Via Roma, The Corner, etc.) And then I have this friend who owns a lot of awesome clothes and when I ask her where is this cool shirt from? The answer is almost always H&M. Or Monki. Or Weekday. Or COS. Or Zara. Damnit!

So the other day, when I gave Zara another chance, I literally threw two pairs of shoes – one style, two colors – in my digital shopping cart. I swear it all happened in the blink of an eye. And they are gooood (good things come in bulk)!!

Question remains…am I sometimes blinded by the labels? Maybe I am, maybe a lot of us are, maybe we are not. Are you? I guess for me it is all about finding the right balance between getting something accessible and indulging in something desirable.

Tags: new in, shoes, shopping, wardrobe, zara

They say when you really like something, get it in bulk. Guess which ones are new?

Shoes, Converse.

Tags: converse, new in, shoes, shopping, wardrobe

It seems like I can not get enough of black ankle boots, this time a went for a woven chelsea boot.

Boots, Melvin & Hamilton.

Tags: melvin & hamilton, shoes

It seems like I failed to avoid the shoes that hurt like nasty paper cuts. I still believe the golden emblem on the soles of my Prada’s is more sexy than the red soles on these, but this dove grey patent just had me at hello.

Shoes, Christian Louboutin (via SMETS).

Tags: christian louboutin, new in, shoes, wardrobe