Monday, March 17, 2008

Happy feet?

Ok, so I know I pledged not to buy any more shoes this year. However, I did not anticipate a wardrobe emergency.

My single pair of serviceable flats are gold Steve Maddens in fake leather (they're not as hideous as they sound, I promise). And therein lies the problem: fake leather sucks. They're mere months old, but with regular wear, they've begun to smell like a locker room.

A decent way to battle this problem, of course, is to wear them less often, stuffing them with newspaper between wears.

So, I dragged myself down to DSW, in search of a pair of comfortable leather flats - in a relatively neutral color that is not black, brown or white - that I can alternate with the Steve Maddens.

Before I got down to business, I had to sample DSW's delicious goods:

One of my favorite styles of flamboyant heels that I have long ogled on Zappos. They didn't have my size - otherwise I would have modeled them. In person, the heel is VERY thin and tall and sort of a weird shape.

An adorable leather Mary Jane made by Dollhouse. Very comfy and well-engineered. They come in black and brown also, but I sort of dug the blue. When worn with blue jeans in a similar shade, blue shoes give the effect of a longer leg. I liked these a lot and would have bought them, but for once I stuck to my mission of buying flats.

So here are the shoes I actually bought...

Sam Edelman flats in metallic green. The green is somewhere between forest green and teal, and the shoe has removable ankle straps and little silver cutout accents. The vamp is cut very low, so the shoes show a ton of toe cleavage - which has the effect of making my feet look a little bigger. I'm still not 100% sold on them, especially since I tried them with all my pants last night and found that they don't look all that great with most of them.

DSW also had the flats in black and purple. I sorta loved the purple , but talked my self out of buying them because I already have purple shoes (high-heeled Mary Janes). I'm sorta having second thoughts now, though - since I wear so many green/blue tops, purple shoes might be more wearable than green. Thoughts?

I also bought these little gel insoles. I heartily recommend them. What's nice is that they don't have adhesive on the back, so you can stick them in your shoes each day. I plan to wear them all the time, especially with flats (which often lack arch support).

The Sam Edelman flats are at Zappos (for twice the price of DSW, natch). I wish DSW had them in pewter.

So...should I return the green flats and go for purple? Or return them and keep searching for a different flat entirely? Or keep them, since I gravitated toward the green for a reason?

2 comments:

lindsey kathlene said...

i love the cutouts on the green ones, but if they don't go well with at least half of what's in your closet, and you're trying to reduce unnecessary purchases, it'd be better to wait until you found flats you really love. does the idea of taking them back make you pouty? if not, back they go.

Marianne said...

I do love them, I just don't think they're working for me the way I need them to. So yeah, back they go. Mostly because I found a BETTER and CHEAPER pair of flats at the Ross store near by work! Hot dawg!