A few years back one set of friends called me 'Imelda' with good reason. I had a staggering shoe collection that seemed to grow and grow. At that stage my feet had not grown since I was 12, I had remained a UK size 4, and still had shoes from my teens in my wardrobe. My shoes were so crowded in that opening the closet always set off a footwear avalanche! I even had shoes I had never worn and was 'saving' for best - how much of my 70's upbringing does that reveal?
I had trainers, sandals, fuck-me shoes, boots, loafers, comfortable shoes, killer shoes, flip-flops. I had black, brown, blue, red, pale green, pink, grey shoes. I had expensive designer shoes right down to a £1.50 pair of falling apart espadrilles.
So what changed?
Motherhood - pregnancy! My feet grew by 1/2 a size when pregnant and another almost 1/2 a size after J was born. Nowadays I have awkward feet; a 4 kills me, a 4.5 can be a bit like hens teeth and if found a little tight and 5's quite often flop off as I walk....there is no such size as 4.75!
This has curbed my shoe buying and that has curbed my desire to buy shoes.
I still have between 15 and 20 pairs - of which I wear 2 or 3 regularly - I won't buy new walking boots for example because I love my tatty faded (yet still waterproof) old ones - I haven't bought a pair of shoes in 2 years. I don't even surf for shoes online these days.
I do still find shoe surprises in the bottom of wardrobe - you know- shoes I'd forgotten about - I put them back with the idea of wearing them again and promptly forget them again.
In fact the only part of my shoe mania that remains is my need to have my leather shoes properly polished before I leave the house!
I think I might be cured.
2 comments:
Be nice to see a photo of a mountain of your shoes....I used to have alot more, but still like a new pair every now and then, have just treated myself to a really expensive pair of dms....probably my last splurge for a while! xxx
Shoes are just another form of stash-building, really. Yarn, shoes, whatever...
And yeah, pregnancy? Ugh. I was a US size 9 from age 15ish - high school, sometime - until 22, and probably would still be. Which was just fine; that's about the highest size you can readily find in most shoe stores, and I'm definitely an in-person shoe-shopper when I can be, because comfort far outweighs fashion... with a few notable, fuck-me sorts of exceptions, of course.
Then I had Emily, at 22... and added a shoe size. Now a US-10, I could still often find something in a store that worked. After Jacob - at 27 - I went up maybe half a size, but they don't make 10.5s, so I just dealt, no big deal, just fewer pairs of shoes, alas.
Then I had Isaac. Wouldn't we think I was done growing by 32?? Nope! Now officially a US-11, I doubt I'll ever be able to buy shoes in-person again.
Damn kids, anyway. ;)
Thanks for playing...
Post a Comment