Life Lessons as told by Shoes

As long as I am actively writing this blog, it seems that my life revolves around blog post themes.  I'm not sure if my life actually occurs in themes or if I just happen to notice them more often since I am ever-receptive to blog post inspiration.  This week's theme happens to be SHOES!  Not a bad week's theme, if you ask me.  The fact that elements of shoes kept popping up in various places like the kid on the bike in "Better of Dead," forced me to think a little bit more about, well, shoes.  So rather than continue to tell you that I was "born in heels" I decided to delve in a little deeper.

Construction Blues

Top:  Banana republic
Shorts:  JCrew
Shoes:  Sole Society
Deconstructed House:  hopefully not so deconstructed soon

Scratching the surface:  Louboutin Lady
Occasionally I get the guilty pleasure of a story or two on the Today Show on my mornings off.   Beth Shak appeared on my flat screen like a shoe angel from heaven, she owns 700 pairs of Chrisitan Louboutins & a total of 1200 pairs of decadently fabulous shoes!  How does she afford this?  Trust fund?  Rich hubby? Nope, SHE plays poker!  Now don't go out & buy the Dummies Guide to Poker & expect the same outcome, but simply admire a self made woman with a passion for shoes.  I love Beth's glutenous reward to hard work, & love the fact that she donates shoes to charity every year, even if it is to create more space for more Louboutins!  Beth, I would happily track down your hand-me-downs, but apparently you are a size 7 & I am a 9.5, darn!

The soul:  Sole Society
A monthly club revolved around shoes!  I indulged in my first pair of Sole Society shoes.  I'm not a huge fan of fashion commitments, but for $49.99 and no obligation, I couldn't resist my self proclaimed "Construction Blues" shoes (see above).  When I put on a pair of stilettos I can't help but feel tall, sophisticated, in charge, sexy, glamorous.  I would wear heels every minute of every day if my bunions would allow it.  Once my outfit is intact, there's something about that final plunge into a perfect pair of stilettos that just completes me (sorry Jerry McGuire).  These blues, certainly cure any bought of blues!

The museum message:  BAM, I get it!
It wasn't until I stepped foot in the Boise Art Museum that I realized what my shoe theme of the week was all about.  On display were over 100 pairs of shoes created by all different types of artists from all different decades with all different meanings.  Some were humorous, some were impressionable, some were memorable, none of them particularly wearable.  The pieces that struck cords with me were ones that utilized shoes as a metaphor.  Shoes that don't fit, skinny shoes, small shoes, painful shoes, ugly shoes, too many shoes, no shoes.  I was awestruck by many of the pieces & started to reference shoes within my own life.  For me shoes are the icing on the outfit, but perhaps they are also something to be recognized & cherished on a higher level.  There was a very influential quote by Marina Dempster "Shoes are a closer fitting proactive exterior or extension of the body; sensory receptors through which we transmit information to the brain about the terrain over which we travel.  The confounding high heel, while being everything that pinches, elevates us in inches & inevitably makes us more sensitive to the ground we walk on."  So maybe our shoes are not just a frivolous outfit accompaniment, but rather a metaphor for who we are & where we've been.  We should be proud of our shoes & wear them with great pride!

Long-blog-post-short, someday (in my wildest dreams) I would love to own a pair of Louboutins, but quite frankly I am very happy & grateful for life in my own shoes.

Please, please, please, love & cherish the shoes that YOU wear!

BAM piece

Rebecca Siemering, Super7Hot!, 2008,
material: found scratch tickets, dental floss, canvas, cardboard from shoe box, velvet,
20.5" x 4.25” x 8.5”
Photo: Erik Gould

Stylishly yours,
DKG