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| My clean darlings, inside my shoe cupboard |
I just finished cleaning and rearranging my shoe collection
and I have some notes that I just need to jot down. These notes apply to
myself, so feel free to ignore it. However, if you do find them relatable, I hope
they are useful for you. The notes aim to increase my own appreciation towards
my shoe collection and hence (hopefully) reducing my need to buy more shoes.
Okay, we both know that there’s no such a thing as too many
shoes for women like me (i.e. shoeaholics), but we can still reduce the frequency
of buying shoes. And if we eventually do buy that extra pair of shoes, we know that we are investing on a
pair of good, beautiful, long-lasting shoes.
Shoe size
First thing first: Get your shoe size correct. What's the point of having a gorgeous pair of shoes if you can't wear them because the size is off? Here I have
elaborated how to get the shoe size correct. But I summarise it here again in this post. I
am comfortable with shoes with insole length 9.75” (24.5 cm) and width of ball of
foot a tad over 3” (8 cm – which means it’s a medium width).
My own shoe size is as follows:
US 8 = EU 39 = UK 6 (sometimes AU
7. But be careful Australian buyers, the shoes sold in Australia might be
following US sizing instead of AU sizing) for enclosed shoes and boots. This size
includes booties sandals, like these pretty Zita Maria Many Road Booties (sold
at Anthropologie a few years back). My Poetic Licence Whiplash and my Many Road
Booties are EU 39 (US 8).
US 7.5 or EU 38 for sandals
(including high heeled sandals) and peep-toe shoes. I have several pairs of EU
38 wedged sandals, so I stick with EU 38 for sandals. Note that my Poetic
Licence Butterfly Love is US 7.5, instead of my usual US 8. I would have
purchased US 8, but at that time, it was sold out in Modcloth and I got US 7.5
left. I managed to stretch the electric blue leather wedges with ice method,
and I am able to wear them comfortably now.
Heel height is also important. I know now that I can live
with 3.5” heels, as long as they are big, sturdy heels, instead of stilettos. I
own one pair of 4” Born wedge, but Born is different because of its comfort
factor. I have a pair of 4.5” Seychelles heels, and that’s the first and the
last > 4” heels I will ever purchase. For work, I restrict myself to 2.5”
heels or below. With these rules, I know that if I see a beautiful pair that actually
is okay to wear to work, but it’s higher than 2.5”, I’d skip it. It’s not worth
it, for I will never wear it regularly. And to me, shoes that can be worn to
work should be worn to work often.
Knowing your shoe width is important because we often didn’t
realise that we’re purchasing narrow-width shoes. That actually happened to me
twice during on-site purchase (!) instead of online purchase! I bought a pair
of lovely red pumps, but they are actually a bit narrow. I was new to shoe
buying then, I didn’t realise that the pinching feeling I experienced was
because of the narrow width. Sadly, I realised it too late. I never wore the
pumps again...
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| My recovered Luz da Lua sandals |
The second narrow-width shoes I have (and I hope the last
one!) is a pair of Luz da Lua yellow sandals. Very pretty, was on sale big
time, and it was (again) the last pair on the shop. I bought it after coveting
about it for two days. Then I regretted it, for I couldn’t walk in it without
pain. It was too pretty tho, so I never sold it to eBay. Until yesterday when I
started cleaning up my shoe collection and tried the sandals again. Amazingly,
it stretched to accommodate my feet! It’s made of patent leather, that’s the
only reason it stretched. So now I’m looking forward to wearing it again,
thanks to the simple action of rearranging my shoes (and buying leather sandals
that stretched over time). Which brings me to the next point...
Maintaining &
displaying your shoes
Maintaining your shoes involves cleaning them regularly. Purchase
shoe shampoo from your local stores and wipe your darlings with it, using soft
cloth, regularly. Afterwards, I apply jasmine aromatherapic oil on the surface
of my leather shoes (not the suede ones, tho) to give them more moisture and
fragrance. Your shoes will shine again
and you will feel like a millionaire just by looking at them!
Arranging the shoes in a nice order inside a nice shoe
cupboard is also worth trying. Wait. “Does it mean that I have to have a shoe
cupboard?” I hear you saying. Well, no you don’t have to. But you need to have
a storage to store your shoes in such a way that it’s easy for you to see. You can
also put the shoes inside your box and attach a photo of each pair on the box
to identify each. The point is, you have to arrange it so that it’s easy to
access them, and so that you know that you DO have a lot of pretty shoes!
By doing so, not only your life will be a few degrees
easier, but you’re also reducing impulse purchase!
Another tip on display: Whenever you have your
visit-the-mall session, wear a pair of nice shoes. Something really nice that
wow people. That way, when you enter a shoe shop, you are not tempted to do
impulse purchase, because you are already wearing a gorgeous pair of shoes!
(okay, if you still want to buy that pair of shoes, wait for 1-2 days before
returning. At least you have given it some thoughts)
Real or artificial leather?
I’m ambivalent in writing about this, actually. At first, I am
not comfortable purchasing and wearing leather shoes. Images of the poor cows,
lambs etc dying for the shoes just made me feel guilty. However, I do own some
pairs of well-made leather shoes, and
I have to say, they are still very sturdy, even into their third year. Heh, we
can still easily find genuine vintage leather shoes in good condition at
Etsy.com! That shows how sturdy leather can be.
I also have some pairs of shoes made of artificial leather. I’m
sad to report that they are now failing one by one. The artificial leather just
doesn’t hold against the weather. It peels off like ugly flakes and I cannot
wear them anymore. The same holds for a beautiful pink-brown bag of mine, made
of artificial leather. After several years of beautiful use, it was reduced to
ugly pinkish flakes...
The point is, we either choose between participating in
killing those cows or killing our planet because we ‘have’ to buy another pair
of shoes to replace the flaking artificial leather. I don’t want to be a
hypocrite here; I still eat fish (despite my vegetarian partner’s objections).
Hence,
wearing leather shoes doesn’t really disturb my conscious, compared to having
to buy another pair of shoes to replace the peeled-off artificial leather. If faced
with two options of shoes, one made of good leather, the other is made of good
artificial leather, I might choose the latter. But if I don’t know how long the
artificial leather would last, I’d pick the leather shoes. It’s more
sustainable, tho morally can be questionable.
Case in the point: I had to toss away my favourite red ‘Wonder
Woman’ boots (well, it’s not WW really, I just felt like WW when wearing them!)
in December 2011 (after two years of use) because the artificial leather
cracked into horrible flakes. I also am thinking of tossing away a (used to be)
nice black artificial leather boots for the same reason. In fact, my Chelsea
Crew, very expensive, booties sandals made of caramel artificial leather starts
to flake out! I just found it out today during the cleaning. It really
disappointed me, for the sandals are rather cute (it’s EU 38 tho, so it’s very
snug. I really just have to stick with EU 39 for booties sandals. Made of real
leather, preferably).
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| These beauties are of no use now, cos the artificial leather is falling apart! |
Commentaries on some women
shoe brands
Last but not least, I’d like to make some comments on some women
shoe brands that I own. Over the years, I have learned NOT to purchase heels
from local stores in Indonesia. I love my country, and my country does produce
lovely items. But sturdy heels and shoes are not her forte. After a failed
attempt at a pair of cute black pumps, I decided that I better source my shoes
from online stores such as Anthropologie, Modcloth, Irregular Choice etc. It’s
not a matter of being snobbish. It’s a matter of purchasing good quality shoes
that last long.
By the way, even if you do buy your shoes from Modcloth, you
must be aware of the brands you’re purchasing. Not all shoes are born equal. Now...
Poetic Licence
Poetic Licence produces good quality shoes for business and
pleasure. The leather they use is good quality, the stitches are fine, and the
designs are very cute. Poetic Licence is a sister product of Irregular Choice,
without the irregularity of size that IC has, and without being too baroque for
daily wear. Poetic Licence US 8 = EU 39, and they are true to size.
I own two pairs of Poetic Licence shoes: the blue Butterfly
Love and the yellow Whiplash (the shorter version of Backlash). I used to own
the yellow Backlash as well, until I decided that I cannot wear them for work
too often. It’s just too high for work (3.5” or 9 cm) for me. So when Irregular
Choice sold the Whiplash online, I bought a pair and sold my Backlash to a
happy buyer at eBay.
I cannot comment on the Irregular Choice product line,
because I don’t have any. But I am eyeing a pair right now at Modcloth. Very expensive,
but if I do get it, I will report back on the size.
Seychelles
Seychelles produce vintage-inspired heels made of good
quality leather. I have two pairs of Seychelles I bought from Amazon: Trip the
Light Fantastic at 2.5” height and Lauren Peep Toe at 4.5” height. Despite their
beautiful design, this brand is not my favourite due to their weird habit of
having the heels constructed at a weird angle. My Trip the Light heels were
designed at almost 45 deg, which made the shoes wobbly for me. The Lauren 4.5”
heels are okay for me, but it’s too high. I only wear them 3-4 times since I bought
them in 2010. I have put Lauren on eBay twice, but it hasn’t sold yet.
Miss Albright
Miss Albright is everyone’s favourite at Anthropologie.com.
I own two pairs of identical Ylang Ylang sandals, size US 7 and US 8. Both are
made of good quality leather and still wearable to date. I originally bought US
7 from eBay because the seller didn’t have size 8. However, just a few weeks
after size 7 arrived, the seller put on size 8 online. I was disappointed,
particularly because size 7 was a tad too snug for me (despite using the ice
technique to stretch it). So anyway, I brought size 8 and kept size 7, just in
case size 8 starts to wear out.
Which was a good decision, despite the monetary issues. At the
end of last year, I was able to put my feet into size 7 because it already
stretched enough. I had to change the zipper of size 8 several times, also asked
the cobbler to nail the insoles, but it’s really due to frequent wear. Hence,
when size 8 was hospitalised, I wore my size 7 around. Nowadays, I wore size 7
more often because it’s already stretched and the leather hasn’t developed a
patina yet, unlike size 8. I still clean size 8 regularly, though. I put a pair
of plastic mould inside size 8 yesterday to keep them upright. It’s a good
decision; size 8 starts to look fresh again. I think I need to buy more plastic
moulds for my other strappy sandals.
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| These US 7 Ylang Ylang were very snug, but they now fit my feet like a dream |
Born
Born is a good brand with good quality leather, good stitching
technique and good padding. It also uses good packaging. The plastic moulds I used
for the Ylang Ylang sandals above came from my Rosie Born sandals. I bought the
last pair of size US 8 Born Rosie from Zappos.com. Because Zappos doesn’t ship internationally,
I had to borrow the address of my US-based friend and ask her to ship the
sandals to me in Australia. It was worth the hassle. It is still the prettiest
4” wedge sandals I’ve ever seen. It’s very comfortable too. I missed the chance
to buy Born Hydrangea line, and I still regret it till now. I’m glad I have
Rosie.
Chelsea Crew
Not much I can say about Chelsea Crew other than that they had
lovely designs (their oxford line is to die for) and good price (half the Poetic
Licence price!). However, beware if you’re purchasing a pair of CC shoes made
of artificial leather. Mine just unravelled after two years. For that, I don’t think
I will purchase another CC, unless it’s made of real leather. Sigh. I guess you
got what you paid for, right? Poetic Licence might be expensive, but their
leather shoes are well-made and long-lasting.
Bottom line: if you want to buy more shoes, buy those
produced by well-known brands. If you want to buy leather shoes, make sure it’s
real, or you will have to spend more $$ in 2-3 years to replace your flaky
artificial leather heels.
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