Monday! gah! How do you sneak up on me so fast? I’m going to be fifty in record time, the weeks are flying past so quickly.

So weekend report: success! accomplishments! and so forth. I got started on the V1170 skirt out of a black stretch cotton twill, finished cutting it out and got cracking on the assembly. I was shocked and awed to learn that I didn’t have a black 7″ invisible zipper, so by the time I stitched the pockets onto the skirt front at 10:38 on Saturday night and in doing so miraculously ran out of bobbin thread, I decided to call it a night.

Sunday we spent being good consumerists and buying things, including but not limited to speaker wire, underpants, and shelves for all my beautiful, beautiful shoes; then we came home and smacked up said shelves.

So first off, holy cow I have a lot of shoes. Old news, nothin’ novel to speak of, no duh allison; but don’t they look *fantastic* up there? Gawd where the hell is beautiful sunny weather with no chance of rain, because it and my most excellent metallic-acid-green-leather clompy-to-end-all-clomping-wannabes have a hot date scheduled ASAP. I love those things (although our downstairs neighbors might have words to another end) and am looking forward to coming up with fun outfits to pair with them.

Secondly, plaster walls are sort of a pain, yes, but more to the point they require traversal of a hairpin-sharp learning curve: which is to say, We are at least learning. (Read: oops.)

I also decided that I want to pair up my striated-orange-blobs stretch cotton with a bottom contrast panel of the VWL navy ribbon faille into view A of M5991, but without the slanty side pockets–just regular ol’ side seam pockets. I am afraid of slanty gaping at my hips, so I’m hoping to avoid it by going less fancy with the pockets. Except for the two strips of the navy ribbon faille, I still have to cut all that stuff out (and figure out exactly what I want to face the hem contrast with, and whether I should underline the orange-white cotton or just line it), but I’m sort of excited about it. And it’ll be way easier for me to shoe-shop my collection for a perfect complement now that they’re all on display! wooo!

Next time: I’ll try to make some progress on the V1170 skirt, and maybe the blouse too (those tie-ends for the sleeves are a royal pain in my ASS) and, well, one day I’m going to have to officially finish that zebra-print wrap dress: buttons on the cuffs and beltloops, stat!

Hey, were you the one who bought the size 9’s in the Clergerie black patent houndstooth Nephys wedge? and are they about a size too small for  you? ‘Cause if that’s the case we should totally switch ‘em, because the 10’s are too big for me. Wouldn’t that be excellent?

Sigh. I’ll get over it.

I … I know that I do not NEED shoes. I know. Deep down and very frankly I utterly concede big bad heaps of YES I KNOW to the age-old question, ‘Do you really need to buy anything else?’ I don’t even have enough of a set-up right now to even unpack all the shoes I kept, they’re mostly still in shoe boxes or in protective cloth bags in a big moving box. I already have farylrobin shoes, black season-transgressing shoes, and even a damn pair made of woven raffia with patent trim. But I kind of WANT these three. Is that bad?

(Do not feel the need to respond if your name is BECK. I know how you feel about this already.)

In other news, I really am almost done with my zebra print wrap dress. I actually already wore it to work on Tuesday of this week, so it’s definitely already serviceable, but I have a few more finishes to crank out. I need to shift the snaps over about 3/4″ because, as it is now, it’s just a hair too snug. I also need to sew on a couple of buttons on the cuffs, add beltloops to the waist sideseams, and finish hemstitching the facing to the upper bodice. And then?! THEN you will get a picture of me in a very animal-print dress, which I never really thought I would say, but it does look sorta good. And it would also look quite good with at least two of the three aforementioned pairs of shoes that I don’t need.

Of course! C’mon, y’all! I am naturally obsessing about some shoes in some way or another.

I was thinking the other day that it might be nice to have some kind of regular checking in here on the V-Pants that would keep you in the know of what kind of Shoely Activity I’ve been engaging in. It’s always something, you know: looking at new designs and styles, checking out the seasonal sales, finding something I couldn’t possibly live without, being totally disheartened by the raunchy clods I see some folks walking around in, selling or giving away lots of stuff, and so on, and so forth. So let’s get to it:

MY CURRENT WEEK IN SHOES.

I’m selling a lot of pairs on ebay right now: including four belonging to Beck, I have 21 pairs that are on the chopping block. Most of them were ebay or other online purchases, which sort of precludes, perhaps, that most of them do not fit. They were all found on sale at least, but only on the irregular occasions does that actually result in me wearing them regardless; so I bit the bullet and started them off at super cheap even though it hurt a little. Would I keep a few if I could ostensibly trade them for a size that fits? Oh totally. Unfortunately ebay and flickr and my current googling skills have left me with No Dice, so I’ll just have to keep looking while I chuck these out the front door.

In other Shoes News, I have found several pairs that I am currently lusting after:

First! Robert Clergerie’s “Dormit” wedge.

I love this Clergerie man, anyway, but the graphic upper coupled with the terraced wedge just about make me start drooling. And if you take inventory of not only the shoes I’m getting rid of, but also the ones I’m hanging on to? You will see quite plainly that I am a Total Sucker for platforms and wedges, ankle straps, open- or peep-toed vamps and a healthy dollop of funky. I actually got a notice in the mail that I was obligated by law to love this style. I can only seem to find them for sale at Zapp’s, where they call it both the “Domit” and “Dormit” stylenames. Uh, hello? Hello, Zappo’s? These things are SIX HUNDRED DOLLARS. Not like six hundred Hungarian Forints, or even six hundred Swedish Kronor, we’re talking u.s. dollar-i-doos. That is a LOT of dough for something that you can’t even call by its right name.

I also have discovered that I am helplessly in shoe-love with Angelo Figus. Can you imagine what this fellow is doing to my shoe-dreams?!

I am helplessly cooing and squinting into kissy-faces and tapping my pigeon-toed feets. Omfg.

And last but certainly not least, my newest perennial favorite, Ms. Chie Mihara:

These are all from Gimme Shoes, in case you want to gimme any of them. I promise I would wear them with handmade fancy dresses and make you from-scratch lemon bars, unless you’re vegan, in which case I would make you some delicious guacamole and take you to a nice vegan bakery where you could pick out some butterless concoction upon which to snack. See? Win-win! I’ll wait for your reply in the comments, xox.

Let me first say to my nineteen-year-old self, who (if I understand appropriately the whole time-space relativity thing in addition to how the interwebs work) will be soon reading/has already read this post, that I apologize. I know you used to stay up all night for the shit of it and read random books in the undergrad in some slightly precocious way of approaching college educatedness; I remember well that you used to work a job until 11:45 or midnight and only afterwards would go home to eat dinner and do your homework and watch either infomercials or random programming on public television while you deciphered meaning from elementary-school-level russian dialogues for at least the next three hours; and, yes, I too was there! when you halfway slept on a crappy wooden framed dorm lounge loveseat for approximately 82% of your sophomore year so you wouldn’t have to listen to your cranky roommate complain about the light being on in the room after ten or eleven at night. So, I totally concede that it’s sort of odd to be coming forth with this business, and even I didn’t anticipate it, but it’s also really true so just brace yourself, okay?

I totally dig getting up way early in the morning.

Now, I’ve only done this for the last two days, so my opinions might change, but getting out of bed before six in the morning, today and yesterday, has totally allowed me to have an amazingly different kind of day. I got out of bed, and had a cup of tea or coffee and then boom! into the sewing room. I pinned things; I sewed seams and even pressed them; I adjusted the waistband for fit for crying out loud. I mean, productivity! it was amazing! And I actually got stuff done, and then was at work (work!) right on time! and I didn’t even forego showers or teeth-brushing! It was like, pow! All of a sudden, I had this swath of color in my morning that hadn’t been there before. Now, granted, I found myself alarmingly SLEEPY at like 8:30 last night, but I held out a bit (thank you, birthday cake!) and wasn’t even in bed all that too much later than normal, like 10:15 or so. And after yesterday morning and last night and this morning, I’m totally almost done with the knockoff skirt. Which I’m naming the Tristis skirt, after the latin name for an American Goldfinch, because it’s all yellow and white and silvery grey and black, and also because I dig on the goldfinches what come to sup at our feeder.

I’m planning on working on it some tonight, and then tomorrow morning, and I am really quite confident that I’ll be able to wear it to work by Monday. No wait, this Monday! More photos to follow, accompanied by excellent choice/s in footwear (even though I’m not sure what top I’ll wear with it).

I know! You’re here for me to talk about shoes today! Well let’s get up on it, then.

So it’s hardly breaking news that I’m all crazy for the shoes. I scour the interwebs for ridiculous amounts of time in search of deals, images, nostalgic waxings and general opinions of typically snootier and/or funkier brands ‘n’ styles. So in honor of myself, basically, I’m going to start talk, talk, talking about some of my own experiences. Which brands are crazy expensive but actually worth it; what I’m currently stalking for real v. for pretend; whether or not you can wear four-inch sandals with tights in the winter; brand generalizations based on my having actually tried out more than one style; that sort of thing. I do write reviews of shoes I own on places like shoes-dot-com, endless/amazon, zappos, et cetera, but sometimes, in reading reviews of shoes that I don’t have and am curious about, I am less than satisfied with what other folks have had to say. It’s like I really just want myself to have written all about it already, so I’m basically just doing that. And instead of blathering on about what “that” is GOING to be, let me start blathering on WITH IT.

Have you ever seen something so perfectly embodying a modern-day Wilma Flintstone? This is a decadent pair of Marsells, an über fancy Italian brand that no doubt appeals to the upper upper crust of trust fund kids that like Fluevogs, but don’t think them expensive enough for their lifestyle. They’re hard to come by and even rarer seen out in the wild, although in that latter respect my co-workers are obliviously lucky. I picked these up at yoox, which is probably the most reliable place I can count on (and recommend) to find a pair. They were very much marked down, although still close to c-note, and while I hadn’t exactly been stalking this pair and I wasn’t sure about that beige-tinted grey color *or* the ankle-ties? I figured I could always return ‘em. Chances to score this kind of fantasmagoria aren’t too common so I went for the gusto. And good gravy, am I ever glad. These pups are stellar: they’re funky, they’re chunky, they’re pretty comfortable as far as fancy shoes go, they’re made within an inch of staying here on the planet and not ascending into Valhalla, and they’re MINE. MMMMMINE! I say they fit pretty true-to-size: a euro 40 is a good 9-9.5 ‘Merican and the width is a pretty good medium. They’re not padded, and my front ball-of-foot takes a bit more pressure than she likes if I wear them out all day, and the heel counter is pretty average (which, actually, is just a hair big for me). These are a great neutral color that doesn’t match my skintone (why I just can’t dig on that taupe-beige-nude phenom) and they’re light without being white (which … no, I just can’t wear white shoes without significant presence of other colors, like black and yellow). Plus I’m all about mixing grey into my funky color combos, and it works with pretty much every neutral shade you can throw at it. Black? it’s like a snack! Brown? let’s go to town! Taupe? it sure can cope! Uh, Navy? you know it, baby! So: yes. Grey is A-OK.

The Rehash:

Brand: Marsell
Style name: ???
Season/year: who knows. they’re ‘current’ again at yoox, but they’re at least a couple years old.
Availability: yoox, luisaviaroma, ebay
Fit: tts, avg. width
Overall pros: excellent personality & styling, good heel height, made immaculately
Overall cons: super expensive, hard to find, no real padding
My score, 1 (low) to 10 (high): solid 8.

That, in essence, is what I want to provide for random google searchers who really wanna know, if they can, how a certain style of shoe fits and whether or not you can find it online anywhere. It’s limited of course by my terribly fickle tastes and also my extraordinary cheap tendencies, however much it might be enabled because of my amazing sense of style coupled with galavanting around on my Word Pony. Minor caveats, particularly if you’re like a representative of net-a-porter or zappos couture or something, is that I will totally write up a review of whatever you want if you send me a pair. Hell, if you just lend me some Barbara Buis or Max Kibardins I’ll even cater to stupidly arbitrary word counts and find rhyming schemes that work with specific words, up to and including “interuterine.” (Which I mention only because of that time Rose and Dorothy wrote a song about Miami.)

Till next time, y’all! Wear shoes that’d make me proud.

You know what? I think more inspiring to me than anything else is Change. When change happens, when you can sniff it out in the air, when it falls from the sky and lands on your shirtsleeve–that’s what can really get me thinking and working and moving. And of course it’s much more awesome when the changeling matter falling from the sky is like a new pair of Costume National sandals and not hokeberry-purple robin poo, but as sad as it is that the former has never happened to me? Neither has the latter. So it’s all good, I guess.

I’ve been sewing it up a smidge the last couple weeks, and it feels really good. Part of that is knowing, seeing firsthand, that I’m getting better. Better at sewing in a straight line, and a curved line, pressing neatly, and even figuring out what changes to make to have whatever garment it is actually fit my body better. I’m still having some issues at being slightly prompt with it all, but you know what? Stuff is getting done. I’m doing all right. It’s working. And part of that is because it’s beginning to warm up outside–the transition to springtime is at least in full push, even if I might wear wool sweaters a few more times before they get put up for the season. However it happened, I think I realized that the beginnings of change are what gets me going the most: so while I’m not at all organized enough to plan out a SWAP (Sewing With A Plan), I *do* have some ideas about stuff I want to sew up for the warmer days of 2008.

Bright or bold and slightly goony-abstract floral prints.

Seriously, I love that mess. And it can get tricky using them without looking like a cartoon character, but with proper grounding it’s just buckets of fun waiting to happen. Also it makes you want to drink blueberry dacquiris in the park, and what the hell is wrong with that? Full skirts for the heavier weights with big prints, dress bodices and short-sleeved blouses for the lighter weight, sheer stuff, both to be paired with solid colors and my excellent taste in shoes.

Minorly unexpected color combinations.

Keep it safely distanced from that day-glo nonsense of the early nineties, and pair rich tones with more neutrals. Go opaque brights with sheer muted tones, get your brown on with the teal, mix silver grey into the yellow and deep plum. C’mon! Get your chocolate in my peanut butter.

Wear amazing shoes with everything, period.

This may mean spending some money on new shoes. I can totally live with that. And all these totally impractically expensive shoes have nothing really to do with sewing, except that I can be inspired to match my blouse to my colorblocked Miss Sixty wedges or match my saddle brown with black to highlight those fan-effing-tastic Costume National wooden sandals. And if I sew all my clothes and still look like a million bucks, it means that I just saved like two thousand dollars, right? HMM WHAT TO DO WITH ALL THAT MONEY. Hmmm.

So quick question for anybody out there reading in the internetly ether of ten-fifty-eight on a Tuesday night:

How high is this wedge? What’s your estimation, here?

Amazon says it’s three and a half inches; Zappos says it’s three and three-quarters inches; and both piperlime and shoes-dot-com say that it’s four inches. I think it’s gotta be between 3 3/4″ and 4″ at least, so … is amazon smoking some shwag or what?

I must first say that I need no real trigger to daydream about shoes for hours, whole evenings and/or Saturday afternoons, and in hindsight? for many years. But it’s been marked the last couple days, more than normal. I do talk a lot, and I even buy kind of a lot when it comes to footwear, but what I really excel at is looking at them. I can look for hours– deep into the wee hours of the morning, on dozens of different sites– sometimes with nothing more reputable to go on than a vague description of color or the kinda-sorta remembered name of the designer. Yishikomo? Tomorushi? Kukaburra? No no no. Kishimoto, Eley Kishimoto.

I get obsessed with finding improbably perfect examples of footwear (according to my fickle yet exacting tastes) and SALE is like the biggest word in my shoe vocabulary. Because I love them, LOVE them, but to this day haven’t paid more than about $140 for a single pair. Now, I don’t wear boots, because my hulky calves prefer to not be encased in zip-tied leather coffins (and that might be the only way I could get a damn pair to fit me), but I have some snooty damn taste. If money weren’t an issue? I’d be all over Celines and Donna Karans and Roberto Cavallis, with Sergio Rossis and Robert Clergeries getting overtime as bedroom slippers. I’d have different pairs of shoes in the backseat of my car, just so I could put ‘em on to run into the grocery store to buy unsalted butter or some hot dog buns instead of wearing the more practical shoes I had on at work that day. I’d put special, lucite-encased shelves along every inch of space on the bedroom walls* so as to have my lovelies on permanent display without the hazards of dust encasing their tender, satin ruffles-turned-rosettes or marring the petite beaded accents in the center of that crocheted poppy. But one thing I would not do, no ma’am no sirree, is spend any less time admiring the qualities of Fantastic Footwear. Which, more or less, leads me to the real subject of my post.
*I’m sure Beck, my lovely partner, is like all cool with this. Right, hon?

There’s always a little spring in the air in NC, even in January.

I’ve been thinking a lot about sandals lately. Now I’ve worn a few open-toed pairs this quote-unquote WINTER with tights, and I can surely get behind that look, but I really love showing off the little piggies. Mine are several cries away from uber toe modelling capability, but I can appreciate shoes with wide open spaces pretty comfortably. Especially if I have a freshly touched up double coat of polish. I’ve worn a couple pairs pretty much to death the last few years, a pair of Re-mix Picasso wedgies and a pair of pretty simple Kenneth Cole Reaction rubber-soled ankle-wraps. Both black, both with a nice low wedge, both crazy comfy and both, at long last, in a very worn state. I have other summery shoes of course (of course!) but they don’t have the staying power, or the GO-TO status of these two that, if not the dust, then at least have bitten a slipcover that could use a good shaking out. All this plus the fact that I have already filed my taxes for this year and I’ll be getting a decent chunk of change back; or because I just got paid; or because Venus is conjuncting Jupiter today; means that I’m really pretty ready to take the plunge and buy the next pair. Some of the ones I’m thinking about are totally impractical, and I know I won’t buy ‘em. Some of them have a stronger appeal because I walk about a mile to and from work every day and these look like they should hold up all right. Some of them I’m thinking long and hard about because they’re pretty cheap, others because I’m becoming more and more a slave to trendy fashion! Who knew! So let’s begin:

Perhaps the easiest, if not most logical, point of beginning is to pick up where we left off. I’ve got two pairs of totally dying black sandals, so let’s see what’s out there in open-toed, low-wedged or -heeled, ankle-strapped black sandal world:

Nine West I can sort of deal with. They’re not my favorite quality-wise, and comfort can be real hit or miss, but they do have their copying little fingers on the trendy pulses that beat loudly with the advent of new seasons. I mean, have you seen their newest creations? Marni must’ve done them wrong in a former life.
These are from last year, actually, but I think they’re cute. That might be a smidge too much of a height-booster, though. Three inches is my max, if I include in my range stuff that makes my feet hurt after a full day. And there is that nice platform to offset at least one of those inches, but you’re still up in the air, there. Maybe not the best choice.

Next up on the choppin’ block is a pair of campers. Now, I have a pair from a couple years ago that I totally adore– a pair of red and black sandals that fall oh so perfectly into my checkboard, Stendhal-esque way of dressing myself in the summer, plus they’re okay comfort-wise and the rubber heel is a humongous blessing. But really? They might be a little too orthopedic-looking. Hmm. Next.

Now these! Oh goodness! I can’t go on enough about how Clergerie shoes are practically perfect on my admittedly less-than little feetsies. They’re a little extra wide at the ball which I need, and in the heel too which I don’t but is all right, and the lasts must have my social on them– I mean, the pitch and overall shape is just right. Plus the quality is top-notch, they’re kinda funky-retro but not in any way cheap or hoochy. They’re pretty damn good Me-shoes…ahh, except that they’re like five hundred dollars. And, you know, I just– I just don’t think I can do it. Previous Clergerie purchases were made on the ‘lectronic bay for about 20% of what they cost new. What can I say? I fricking love bargain hunting. This Rosie style is brand new though, and ebay’s always such a shot in the dark, anyway. Better keep looking.

I’m digging the dark silvery color pretty heavily so far, and this might be a neat alternative to neutral black. Reviews say that this is a pretty comfy shoe, even though that heel is up there; the stacked heel puts it neatly into warm-weather territory even if the pewter color makes you think about Autumn leaves and what-not; and it’s on crazy sale right now for like $30. Uhm, we may have to just get this one even if I only wear it on weekends, maybe? Of course, there are other pewter/dark silver/gunmetal/oxidized chrome color shoes out there, and more than one pair might be overdoing it, so maybe not. In comparison, I think I’d much rather have the …

Ooh yes! Mmm delicious! Lovely silvery strappy low-funky-heeled ankle-straped d’orsay GOODNESS! Seriously, I love these. And I love them in silver lame’ more than any other color. I just don’t know how good they’d be for summery shoes, you know? I may get these just ’cause I love them, and not as my must-wear-for-summer-shoes. Of course, I said that about those Espace Mygne heels, too– and now the zappos clearance bin, 6pm.com doesn’t have anything between an 8.5 and a damn 11.

These Faryl Robins I like, though they might not do much for making my legs look sleek; which means I might not wear them much, after all. I do like the retro attitude, and black and the pale natural woven platform ‘n’ heel is a great way to incorporate a more grounded color scheme to the brights we’re seeing all about this season, and again, super sale. Fifty bucks. Which isn’t really all that crazy inexpensive, like twenty bucks, but they’re still like 70% off. So, hrmm.

Where is my candy?

Of course I wouldn’t just wear any of the above just to work; it would maybe only be predominantly to work because, hey: I spend a lot of hours here. But in all this looking at shoes, don’t we need to see some crazy high heels up in here? I thought so.

Aww yeah! Holy cow! I wouldn’t even be able to walk to the bathroom in these, but I want them. Like, reallllly waaaant them; in part because they’ve been for sale at an online consignment place for a while now, and I guess no one else wants them, and the price has been slashed to three canned goods and they’re my size and they’re in mint condition and– and– breathe. Breathe, now. Maybe I’ll cave in this weekend, or maybe I’ll buy something more practical (i.e. something that I would get real-world, out-of-the-house wear from, instead of breaking them out of their dustbags once a month for three minutes while I coo and whisper to them as I lay incapacitated on the bed).

Woo! More pretty green shoes! I’m pretty impressed with Charmone’s offerings, if for no other reason than they’re super high quality and animal-product free. Since I’ve grown into my girly-ass identity, inclusive of the shoes, I’ve been pretty admissive with wearing leather. My standards for quality and appearance are even more unwavering than my hippie vegetarian ways, and while I’d pick the non-leather if I had the choice? You hardly ever have the choice. These beauts not only give you a loophole, but let you straddle the line between 70s glam rock outrageousness and 40s nightclub songstress while you’re being a hippie vegetarian. How cool is that?

These are pretty cutesy, and not in the way I’m always satisfied with. I have some cutesy shoes that I love, but the peeptoe and the bow and the button and the color might put this too squarely on Minnie Mouse for my tastes. But maybe not; it comes in black, too, but I think I like the green better. It’s another one of those they-have-my-size-and-it’s-on-sale-woo! shoes, so it’s pretty unlikely that I’ll buy it. Even if I would wear it about 800% more often than the Vera Wang silk pump up there.

So tell me: what do y’all think?