An Ode to my Patent Leather Shoes

The hunt started a number of months ago. I had seen a pair shoes in my Vouge, a great pair of black heels, complete with laces and great lines. I wanted that pair immediately, but I wanted no part of the $600 price tag. In fact I don't even remember the maker of my original love because I quickly dismissed it as a non-problem. The shoes weren't going to happen, especially with a price tag that at the time was more than my rent. When my Lucky magazine came that same week though, a payless advertisment caught my eye. It was the same style shoe, for much less and at Payless! I convinced my boyfriend for a nice stroll through the mall after dinner, and "oo let's see what's in paylesses new fall line". As I strolled through the 8 1/2 section and even the 9 section, my dissapointment came flooding. It was 10 minutes till 9 and I did the unthinkable in the retail world... I asked a clerk mere moments before closing. " Can you help me find a pair of shoes?" She seemed uneffected by my bad timing and listened intently as I attempted to describe my dream pair of shoes. All of the sudden a twinkle came into her eye, she said that she had seen them in the fall collection catalog, but they weren't in yet. But oh wait, a small delivery of some new shoes came in about an hour ago, let me see if they are in the back! As I paced infront of the door for the next 3 minutes, I did some quick budgetting, the shoes were going to be close to $40 and I hadn't expected to pay for them, but who really needs to eat anyways right? She came out carrying the box and moments after lacing them up I was head over heels in love. Even the other clerk came around the corner and was so excited with how great they looked she ran in the back to try on a pair herself! I looked into the box, the price tag read $27 and I jumped up and ran to the register. Johnny laughed at me, " I knew you were going to leave here with a pair of shoes no matter what you said". But how could I resist?

I rushed home happily thinking of all of the outfits I would wear my new best friends with and all of these months later still wear the shoes as much now, as I did that first week. These are my go to party shoes, they look great with a dress and tights and are the perfect addition to some otherwise dressed-down jeans. I wore them just last week to work. Here in the Northeast, the cold weather has caused sheets of ice to blanket any and every flat surface of the state. Our parking lot at work is about 7 layers deep of thick ice and most driveways are no different. Working in an office means that my shoes will be safe and dry under my desk, but when I made a trip to our warehouse, one of my co-workers looked at me with quite the expression, " What is on your feet?!" He exclaimed. Now I understand, heels are not typical wear for a manufacturing distribution warehouse, but I work in an office and these puppies were a perfect fit. I looked at him matter-of-a-factly," I wore my ice skates to work today."



As I was browsing through the line-up of fashion blogs this morning, I was happy to see the above pair shown on one of my favorite blogs, http://agirlsguidetoshoes.blogspot.com/ and was suprised to see a Steve Madden version of my payless shoes. They happen to be on sale this week for an additional 40% off bringing their current price to close to $50. Oh the joy of a great purchase. I'm sure the shoes are no longer available at payless because I did buy them back in August, but still it just reinforces how rewarding bargain shopping can be. Besides, if I actually had a pair of $600 shoes, I would be too afraid to wear them outside, and would infact probably never leave a carpeted room with them. My shoes have been out on the town on a number of occassions and really that's what shoes are for, being worn.