Pierce my heart

I have a real talent for impractical shoes. Whilst in rainy Manchester this weekend visiting the goth-in-laws I mistakenly wore suede ankle boots which were quickly soaked through and ruined.

Fortunately I remembered the Office card a friend had kindly given me for my birthday, and decided to replace them. I've had a look around Office a few times but not found anything particularly exciting. But this was an emergency, and perhaps the influence of the goths had rubbed off a bit as I completely fell in love with these Pierce My Heart black leather shoe boots.



The leather is beautifully soft and the straps have a cute little button detail, but the real clinchers are the peep-toes and 4.5" heels.

Yes, peep-toes. I bought boots with peep-toes to replace boots that had been soaked in the RAIN. doh!

Nonetheless they are fantastic boots and I look forward to wearing them when it's dry. Or inside. Full price £65 from Office, I got them for £5 with a gift card - an absolute bargain :)

Stellas

Over the years Tom has proved himself master of presents, particularly of the shoe variety. Of particular note were the Irregular Choice hula wedges, and the beautiful pink Prada kitten heels. But this year he's outdone himself:



Mmm mmm *mmm* these are possibly the loveliest shoes I've ever seen. Stella McCartney satin platform pumps in fuchsia with a 4" heel and graduated platform.

Of course since they are all-over satin I will never be able to wear them outside, but frankly if you're wearing Stella McCartney shoes you shouldn't be walking anywhere anyway. Last night we went to the Dorchester for cocktails (changed shoes in the cab) and then on to Scott's in Mayfair, a mere 10 minute walk away but a matter of moments in another cab. And then another cab back to Hackney.

On an ongoing basis these may well prove to be the most expensive shoes of all time...

A scandal of shoes

What's the collective noun for black shoes? A 'scandal' perhaps. Certainly that's what my long-suffering husband might call it after I returned home yesterday with yet another pair to add to my collection.



I should add this is just the court shoes, obviously I have black boots, flats and sandals too.

What was clearly lacking from my collection however was this pair of snakeskin courts, £40 from Urban Outfitters. oooh sparkly :)



The cone heels and sparkly snakeskin effect make these completely different from the shoes I already own, a distinction which was perhaps too subtle for Tom. However I shall be tripping like a sparkly gothic princess to any Christmas dos that come my way this year, hoorah.

Pick-me-up heels

Continuing the theme of rather a lot of leg and some shoes somewhere in the picture, here are my new pick-me-up (not in the f*ck me sense please) gold heels from New Look.

I was in a very bad mood this afternoon, mostly a result of being back at work after a week's holiday, but also having been blown out by a mate who I had been looking forward to seeing.

So to cheer myself up I took myself down to the enormous and far too convenient for work New Look in Moorfields and picked up this pair of £25 lovelies. A fairly conservative heel for me, but I just love the dirty gold colour and the slightly retro feel.

stella boots

Last year when I went to Harrods to buy my nonsmokiversary Kurt Geiger boots I saw a pair of the most gorgeous Stella McCartney black ankle boots with removable socks.



Unfortunately the only remaining pair were size 3. Size 3?? Who on earth has size 3 feet, apart from children and pixies?

I am absolutely desperate to get my hands on a pair of these, but so far can't find them anywhere despite the power of the interweb :(

Season of mists

I love early Autumn, particularly in terms of fashion. Short skirts, opaque tights, scarves, thin wool jumpers and, most importantly, boots. It's not a big year for boots of the non ankle variety this year, so I'm going to restrict myself to just the one new pair.*



These grey tie-back slouch boots with almond shaped toes were only £35 from the ever reliable asos, and they also come in purple.

*I reserve the right to change my mind about this.

A good weekend for boots

It's been a good weekend for boots. On Friday we went to Paris to the Rock en Seine festival, which was a good laugh. I was pretty chuffed when the official photographer approached me during the Biffy Clyro set and asked to take a photo of my boots. At the time they were looking rather better than they do now:





These bright orange mid-calf slouch boots with big buckles were £65 from Topshop, and were about perfect for the muddiness of the event. I hope they'll be rescuable after a sponge down, at least enough to wear to another event in a muddy field.

Today I stumbled across these gorgeous ankle boots in Zara:



And yes, they are remarkably similar to a pair I already own. But I just love the shape of the heel, and they *were* only £29...

new shooooooooes!

I've been remarkably restrained in the last month, but I simply couldn't resist these babies in the Topshop sale.



They're an almost luminous yellow with filthily high heels, and were an absolute bargain for £15 (reduced from £50).

I gather there's a theory that yellow is the colour of happiness - well it's working for me so far.

hula girl

My husband is officially the nicest man in the whole world. He bought me these beautiful Irregular Choice Hula Girl shoes for our wedding anniversary next week, but wasn't sure I'd like them so he's given them to me early :)

Not only are they the prettiest summer shoes I've seen in a while, they also have this fantastic quote on the sole. Preserved here for prosterity as it will doubtless wear off the very first time I wear them outside.

"Summer may change for winter
Flowers may fade and die
But I shall ever love shoes
While I can heave a sigh"

This is part of Tom's mission to turn me into a 50s hula girl. Unfortunately for him that's unlikely to happen, but that's certainly not going to stop me wearing these wedges.

in praise of cheap shoes

I love cheap shoes. Well, I love most shoes, but I do enjoy being able to buy lots of them at once. Yes, expensive shoes last longer and are generally more comfortable, and in an ideal world I'd be able to buy them in bulk too, but on my current salary I shall continue to celebrate the joy of cheap shoes. Like these spiky blue stilettos, £12 from asos:



So they're a bit Essex-girl-short-skirt-bacardi-breezers, but sometimes so am I.

My favourite red stilettos are beginning to look a bit scruffy, but that's partly because I've worn them so frequently in the last three years since I bought them at New Look for a tenner. Nothing like red shoes to cheer me up of a morning.

These 3 pairs together cost less than £30.



Hooray for cheap shoes :)

Spring cleaning

The unseasonably warm weather has meant I've bought several pairs of sandals in the past couple of weeks:



Gold with a wooden heel from the new Primark in Oxford St. OMG that shop is horrible. The shoes aren't great but after being bumped and bustled and elbowed just for the pleasure of looking at the place I felt I should buy something at least. And they were only £12. I think I like the flowers on the insole more than anything else. The other pair are dirty orange peep toes with little bows, once again with wooden heels. They were £41 in the House of Fraser sale, and I think they may well become my summer staple.

I do however already own sandals, so it's time to hunt down the bin bag full of summer shoes that's been hidden away in the attic all winter, and put away my winter boots to make room for them.

I took the opportunity to throw away those shoes that are beyond fixing, which I've been keeping for purely sentimental reasons. Wearing heels to gigs does tend to wreck them, but I was sorry to say goodbye to my shocking pink stilettos.



So as you can see I now have plenty of room for new shoes :) And with a shiny new job starting tomorrow I'm sure I'll need to stock up.

Shoe marmite

My IC Oh Boy Animal Collar ankle boots have finally arrived! I tried to talk myself out of buying them when I came across them in Schuh a week or so ago - in fact I did something which I almost never do - I didn't buy them. I actually convinced myself that I already have several pairs of ankle boots, that these are more than a little silly and that I could no doubt buy them cheaper somewhere online, and I walked out of the shop!

But I *like* silly, and since they're new season IC I can't find them cheaper online either, so a week later I was back in Schuh, only to find that the only pair they had left in my size were stained. Now some might see this as fate, but I'd been thinking about these all week and there was no way I wasn't going to buy them this time, so they ordered them for me and delivered them postage free.

Needless to say they have been made all the sweeter by anticipation, and I reckon they'll be just perfect for wearing in Amsterdam next weekend. They have everything I've come to expect from Irregular Choice, including pixies and a toadstool, but the killer detail in these babies is the lacing up the back, for just a touch more Goth.



Style: 5 (but these are marmite shoes and I'm sure some people will hate them)
Value: 3 (£75 from Schuh)

Rocket Dogs

I'm not very good at buying trainers. I don't really understand them. I get running shoes - I've got a pair of good ones and they're purely practical, I don't care what they look like - they support my feet and let them breathe when I run. But what's the point of trainers exactly? They're meant to be fashion items, but they frequently look hideous and they cost more than a good pair of proper shoes.

Which is why I'm rather surprised at my own late night drunken purchase from Schuh during a marathon Heroes session, these Rocket Dog Kings in a rather lovely shade of pink.



Cute. Who knows, perhaps it's the start of a beautiful friendship.

Style: 3 (a bit preppy for me perhaps)
Comfort: 4
Value: 4 (£25 from Schuh)

Brand new second hand

Vaguely browsing through Bang Bang in town on Saturday for a ball gown (long story) I came across these:



I've always been slightly uncomfortable with the concept of second hand shoes, but these are a perfect fit and in really good nick. They look as though they've never been worn outside. The signature red soles have some scuffs, but otherwise they are practically mint, inside and out.



Needless to say I overcame my scruples for a £120 pair of almost new Louboutins in the most perfect shade of orange.

I can only imagine there's a very sad story behind why someone had to give them up, but whoever you are, thank you!

Style: 5 (timeless shape, but what a colour)
Comfort: 4 (expensive shoes are more comfortable, live with it)
Value: not sure I can score this - they were excellent value for what they are, considering they'd cost around £460 new, but even I don't think £120 is good value for second hand shoes.

Irregular choice?

I have been the lucky recipient of not one but two late Christmas pressies of shoes in the past week :) The first are these stunning Irregular Choice cortesan ribbon flower courts from my lovely twin.



They're a deep red suede on gold, almost like the wallpaper in an Indian restaurant in the 80s, with a row of confetti-like flowers, ribbons and beads, and they've got the classic Irregular Choice toe shape.

The second are a fab 50s style polkadot pair from my brother and sister in law:



They came in an Irregular Choice box, and it's written on the insole, but I'm pretty certain they're not, mainly because they're not as detailed, and they aren't as well made. Also, having worn them twice they're already damaged:



I really like both pairs, and as long as they don't show too much more damage I expect I'll get more wear out of the fakes, as they're rain proof and not quite as high. Hooray for late Christmas pressies, just what I needed to brighten up my January!

Sticker fascist

Why do people leave the price stickers on the soles of their shoes? We can see them you know. What's the point of wearing a lovely pair of sexy black knee length boots if you're flashing white stickers everytime you lift your feet, girl I saw on the way into work this morning?

I have absolutely nothing against cheap shoes, in fact I love them. But I don't want them to look cheap. Take the labels off. Do it now. It gets harder the longer you leave them on.

Rookie error

I had a job interview last week, and as usual I spent an inordinate amount of time beforehand worrying about what to wear. I think this is probably a form of displacement to distract me from worrying about the actual interview, and it generally works surprisingly well.

The interview was for a web job in a public sector organisation, which is actually fairly easy to judge from a sartorial point of view - smart and understated, preferably black. I decided on my Hugo Boss petrol heels to perk up my otherwise sensible outfit.



These are classy shoes - the photo doesn't do the colour justice at all. They're an almost oily blue-green suede, with black heels and a pretty silver buckle detail. They're also cripplingly uncomfortable to wear, so I usually only wear them when I know I'm not going to be walking far or standing for long periods. Unfortunately I rather misjudged the amount of walking I'd be doing. When I arrived at the tube nearest the assessment centre it was pouring with rain, so I had to dash to find somewhere to tidy myself up before running down a seemingly endless road to find the centre (thus undoing the tidying up and potentially destroying the shoes in the rain).

I was left alone for an hour to do the written test part of the assessment towards the end of the day, and I kicked my shoes off under the desk and forgot about them. So when the assessor came back to tell me the time was up I had to rather sheepishly fish around under the desk to retrieve them, while she stood there in silence. Awkward.

Although parts of the day went well I suspect I'm not going to get the job for various reasons. Certainly if it were awarded on the basis of ability to select appropriate footwear I wouldn't have a hope.

Style: 5 (classic, classy and just a tiny bit naughty)
Comfort: 1 (the t-bar cuts into my toes and the toe pinches - ok I admit it, they're a bit too small)
Value: 3 (£75 in the Hugo Boss sale last year)

The mighty boosh

My sale purchases from asos turned up last night.



A bargain at £15, and having worn them all day today, pretty comfortable too.

But are they boots or are they shoes? Asos describe them, unimaginatively, as shoe boots. Please! Surely shoots. Or Booshes. Actually I reckon there simply isn't enough of them to describe as boots at all, but whatever they are I like 'em a lot and intend to wear them into the ground over the next couple of months.

Shoes or boots? You decide.

Comfort factor: 4
Value: 5 - £15! I love asos!
Style: 5 - check out the red soles! They're like a cross between the Louboutin and Stellas I've been drooling over

Size matters

So here's the thing. Don't tell anyone, but I think my feet are getting bigger as I get older. It's not quite so shameful an admission as drooping boobs, facial hair or grey pubes, but it does rate quite highly in the reasons why getting old sucks list I'm gradually compiling as I potter through my thirties.

I'm not blest with the daintiest of feet in the first place, having been, for most of my adult life, a UK size 6 (39 / US 7). Over the last few years I've started buying summer shoes in a 6.5, because they're a hell of a lot more comfortable for hot swollen feet. But I've suddenly realised that on the whole I haven't gone back to buying 6s, even now, in January.

Worse, the last pair of boots I bought - these soft grey suede calf length beauties from Fly from Harvey Nicks in Edinburgh - were a size 7, and they fit well, even without thick socks! (Which is presumably how one would wear everything in Edinburgh in January.)



I'm certainly not proud, and I'm not going to force my size 7s into shoes a whole size too small for them, at least not to wear for any length of time or if I have to walk anywhere. But this will leave me with a wardrobe full of well-loved shoes I can no longer wear.

Perhaps if I got rid of several of my longer toes...

Comfort: 4 - deceptively high
Value: 3 - £70 in the sale
Style factor: 4 - grey and fairly platformy, really rather now. Or last season according to Harvey Nicks.

all time favourites

These beauties from Irregular Choice have been hogging the top spot as my all time favourite shoes since I bought them last year.



First time I wore these shoes someone asked if they were Vivienne Westwood. Sadly not, but they could be. They're high as hell, but remarkably comfy, I think because of the peculiarly shaped toe. I wore them to a Basement Jaxx gig in the summer and danced like a loon for hours without crippling myself.

I love the way Irregular Choice shoes are so beautifully detailed, from the pattern on the soles (which inevitably wears off the first time you wear them) to the detailing inside.

I bought them in the Schuh shop on ebay for around £50.



mm mm mmm.

Comfort factor: 5
Value: 4
Style factor: 5