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)