bronze flip flops, take 2

What:  size 8 bronze flip flops with rope detail
From:  Talbots (clearance center)
Purchased:  September 2011
Cost:  $14

So, um, yeah.  In August at a regular Talbots I bought a pair of bronze flip flops and put them away for next summer's use.  And then in early September I was at the clearance store and snatched these off the racks and totally loved the rope-y, espadrille-y trim around the shoe and bough them without a second thought because I needed new flip flops.  And I put them away for next summer's use. 

And now I have two pairs of bronze flip flops.  And a no returns policy.  Oh well.  I love bronze.  I could wear one pair out and save the second pair for the summer of 2013?

Bottom line:  keeper

bronze flip flops

What:  Size 8 bronze flip flops with little bow
From:  Talbots
Purchased:  August 2011
Cost:  $16

All summer I wore my orange and yellow flip flops.  They were already on their last legs, but I couldn't part with them. 

So, when I went to Talbots close to my birthday, which meant I had an extra 15% off coupon, and the summer sale was still in full swing, and I saw these, I had to snatch them up.  As we all know, I love me some metallics! 

Two questions:
- how can a pair of flip flops cost the same as the shoes from yesterday? 
- uh, what is that other pair of bronze flip flops in the background?  stay tuned! 

Bottom line:  keeper

golden

What:  size 8 glitter and sequin gold peep toe pumps with 2.5 inch heel
From:  Talbots (clearance store)
Purchased:  April 2011
Cost:  $16

They made it to 80% off!  So I could not pass them up.  These are totally impractical.  Seriously, how many times in your life will you wear gold glitter pumps?  I know a lot of people that will never wear glitter shoes once in their life, and I think they're perfectly fine with that.  But these are comfy.  And, well, tasteful.  For a gold glitter pump, that is. 

Right after I got them I wore them out to dinner with rolled jeans and an olive green jacket.  Sort of the juxtaposition of hard edge and fancy.  I guess it worked, and I could probably wear something like that a couple of times a year. 

But I never have fancy things to attend where these would work.  No fancy holiday parties, no super fabulous dress up dinners out, no fancy theater or orchestras......once again, my shoe mantra - I need a more fabulous life to match my shoes!  Sigh. 

bottom line:  keeper

March 21 - metallic loafers!

What:  size 8W silver loafers
From:  Talbots (outlet)
Purchased:  March 19, 2011
Cost:  $21.25

OK, yes, I bought three pairs of shoes over the weekend.  There is no justification.  But you know what?  If I wasn't doing this shoe blog, I would have bought another pair - a very cool - and comfortable - pair of low heel peeptoes covered in gold sequins and glitter for $25.  Now, those were completely unjustifiable, and I knew it.  I liked them because they had a lower heel and were comfortable, and that's hard to find in a dress shoe.  But some on, where in the world would I wear them?  (dammit, I still want them, though - if they make it to the 80% off clearance you know they're mine!) 

But these!  I saw a bunch of mocs, ballet flats, and loafers on the clearance racks and then I noticed the tag on these were 8W = SCORE.  Wides are hard to find at the clearance center, so I grabbed them first thing and tried them - totally, perfectly comfortable.  Let's see, very comfy wide shoes (typically hard to find), metallic (my love of metallic is well documented), and silver/pewter/grey (my current favorite) for just over $20?  Um, yeah.

Ok, well, yes, technically I have these, which are functionally quite similar.  But! Silver/pewter ballet flats are great without socks, but you look like a dork wearing socks.  Silver/pewter loafers?  Socks, baby, plus a sturdier structure and heel put them in an ever-so-slightly different niche. 

Bottom line:  keeper! 

February 12 - fancy flats

What: size 8 silver ballet flats with silvery flower
From: Talbots
Purchased: spring '09
Cost: $32.50 (edited for accuracy)

Hmmm. You know what? I might have my dates all screwed up. The very first pair of ballet flats I bought from Talbots were these, and I wrote I bought them in spring 09. But, I wore those orange-y ones enough that when I saw these in Talbots I knew I had to have them. I just loved the flower-y thing. I held out til late winter sales and finally snagged them at $35 (and I had to call around and have them held for me at a store across town to get them). So does that mean I bought them in '10? Did I miss a purchase? No, I must have the wrong year on the orange ones. Not that it matters all that much, really. Now I'm going to have to go back through some receipts to see if I've been living a lie and actually bought 22 pairs, not 21 pairs, in '10!

I wore these in January, but was so totally unmotivated in posting. But, it really was a fashion faux pas. It was a cold day, and I put on black socks! Bad, bad, bad. I don't think you can wear socks with ballet flats? So does that mean you either freeze for fashion, or hold ballet flats for spring/summer/fall only?

edited to add: OK, so I have been living a lie - I bought these on February 15, 2010, which makes them the second pair of shoes I bought in 2010, for a grand total of 22 pairs. Great, now I have to go back and edit the 2010 recap.

Bottom line: keeper

February 10 - gold brocade

What: size 8 gold brocade strappy sandals
From: Talbots (outlet)
Purchased: ~04
Cost: $15

Still just blowing through shoes, no real occasion to wear these. I had forgotten I had them when I bought these in 2010. They are fine, I wish I had a fancy occasion to wear them!

Bottom line: Keeper

February 9 - dressy sandals

What: size 7.5W silver sandals with beading
From: Fioni (otherwise known as Payless Shoes)
Purchased: hmm. mid 00s?
Cost: $15

I bought these for a wedding, I think, but I am drawing a blank. They're pretty simple silver dressy sandals, not super comfy (payless), but not unwearable. There's nothing wrong with them, might as well keep them in case I ever need silver sandals?

I am just trying to blow through the final (40!) pairs, and had no reason to wear these, but I did try them on.

Bottom line: keeper

November 16 - gold pumps

What: Size 8 gold pumps with 2.5 inch heel
From: Nine West (unknown purchase, likely Hechts)
Purchased: early 90s
Cost: ? Let's say $32

Time to go through a bunch of shoes and just get rid of them. These have been on the shoe rack in Elizabeth's room since 2003, not worn once. That's why there are those little dents on the sides. What can I say, I've loved metallics for a long time. I've had these forever - I remember wearing them with a gold-ish (not metallic, but sort of that nude gold color) at the job I had in 1994.

Someone once asked me how I can remember prices and when and where I bought things. I have a good memory, but also, I've lived different places and had differnet sorts of jobs that required different sorts of outfits, so I can sort of pin shoes to specific outfits I would wear for different occasions. I loved that dress, I think I still have it. Might have gotten rid of it in the purge of 08. I have no excuse for keeping the shoes this long. Bye!

Bottom line: donated

September 28 - not quite gold wedges

What: Size 8.5 3.25 inch platinum wedges
From: Talbots (outlet)
Purchased: September 17, 2010
Cost: $24

I couldn’t resist them. I had a quick work trip to Virginia Beach September 16 and 17th, and while a group of us drove down from DC, the others took flights back to their respective cities leaving me to drive home alone. I stopped in Springfield to pick up a bunch of party supplies for Elizabeth’s birthday, so of course I also made my way to the Talbots outlet. These were on the 50% off rack, so I had to have them – my 15th this year. Except, all this time, I’ve been coveting based on the online picture, which is clearly gold. These were labeled platinum, and you know what? They are not gold. I had the perfect outfit picked out, slipped on these shoes, and thought, oh crap, these are really more silver than gold. Darn platinum. Still wore them, but don’t love them quite as much as I thought I would. Still need gold sandals! The search continues.

Bottom line: keeper

August 28 - gold heels

What: gold strappy sandals with a 3 1/4 inch heel
From: Talbots (outlet)
Purchased: April 16, 2010
Cost: $20

My second pair of shoes in 2010. And, if not for this challenge, they'd probably still be unworn, so perhaps blogging shoes is a good thing.

Before my friend K. moved to Florida, we decided we needed to resurrect our Talbots outlet outings, which had gone by the wayside with children, work, and other priorities. So one last trip together and we had some good scores. At $20, these were impossible to resist, even if they aren't the most practical shoes in the world. I knew I had a big dressy work dinner in May, and last year I had worn my hot pink satin heels, so needed to wear something different this year. These were comfortable and cheap and I love metallics and I thought it was worth buying them in case they might go with whatever I ended up wearing to this fancy dinner. Well, ended up with a black dress and wearing new black heels, so these were in my shoe cupboard.

I'm going to admit they look a lot like another pair of gold shoes I bought from Talbots in the early 00s, which have never been worn. But those shoes are gold brocade, so totally different! I need to find an occasion to wear them. Hmm.

Anyway, wore these out to a party with jeans and a dressy top, and they worked great. They were a good buy. But they're never going to get a lot of wear, though over the next couple of years I'm sure I can get the per wear cost down to $2-4 or so. I need a more fabulous life to match my shoes.

Bottom line: keeper

eta: a close up picture. Love the material of these shoes. See the price tag? $39.99, plus they were 50% off. I guess it's sort of snakeskin, which is vastly different than the gold brocade heels I have (and have never once worn).

July 25 - silver!

What: Size 8.5, 3.25 inch heeled strappy dark silver sandals
From: Talbots (outlet)
Purchased: summer '08
Cost: $35

Another pair of metallics! Love these. I have them in bronze, and in my write up, I said I bought another pair at the same time. Um, not these, actually. I bought these another trip (I think first). I bought blue ones when I bought the bronze ones.

So two things - I had to go back and revise the bronze write up, because I checked the size and they are 8.5s. No wonder they are so comfy. And, I actually measured the heel height - 3.25, not 2.5. And that heel height is totally fine. (daggone it, those gold wedges I keep eyeing are 3.25, which I was thinking was too high, but now I am back to thinking about them. Wish I could try them on.)

Bottom line: total keeper

July 19 - gold sandals

What: size 8, 2 inch heeled gold sandals
From: Sam&Libby's (I think Hecht's)
Purchased: spring '00
Cost: $25 (guessing)

I wore these shoes to my friend B's wedding in Tally. Garden wedding, fair amount of standing on grass for the wedding part. They were uncomfortable then, and are still uncomfortable, so to the discard pile they go.

It's killing me though. I love metallic shoes. And I don't have many gold pairs. OK, well, I have two gold pairs but they are super dressy (and neither have been worn - and ok, so it's three gold pairs with the gold braided thongs - I'm digging a hole here). I have great bronze sandals (including one pair as yet unworn) and a couple of pairs of silver (as yet unworn). So this is a little bit hard. But really, I haven't worn them in forever, and just trying them on for a picture was painful, so they have got to go. Plus they are really not so stylish anymore. If I want gold sandals, Talbots has a pair of wedges:
Only $32! I'm not really cyber-stalking these. If they had a slight platform, I'm snap them up in a second, but I'm hesitant. First, stupid Talbots has now instituted a final sale policy. Can you imagine? And I haven't seen these in store to try on, and I just can't buy final sale without a try on. AND, their shipping costs are ridiculous.

However, they do have a couple of other pairs that are sorely tempting me - these (in pink! a-dor-ab! but $50 for ballet flats is insane) and these (love the purple - I think I'm in a purple phase right now (1 pair bought this year already, but they are suede heels....), so have to be careful. But they are only $30! But still, shipping. Sigh). If I got all three pairs, that would be over $100, and shipping would be free. Hmmm. Well, that leaves the problem of $50 ballet flats, and that's insurmountable. For now.

OK, wow, that got off track.

Bottom line: discard! I now have a bag in my bedroom quickly filling up with the discards. So remember if anything appeals, let me know. I have one pair put aside for TSM and/or my mother, though she hates thong sandals and would never wear them.

July 6 - bronze

What: Size 8.5, 3.25 inch bronze leather t-strap sandals
From: Talbots (outlet)
Purchased: late summer '08
Cost: $30

To keep up this shoe challenge, I've got to get through more of the heels, even if it is 100 degrees out and I need to walk to Target. These are actually super comfortable, and when I had a job in an office I used to do a lot of walking in heels. I'm a little out of practice.

We had drinks with KG the other night and we talked shoes and blogging. She told us she had just done a shoe sort and she has 78 pairs of summer shoes, but she's not sure how many other pairs she has. My guess going into this was I had more winter shoes than summer shoes, but I have bought a fair number of low heels or flats these past few years of motherhood plus working from home, so I might have more sandals now. We shall see, right, until I get bored with this challenge.

Anyway, I love metallic shoes, especially bronze. My first pair of bronze shoes were woven leather mules. I think I still have them in the attic, though my sister may have made me get rid of them in the great closet cleaning of '08.

Funny story about these shoes: So I bought them at the Talbots outlet, along with another pair of the same shoe but in silver (yes, true). I walked out with a big bag of stuff (yes, I was pregnant, and no, they don't sell maternity clothes - this is about shoes, not clothes, and this was the time period they were closing their kids and mens stores so I was also buying for E and R). Given it was the outlet and stuff was off season, the bag sat in a corner of our room for about a month before I unpacked it. And....no shoes. What? I could not figure out where the two pairs of cheap but still a fair amount of money for both shoes had gotten to. So I went back to the outlet, and at the check out said, um, is it possible I left a bag of shoes here? And sure enough, they had my bag of two shoes stashed under the counter. Apparently not an unusual occurence. They told me after a month they usually just put the items back on the floor to be resold, so I made it just in time to reclaim my shoes. I think I could write a book just about things that have happened to me at the Talbots outlet store.

The other thing I remember about these shoes is my sister, whose feet are at least a size bigger than mine, wore these out one night. So they are definitely loose and comfortable. Love them.

Bottom line: keeper

July 2 - metallics

What: size 8 graphite ankle strap platform sandals
From: Ann Taylor LOFT
Purchased: fall '06
Cost: ~$40

I love metallic shoes. Love them. Not surprisingly, I get daily e-mails from a variety of stores I frequent, and these shoes were prominently featured in that year's LOFT ad campaign, paired with a steel-blue almost turquoise wrap dress. I loved the pictures - both items are a little retro-looking, which I love, but as an extreme bargain shopper, I rarely buy featured items - those are usually snapped up by more fashionable people early on in the season. But for whatever reason, both shoes and dress were still available when things went on sale and I could not resist buying both for a work meeting. I've only worn these shoes like 4 times. When I went through my shoes last week, I did a little bit of sorting and looking into boxes and had completely forgotten about them, sad to say. So I was planning to wear something else to dinner out on Friday (I've decided my rules allow me to wear an already worn pair if I wear a different pair for an outing or a significant part of the day), but went with these instead. They're fine - a little high for regular wear, but they were great.

If there's one good thing about my fake challenge to myself, it's forcing me to actually dress up to match rarely worn shoes. I've always liked the idea of a per wear cost - so now with a 5th wearing I've gotten these to below $10/wear, which is respectable.

Bottom line: keeper

new (semi-silly) plan

While I decide how to structure my newest efforts at decluttering, I have an interesting idea for blog series/challenge.

So it happens that I like shoes. I got (gently) chided on it in yesterday's comments by Therese.

And, last fall, in the great boot search, TSM also worried about my multiple locations for shoe storage. (Darn it, where ARE those black slouch boots???)

Yes. I fully admit it. I have a shoe thing. Here's the thing: Shoes always fit. Also, if you are shoe adventurous (more on that later), there are bargains galore to be had. A few years ago I counted, and at that time I found, in various locations, over 100 pairs. And since that time I'm sure I've added at least another 25. The thing is, if you buy ten pairs of shoes a year, and you never throw anything out, and you're about to hit your 20th! College! Reunion! that's 200 pairs of shoes right there. So my problem is actually quite modest. I had to throw out a bunch of shoes after leaving grad school in Florida (crappy graduate student house with no AC + Florida humidity + leather = MOLD), so 17 years in DC, let's say 125 pairs of shoes, that's a little over 7 pairs of shoes a year. Sure, there was January '09 when I bought 5 pairs (great shoes, each $20-25), and I am pretty sure I've acquired at least 6 pairs already this year (polka dot rainboots, purple suede, red suede, yellow flip flops, black pumps and I'm sure there's one - Oh, yes, awesome platform bronze strappy sandals that I love, love, love! And, right, also totally impractical, but hot! and reasonably comfortable black strappy high heels to wear to fancy work dinner. So that's already 7 this year, yikes.). It's the new shoes last week that led to this latest challenge.

Rich noticed a new pair of shoes last week - hmm, what's this? Why, quite cute almond toe 2.5 inch heeled pumps! For only $33! A bargain I could not pass up. The thing about buying dirt cheap sale shoes is that you're usually not buying neutral pumps - those are snapped up quickly. No, I'm buying the quirky end of season leftovers in a variety of colors (shoe adventurous!). So when I dress conservatively, I actually usually scramble to find plain shoes and until this last purchase, I simply did not own a pair of plain black pump, which is frankly shocking in a shoe wardrobe of over 100 pairs. I needed those black pumps. Though, they are croc-embossed, so not entirely plain, and almond toe is sometimes a little trendy, but really always a classic.

Anyway, Rich says to me, "you know, I bet even though you have 20 times more shoes than I have, you only wear about the same number as I do."

And he's right - since I'm mostly working from home, I am only wearing the same flip flops and simple shoes most of the time. So, new idea.

I few days later, I said to him, "since you said that about the shoes, it's given me a great idea!"

"Oh no," he says, "I think you've gotten the wrong idea!"

"What? My idea is to challenge myself to wear a different pair of shoes every day!" I cheerily announce.

"Exactly the wrong idea," he groaned. "I was hoping you would take that comment and decide to get rid of the shoes you never wear!"

Humph. That's a terrible idea - at least not without road testing them before hand!

So without further ado, I present June 1st and 2nd shoe choices!

June 1 - OUCH

What: yellow mule sneakers, size 7.5
From: Talbots
Purchased: late 90s, early 00s, during my (mostly futile) phase of phase of looking for comfy slip on sneakers
Cost: under $15

These have been peeking out from under clothes in the closet for months, so I decided they'd kick off the month. I also thought they'd probably end up in a probably discard pile, as I hadn't worn them for years (they were dust covered). But they were cute, and I wasn't sure why I hadn't worn them. After walking Elizabeth to school, I knew why - insane rubbing along the top side of my foot! Giant raw spot on my left foot. I limped home, kicked them off, and went barefoot the rest of the day.

Bottom line: To be discarded! Donate pile (perhaps they will not be quite so hazardous to someone else).

June 2 - Tight, but cute

So, the sore from yesterday's shoes still hurts. A lot. I almost went with one of my standard standbys today, but decided I had to save those until I really needed them. So I dug around a little (pile of shoes by overflowing shoe wardrobe) and found these.

(see that sore on the top part of my foot??!! OUCH!!!)

What: gold 2 inch wedge thong sandals
From: Loft
Purchased: a couple of years ago, maybe summer 08?
Cost: ~$20

I started noticing a couple of years ago that greek sandals were making a comeback. So I was super excited to see these shoes in Loft - they were relatively cheap, and cheaply made (just a step up from flip-flops, really), and I love a metallic shoe (darn, I just remembered I bought a pair of metallic strappy heels also this year, upping my total to 8 already. I really may have a problem - they were cheap, they fit great, and I wasn't sure what I would wear to my work dinner, so I thought metallic strapy heels were a wardrobe staple!). I kept my eyes on them a few weeks until they went on sale and I snapped them up, even though I thought they were still, in my opinion, overpriced. I thought they'd be my go-to shoes that summer. Somehow, though they fit in the store, that strap across the top is just too tight. Not wear an open sore into your foot tight, but leave an imprint on your foot tight. I wore them out to get lunch, and they are cute, and I wish they were more comfortable. Perhaps (famous last words of the shoe addicted) they will eventually loosen up.

Bottom line: not ready to give up on them yet. Will keep and try to wear more often.