I’ve been so on edge lately about the Wedding Dress Remake™ (Yes, I did cut the bodice for the halter top. No, I have not actually sewn anything yet.) that I kind of forgot about accessorizing. When I sat down to make the big list of things that I need to do before we leave on our mini-vacation, I realized that I’ll need shoes. I mean I knew I’d need shoes – I’ve posted a few possibilities on Pinterest, and I’ve been keeping my eye out for some on the occasional thrift store visit – but I had forgotten that if I needed to order them, I’d need to have some leeway for shipping time in there.
And for one of the first times in my life, I didn’t want to pay $50 plus shipping for a pair of shoes. I feel like I have plenty of shoes, and if I need to buy a pair for this outfit, then that’s the only outfit I’ll be wearing those shoes with. Seemed like kind of a waste. Plus I want to put that extra fifty bucks towards a new hair cut. So I hit the thrift stores, hard. I couldn’t find The Shoes. I went to Payless, but even Christian Siriano couldn’t help me. I went to Plato’s Closet for the first time, wading through thousands of black pumps that all looked exactly the same.
After all of that I had time for one more stop on my way home. I popped into the Salvation Army, a place where I very rarely shop because they just don’t seem to have much of anything any more. But they had black shoes. A lot of them. I tried on two pairs, but one was way too big. The second pair were nice shoes. Suede, barely worn. They fit well, and met my general specifications. But they didn’t strike me as being THE shoes. I liked them, they were nice, but I wasn’t convinced.
I decided to buy them anyway because they were inexpensive and I knew I could use them as a decent fall-back shoe. The lady at the check-out squeeeed aloud and congratulated me on such a good find. Coincidentally, she was dressed in the same style that I see myself in at the party I’ll be wearing these shoes to: Fun, retro, quirky. I confessed to her that I wasn’t sure if these were really THE shoes. She smiled, leaned over the counter, and whispered to me in a conspiratorial way, ‘These are barely worn, leather Naturalizers, and they are two-forty-nine. These are THE shoes!’
And so they are!