Wicked Whimsy

Posts Tagged ‘shoes’

Also, kind of a daily outfit post. Ahem.

After seeing the Demoiselles’ post on their experiences with the 80%20 Lily wedge, I knew I had to get a pair. I’d been eyeing them anyways and had no idea they were on sale at Amazon! So I ordered them before we went to Chicago and then they were here when we got back. Yay!

They are just as vibrant in person and oh so pretty. As you can see, they’re so shiny they were reflecting light on to the wall! I was immediately complimented on them upon walking in to work (I had a short shift – 4 hours – covering for another girl’s play rehearsal, so I figured it’d be the perfect time to test them out!).

I wore them with my Hot Topic shirt (the skulls and the words “search and destroy” are in a red-based orange) and an orange snake bracelet I got at work, plus my linen ruffled Target skirt.

No lie, as soon as I went to take the photo, the sun went behind the clouds and the wind started blowing (hence the weirdness in the ruffles on my skirt). Ah well. You get the idea.

Now for the tough part, the comfort. I was a little apprehensive about this, admittedly, hence only wearing them for a short shift at first. I have to say, they surpassed my expectations! I wore them four hours straight with minimal soreness, although they were starting to rub a bit on my left heel – something I’ll put a band-aid on before I wear them next. I can definitely see what Birdiee was talking about with the toe box being a little low, the tops of my big toes were rubbing but not enough to give me any pain, and the toe area was wide enough (a huge, huge plus!). They didn’t make my back hurt and within 30 minutes of taking them off, my feet didn’t feel like I’d been wearing heels at all, let alone for any length of time.

So, all in all, they’re probably an 8/10 for me! Could be more comfortable, and probably not something I’ll wear all day at work on a regular basis (because of the comfort issue), but they’re still lovely shoes and the color is fantabulous. They’re no longer on sale at Amazon.com, but I’d say they’re worth full-price. There’s some left on Endless for $75, so you might check and see if they have your size! (psst, I ordered a half-size up and mine fit great.)

And in other news:

This is the bracelet I was wearing. Isn’t it freaking adorable?! Something that came in at work, the buyer for the store didn’t want them for some reason but I got one anyways direct from the seller. I think I will name him Roger.

First ACTUAL post in the Cute Comfortable Shoes Series! And it is, probably of little surprise to anyone, Dansko shoes.

The Brand: Dansko was founded by a husband and wife team in 1990. One one of their trips back to Peter’s hometown in Denmark, they found a small shop with a type of clog they had never seen before – closed back clogs! They loved them so much they bought a few pairs and brought them back. After buying pairs for family and friends, they starting buying them wholesale to save some money, and then selling them at horse shows (they actually met through horseback riding!). Eventually, demand outweighed their supply, so they did the sensible thing and started a shoe business! They (obviously) named their budding business Dansko, which literally translates into “Danish shoe”. They started 18 years ago with one employee and now have 150 or so. The main goal with the shoes is comfort above all else. They definitely go for a community and environmentally friendly company set up – they give employees paid time off so that they can volunteer, and when an employee does volunteering, the company matches their salary for the hours volunteered and donates it to the organization being volunteered at!! Pretty neat, huh?

The Price Range: Most of Dansko’s shoes are within the $100-175 range, with boots retailing at $175-200. Looking on eBay or at 6pm.com usually results in much lower prices (but of course, beware of individual seller return policies on eBay!), as they’re usually pretty abundant on both sites.

The Comfort: 8/10.

When I worked at Target and was in cosmetology school, a lot of the time I would go straight from school to work and then work until close. This resulted in 12-14 hour days and VERY SORE FEET. I was at a total loss for what to do (seriously – unless you’ve worked similar days when not wearing good shoes, the continuous foot pain is hard to comprehend!) until someone recommended Danskos to me. I snagged a pair of the Professional clogs off eBay, and while they weren’t really my thing as far as looks go, they made my foot pain virtually disappear. When I got a retail job again and was spending my whole shift on my feet, Dansko was the first place I looked for new shoes. Unfortunately, the cuter shoes aren’t quite as insanely comfortable as the clogs, thus resulting in a slightly lower comfort score.

The Look: It seems to me that the look aimed for with most of the shoe models is a sleek modernity. Sometimes the mark gets missed and the shoes end up looking a little bit more on the clunky side. Thus, if you hate wedge or chunky heels, Dansko will not be your shoe brand of choice! Most of the heels are pretty modest as well, usually clocking in at under 3″. Here’s the two pairs I have:

Dansko Ryan in Black

Dansko Ryan in Black

Dansko 2-Strap Mary Janes

Dansko 2-Strap Mary Janes

I pretty much love the way the Ryan boot looks, although I wish there was a little bit more room in the toe box – the “roof” of the shoe is kind of low and rubs on my big toe sometimes. The double-strapped Mary Janes (sorry – don’t know the name of the make) I really have no complaints about, except that they’re just barely loose enough that they gave me blisters when I walked in them all day in Austin!

Here’s my favorites out of their current wares at Zappos.com:

Tara Mary Janes by Dansko

Tillie Peep-Toe Pump by Dansko

I might actually end up watching for that second pair on eBay. Hm.

Here endeth the lesson – stay tuned for further updates in the series!

Wedding pictures will be up later, probably in a big photo post with other pictures too. For now:

Thrifted cardigan, DIY’d bleached tank, high waisted Converse skirt, belt is from work (I about died, was digging through the belt rack looking for some brightly colored ones, when I found this one, with the original tags for $120 still on it – it was marked $6!), new Fluevog slingbacks! I am maybe showing some retro influence here, hm?

Yup, the Fluevog sale was yesterday, I was pretty happy with my haul. But I was kind of disappointed, I think the really good stuff (i.e. either of these shoes that I’ve been having serious lust for, when I got there, all that was left was a pair of 11s in each) probably went first thing on Friday morning, and what wasn’t gone then went Saturday morning – we talked to some people at a pub down the street who said people were lined up at 10 (the sale started at 11, we got there at 11:30 or so due to taking the REALLY LONG WAY on accident) and that they’d talked to someone who drove up from Atlanta (!!!). On the bright side, this means those pairs I’ve been wanting will probably start showing up on eBay since I’m sure half of the people who were there were probably just buying to resell. It was pretty busy and they kept putting out new stuff – I snagged three pairs, one of which was wrongly in the men’s section, one of which was put out while I was there, and one that was the last pair in its size (and there was only one other one left!). I looked for shoes for Ashe, but pickings were slim!

Total original retail price: $719. I paid $120. Hell. Yes. The shoes on the left are in the Angels series, the middle are in the Teapot family, and the ones on the far right look much cuter on, I promise! Pictures will probably come later.

I like Chicago so far, although the drivers are freaking insane. IN-SANE. For serious.

Yes, I do have several Posts of Substance (TM) planned for the future. But for now…

(no, that wasn’t in Austin, just a sign on the way!)

Trip recap! I know you’re excited.

So the drive from Joplin to Austin is a longgggg one. We left Joplin around 9-9:30 on Friday morning and didn’t get in to the hotel until…probably 8? 8:30? It might’ve even been closer to nine! We nearly got in a wreck on the way there – very scary. It was either right before or right after Dallas, and it was raining – some idiot 2-3 cars in front of us slammed on their brakes and went from 70 mph to 0 in a very short span. Matt swerved at the last minute, and, although we got a bit in the ditch, we got out ok. The rest of the trip was (thankfully!!!) uneventful, and we got into Austin right as it was getting dark, so of course we got lost and drove around in circles for ages. First thing we noticed was that the people are ridiculously nice! We stopped and asked for directions twice that night and the direction-givers were super helpful. Also, and I had heard this before, but the whole city seems kind of…immersed in the background because there are a LOT of trees. There’s not really a better way to explain it (I meant to take pictures and forgot, except for a few on the way back that didn’t turn out so well), but the effect is lovely.

Once we FINALLY got to the hotel room, we pretty much ordered in some Italian and passed the hell out, even though it was only 10:30-11. Woke up around nine, messed around on the internet some, showered and got dressed, and headed out to get some breakfast. We were going to go to this diner place called Jim’s, but it was PACKED – so we walked across the plaza to Southside Austin Subs instead. DELICIOUS. I got a sub with grilled portabello mushrooms and had Matt staring at it in envy the whole time (even though it didn’t have any meat on it – usually a prerequisite for him!). More ridiculously friendly people. Then we headed out to Buda to look at our new place, meet the new landlord, and put down a deposit. It’s a cute little 2BR with its own backyard that’s almost completely private, due to a ton of bamboo. And our new landlady, Barbara, is great.

So! After that, we drove around Buda getting a good look at our new place of residence, then headed back into the city. We parked by the Buffalo Exchange on Guadalupe and walked down…a LOT of blocks. At least 2-3 past the church of Scientology and then back. I went in to several stores but couldn’t find anything that fit me and I liked! Lame. Although to be fair, I didn’t dig around at BE very much, as it was a total cluster and not very well air conditioned. There was a Pura Vida dress I really liked at Pangaea Trading Co., but the last size left was a 12, which looked too big, and the sales associate was rude enough to another customer in front of us it made me not want to shop there. And now I can’t find the dress online. Sigh. Anyways, while we were walking on Guadalupe, I was stopped by a homeless man who told me that I looked like Mary Poppins (and that he loved my hair). I definitely took it as a compliment!

There was also some pretty killer street art and stencilling:

This was outside of a now-defunct music and bookstore (Intellectual Property, I want to say?), that had a ton of other artists painted/stencilled outside, including Johnny Cash. Even though it made me feel very touristy, I HAD to stop and take a picture! (For those not in the know – shame shame! – that’s off of the cover of the first Clash LP.) Can you IMAGINE how long that stencil would take?! It gives me hand-cramps just thinking about it!

After we left Guadalupe, we got lost again and drove around looking for First. We eventually found it, and Flashback Vintage on it. They have a LOT of cute stuff in there! Unfortunately, not a whole lot that fit me (vintage dresses = TINY!) that I also had the spending money for. There was a cute vintage 40′s dress that fit, although it needed taken in on the back pleats a little, but it would have been my whole spending budget for the trip (which wasn’t a lot, $45), so I got this faux pearl necklace instead:

(yes, I did just model a necklace on our thermostat. It was the only thing available, ok?!)

The girl at Flashback Vintage was super sweet, adorable, and SO NICE. After that, we went to Congress and walked along it for a block or two to hit Lucy in Disguise – which was also packed. We didn’t realize it until much later that night, but not only were there one or two music festivals going on this weekend, there was also the Lone Star hot rod show. Which explained a lot – Matt kept wondering aloud if there were always that many nice cars in Austin! Because of all that jazz, every place was SUPER crazyass busy. At this point (after 5-6 hours of alternately driving and walking around), I was exhausted, hungry, and my feet hurt, despite wearing the most comfortable shoes I owned, so we headed back to the hotel. I took off my shoes to realize that due to them being a tiny bit loose, I now had two shiny new blisters on my left foot. And a slight sunburn – ouch! We intended to go out for dinner but just ended up lazing around the hotel room the rest of the night.

The next morning we got up and around at a ridiculously early hour to me for a Sunday morning…8:30. ha. We headed down to the front desk to checkout and asked the woman there if she could recommend a close breakfast place, she recommended Jim’s, so we thought we’d give it another shot. It was much less busy this time – we were seated, had eaten, and got our ticket all in 30-45 minutes. The food was awesome too! Better that IHOP fo’sho. After that, we got directions to I-35 and headed back out of town. I did get ONE good picture on the way back:

We made a lot better time on the way back – we got out of Austin around 10:30 and got home at 8:00 or so, and that was with us stopping 4-5 times for bathroom breaks and food (we only stopped TWICE on the way down!). Our kitties had obviously missed us, although Wesley seems to have turned into an even bigger spaz in our absence. And I came home to a big box from Amazon:

Yay! My Fluevog Molly shoes came in and they are super comfortable + fit great – I ordered a half size up to an 8, and they are a tiny bit loose on my right foot, but fit great on my left. The arch support and padding is FABULOUS.

I also came home to a package from Jupiter Moon 3, my corset that I ordered back in December. I was kind of disappointed that it took this long to make, as, since I’ve gone up a bra size in the four months between ordering it and receiving it…it fits great everywhere but is WAY too small in the bust area. Sigh. I’ll probably just list it on the Corsetry community on LJ – more spending money for Chicago, right? The corset appears to be good quality though, all flat steel boning, and it certainly sucked in my waist…but there was no way I could have worn it in public!

I had been kind of disappointed that I had tried to hard to find something I wanted in Austin and came home relatively empty-handed. You know the feeling, when you hit several stores but just can’t find anything worth your money. I was browsing Karmaloop to see if they had updated their sale section – lo and behold, they have, as well as having a warehouse sale, and a Kazbah (their premium store) sale! I got these two t-shirts, which I had already been eyeing:

The BFF's T-Shirt by e.5.charlie

The Scarlett T-Shirt (Mint Green) by Methods NYC

Original price for the two of them? $69. I paid $20.70. SCORE. I’m also planning on hitting the thrift stores here (seeing actual vintage store prices sure made me appreciate our DAV!) and the fabric store later this week, as I have a few ideas for things to make.

Anyways! So that was my action-packed weekend (a nice change, believe you me). How was your’s?!

Remember the Bronx Gillian boots? First mentioned in DECEMBER? Well. I finally got my pair.

Sorry for the huge pictures. Camera’s being a bitka again.

Anyways. How much do I love them? A LOT. They’re a teensy bit big, I just need some cushions to fix that – but it sure makes me glad I ordered two (!) sizes up! The leather is super super soft and so is the suede lining. Delicious. And they’re also comfy to boot! I only had to have the “bronx boots” search saved and emailed to me daily for, oh, four months. Totally worth it to get a $200ish pair of boots for $35 with shipping.

Also, a slightly better picture of the new hair, although I’m making an Olsen-esque face. Promise it wasn’t intentional!

I seem to have an ethereal glow. Anyways. I’m done with my gratuitiously large pictures of inane things. Back to your regularly scheduled programming!

P.S. – I, apparently, ordered the last pair of teal Inge boots in a 7.5 available. I find this crazy amusing for some reason.

I know I can’t be the only one with this problem, at least out of people who work retail or other jobs where 8+ hours of the day is spend standing. I, though, seem to have particularly wussy feet – I have super-high arches and it also seems that unless I have a ridiculous amount of padding under my heel, my heels will be KILLING me at the end of the day. So if I say a shoe is comfortable for standing in all day, you know I mean it! I’m going to try and post weekly or biweekly, featuring a different brand of shoes (ideally, brands that I’ve worn at least two pairs of shoes from) each time. I’ll talk about the look, the price range, pros and cons, etc. I also might try and find some guest bloggers for this, as I don’t think I can afford to try a pair in every single comfortable shoe brand! The goal of this exercise, obviously, is to find cute – not meh, not ok, but actually, honest-to-god cute!  – shoes that can be stood or worked in all day.

I’m not featuring anything this week, because I’ll be covering…my shoe shopping strategy! I know you’ve been absoltuely dying to hear that. The thing is, comfort often comes at a very literal cost. Understandable, as the very thing that makes these shoes comfortable tends to make them more expensive, but that puts those of us who have the problem of being, oh say, broke as hell, at kind of a disadvantage. This is where the place you buy the shoes comes in to play!

Zappos.com – Probably the first place most people think of when online shoe shopping comes to mind. The return policy is fabulous, the customer service is great (I always get free shipping and the two or three times I’ve shipped there it’s been upgraded to overnight free of charge). BUT you are paying full retail prices most of the time. In my experience, the prices have been about the same or maybe slightly (we’re talking five dollars or less) higher than other e-tailers.\\

eBay – I’m kind of an eBay fiend. The prices are usually MUCH lower than retail (50%-90% off, on a rough estimate). The main downside is the return policies seriously vary from seller to seller, and are usually either nonexistent or “ship back at your own cost”. So it’s important to know the correct size! I usually either order a pair of shoes from someplace with an excellent return policy (Zappos or 6pm, for example) to figure out my size in a specific brand. Or, you can just ask the seller for a measurement of toe-to-heel inside the shoe and compare it to my foot measurement, it’s a LITTLE iffy but usually a good gauge. A tip: If you’re a registered eBay user, it’s possible to save a search and have it sent to you every day with new items. This is great, I have several searches for brands of shoes in my size and get notified when new items are listed!

6pm.com – I’m not 100% for sure, but I think it’s owned by the same people as Zappos. This is really the best of both worlds, there’s still a return policy that seems to be pretty good, and the prices are seriously slashed. Not as low as eBay, but still significantly lower than retail. Usually around half off.

Amazon.com – I’m not sure when exactly this happened, but lately Amazon has had some pretty badass shoe sales! Some of it isn’t a great deal, but some of it is ($150+ off Fluevog shoes, for example). It’s a trusted online shop, the shipping isn’t super expensive, reasonably fast, although I gather from the customer reviews that returns are of the “pay for shipping back” variety.

DSW.com – I’ve never ordered from them, but the prices are really pretty good. They don’t have a lot in what I’d consider comfortable brands, but it might be worth checking.

Shoes on a Shoestring – I haven’t ordered from them, and I only just found them a few days ago, but the prices are pretty phenomenal in most cases.

Endless – Free shipping, free returns, lots of retail price stuff but sometimes they have good sales.

I think that about covers it as far as online options go – if anyone else has anything to add, definitely leave a comment! And there’s always checking local and thrift stores. That’s totally going to depend on where you’re at though, so results may vary.

Now…the main things to look for when trying on shoes that you’re planning on wearing for long periods of time, when shopping at home or when trying on shoes you ordered. Contrary to popular belief, flats are NOT automatically comfortable!

Good arch support

This is hard to describe (I tried to take pictures, but it didn’t come out very well in pictures either!), but you know it when you feel it. The shoe should either be formed so that where it attaches to the side of the shoe it’s at more of a 45 degree angle than a 90 degree angle, or have arch support actually molded into the sole. Shoes that have the 90 degree angle thing going on tend to be REALLY uncomfortable.

Good padding along the sole

Much easier to recognize! The sole of the shoe shouldn’t be flat and hard, it should have some squishiness to it. Not too much, because if it’s squishy but not springy, your feet will end up almost as sore as if it was just flat and hard. This is especially important at the heel and the ball of the foot, which seems to me is where the most pressure gets put.

Heels

Now, unfortunately, unless you have feet of steel or know something I don’t, stiletto heels are probably out for wearing eight hours while standing and not being in serious pain the next day. Chunky heels or wedges are a much better bet, but unless you pay a good chunk of change, actual heels are probably out of the question. Wedges or chunky, low heels are more likely, with brands like Dansko easy to pick up on eBay for $30-50 a pair.

There’s all kinds of information to come, so stay tuned for upcoming posts!

Amazon.com is having an extra 20% off their shoes, already marked down 75%. Which makes for some great deals!

Jump Women's Secret Boot

$38.68 for Coal (pictured), $33.89 for Brown.

Jump Women's Stark Boot

All of the colorways except for silver and black are right around $40 right now. I own a pair of these myself, as you may recall, and they are much cuter in person – plus TOTALLY comfortable (when I got my new retail job, these are the only shoes I already had that I could stand in for 8 hours and not want to cut my feet off at the end of the shift). The utter comfort of this pair is what’s making me want to get the pair with the buckles above! Oh – psst – when ordering JUMP shoes, order a half size to a full size bigger. I got an eight and a half, probably could have done with an eight, but I like my shoes roomy.

Naughty Monkey Women's Tallest In Class Wedge

The red colorway is the only one not on sale (for $17-20!), and it’s only available in a size 6, so not a huge loss anyways.

Jump Women's Bjork Boot

These shoes are cute, feminine, and funky – obvs named after the singer. $30-40 depending on the color. I swear, I’m not advertising for JUMP; it just looks like nearly all of their shoes are on sale and as I’m flipping through the sale pages, there are a LOT of duds.

Chinese Laundry Women's Paloma Pump

Ivory makes for an elegant update on the classic mary jane. $17.

Not Rated Women's Check Ur Self Flat

Maybe it’s the ska kid in me, but I love checkerboards. They also come in pink and blue, which are $12 each – the black is $20.

Jump Women's Bangle Flat

Yes, more JUMP. I lurrrve the purple. $20-30, comes in purple, coffee, black, and red storm.

Chinese Laundry Women's Arcane Zipper Pump

Hot hot hot. $24 for the black.

Jump Women's Triptic Boot

One reviewer described ‘em as a “dressed up cowboy boot.” A graphite (pictured) pair is calling my name. All colorways are $26 except for the gold, which is $33.

JUMP Women's Serenade Pump

The black is $17, the pink is $22. I love the stitching detail.

There you have it – not a lot of picks considering I sifted through 25 pages of results, but as I said, there were a lot of ugly shoes. And I’m notoriously picky when it comes to shoes as well! If you want to, you can view the sale yourself here. Oh, and did I mention that most of these pairs were $100+ before the sale?

the Bronx boots! For like $20. SWEEEEET.

Although now I’m thinking I’m going to institute a Sal style ban, except there will be no purchasing at all unless it’s for the photoshoot I’m planning with Alicia towards the end of this month, as there’s still a few things I need to pick up to complete the ensembles (wow, I feel pretentious now). Of course, it won’t matter if I don’t get a @#(*ing job soon. Bah.

I’m also looking forward to getting my order from Bravissimo – I loveeeee their clothing philosophy and the idea of their fitting system. I swear, if someone opened a company like that in the US I would exclusively shop from them on principle alone. All I got was one top and one bra, and they were both on sale, but I’m super excited. Maybe in the future I can even *gasp* purchase a button up shirt that fits at the waist AND the bust! Wonder of wonders.

Pictures will of course, be forthcoming when I get these items, as well as the one or two other eBay finds I ordered.

Remember my New Year’s Resolution? About not buying shoes at full retail? The only one I’ve stuck to?

Normal retail: $100

Got them for $10 at TJ Maxx.

Can I get a HELL YES?

I tink they look ok enough as-is, but I imagine they’ll look awesome with spats. I love the wing-tip styled detailing. Yum yum yum.

why do you mock me so?!

Those of you who have been reading a while will remember the Bronx Gillian boots I lusted after so, only to get extremely close to getting them for $75 (retail is $175+) and then the seller told me they’d been water damaged. SIGH. Today, whilst browsing the archives of Haute Macabre, I found a link to these boots:

Black Slouch Buckle Vegan Wedge Boot

Which are pretty close to the feel of the Bronx boots, and I really like them (despite the fact that wedge boots are apparently highly controversial ; ) ). Only to realize that they’re out of stock and Alternative Outfitters is no longer carrying them.

ARGH.