Shoes of Christmas Past
It might have come to the notice of regular readers of this journal that I quite like shoes – amongst other accessories. This Christmas Eve, I thought it was high time to celebrate the shoes of Christmases Past. Let’s start at the bottom of the ladder and work our way up – that’s usually how it works.
At bottom left is a pair of black patent peeptoes by Nude. They have only a little platform, and I wore them six years ago in 2006 – at a guess, platforms were just starting to come back into fashion.
The red satin peeptoes at bottom centre are by Barkins, with vintage white pearl pompom shoe clips added. I paired them with a mint green 50s dress in 2009.
Also satin, the green d’Orsay pumps from Aussie chain store Sportsgirl feature a sheaf of jewels across the toes. I wore those two years ago in 2010, with a shimmery vintage purple dress.
On the first step of the ladder is a pair of snakeskin and black patent slingbacks by Wittner. I wore them with a blue silk dress by Ammo, in 2007.
Who could forget the red glitter Dorothy shoes on the second step? I gleefully bought them last year from Wittner, only to discover on Christmas morning that the salesgirl had put the wrong-sized shoes in my bag! I paired these shoes with a white cotton piqué David Lawrence dress. I just love white and red together.
I accidentally forgot to include in the photograph little silver sandals also by Wittner that I wore in 2008, when I was celebrating Christmas in Dubai with friends. They were matched with a mint and white striped dress by Veronika Maine (above right). And then in 2004 there were a wonderful pair of red patent low-heeled pumps (above left) that had a wonderful crackled and glazed appearance. They were from Zomp, and also were often likened to Dorothy shoes. I wore them until they fell apart. I wore those with a lovely vintage 50s dress in a delicious shade of Alice blue. I have no record of what I wore in 2005 at all, because in a horrible freak technical error I tragically lost nearly all my digital photos from that year.
But what’s on the top of the ladder you are wondering? They are the Shoes of Christmas Yet to Come. Yes, that’s right, I’ll be wearing them tomorrow!
I was a bit Scrooge-like in my acquisition of them: they are also from Wittner (I live near the warehouse shop), although I saw them first online. They were quite expensive, so I resisted purchasing them.
A few weeks later, Wittner announced a pre-Christmas sale: all shoes were up to 75% off. Somehow I managed still to resist temptation at half price, and then all of a sudden they were sold out in my size. Then last week I was walking past the warehouse shop and, killing time (yeah, right), I wandered through. I like to check out what’s on the seconds and sample rack in my size. And there they were! A tiny scrape on one of the metallic gold heels, but they were reduced to $45. With my loyalty card I received an additional 10% reduction, so I finally paid only $41.35 for them. Now that’s what I call a Christmas Miracle.
Happy Christmas Eve everyone – one more sleep to go!