theasceticlibertine

Nude Shoe Holy Grail

So my friends have this joke that I'm the shoe psychic.  I tend to predict shoe trends, and so am often left really wanting something that no one is making at the time, and I usually have to wait about 3 years for the rest of the world to catch up to what I'm thinking.  This is the only part of fashion I have any kind of forward-thinking about.  When it comes to clothes and accessories, I'm just as in the dark as the rest of the world.  But shoes, for some reason, we have a connection.  Or I'm obsessed.  Or both. 

This was more than 3 years ago, though.  In fact, it was probably more like 8 or 9 years ago that I remember telling my best friend that I wanted a nude shoe.  Unfortunately, it took a while for the shoe world to start making shoes in any colors that weren't brown, black or navy.  (Do you remember those days?  Like the Dark Ages, I'm telling you.)  Now you can get shoes in a multitude of amazing colors, but back then it was boresville.  Shoe stores thought they were exciting when they started carrying cordovan. 

So this is the year, I think, that the nude shoe is finally getting its due.  There have been flickers here and there, but only now am I seeing every starlet on the planet (especially the short ones) wearing glossy, nude Louboutin platform pumps, or, in the case of Rachel Bilson, Rag & Bone's amazing Victoria wedges:

Victoriawedge

Ragbonevictoria

Lust-worthy, certainly.  Too high a platform for me, sadly.  But I'm okay with that because they really are too much money.  But someone needs to get on the ball and make a decent facsimile of this shoe with a walkable heel height.  Faryl Robin's Emily shoe kinda gives you the vibe, but not really:

Farylrobinemily

I hate waiting.  One of these days I'm going to have to befriend somebody who owns a shoe company and get them to serve up my obsessions.  The deal:  I get the first pair, free.

Reiterate

You should know, right off the bat, that I am not a clog person.  Those shoes hold zero appeal to me in the normal course of things.  They are clunky, hard to walk in and terrible for shock absorption on the cruel, hard pavements of NYC.  I am also what I call a heel wuss, meaning that I can't take anything over 3.5" (usually sticking to 3" if I'm honest) because otherwise my feet will feel like bloody stumps after about 15 minutes.  All that aside, I issue the following caveat:  I kind of have a thing for clog boots.  It makes sense--if I were going to make a clog exception, of course it would be boots.  I live for boots, and boot season.  And, of course, 3 years ago, when I was looking for a pair, nobody made them.  These days, thanks to Chanel and Karl, clogs are blowing up in a big, trendy way.  But before there was the Chanel clog, there was the Swedish Hasbeens Jodhpur boot.  And oh, I wanted it so badly--in the black, with the natural wood bottom, in the very walkable 2.8" heel. 

Jodhpur

I lusted, I really did.  However, 2495 SEK?  Not so much.  Also, they are sold out.  Coincidentally enough, No. 6 started making a boot (I really don't know which came first, but I know I saw the Swedish Hasbeens version first) that looks very, very similar. 

No6

Unfortunately also almost $350.  Mama doesn't have that kind of dosh, but if she did, she'd scoop them right up.  In the meantime, one of my fave "affordable" brands, Jeffrey Campbell, has been riffing off what Swedish Hasbeens is doing (a lace-up version), and offering those for significantly less kronor.  Need Supply has them in this lovely putty color. 

Erickson

However, being an American brand, they had to ramp up that heel size, because god knows we won't need our knees in this country when we're old.  Taking a look at the current heel heights in fashion just reminds me of the torturous chopines of the Renaissance. 

So nothing is quite right, or affordable enough for me just yet.  I'm hoping the boot clog trend will filter down to Dansko or Sanita and I'll get both a good-looking *and* comfortable shoe for less than $200.  A girl can dream, right?  Gawd, it's so unfashiony to discuss comfort.  I promise my next post will be less stodgy.