Ahhh shoes!

I came upon this glorious specimen while reading everybody's favorite shoe blog and I gasped. They are shoe perfection. The shape, the proportions, the color, the patent leather. And they have already achieved mythic status: "Sex and the City" fans will recall the time Carrie Bradshaw alit upon a pair of Manolo Blahnik Mary Janes in the Vogue accessories closet.

Do you know what these are? Manolo Blahnik Mary Janes! I thought these were an urban shoe myth!

I've been on a patent leather kick for about six months now. Red patent leather especially. Although now I'm particularly jonesing for a pair of purple patent leather shoes. No particular pair of purple patent leather shoes, mind you, but it's struck me that somewhere out there is the platonic ideal of a purple patent leather shoe with my name on it.

But I digress. After returning to my senses, I thought: I really have to get a real job--a job where I can afford $555 red patent leather shoes. Then I scrolled down and I came upon these.



If someone came up to me and said: "Rachel, here's $500. You must spend it on a pair of red patent leather shoes," I'd buy these, rather than the perfect shoes above. Maybe it's a defect in my character. Maybe it's the appeal of the Manolo's notion of pairing these shoes with Harris tweeds and a felt cloche for a look that's "inappropriate for your office, faintly ridiculous, and somewhat anachronistic, and yet also completely adorable." But they speak to me. In fact, they cry out to me.

Anyway, if I had a job where I could spend $500+ on shoes, I could always buy the patchwork jobbies and these Manolo Mary Janes. Still not purple, but I can make do.

Enough with the shoes. Time for the boots.