Miraculous Knock-Offs!
I know I shouldn't get this emotional about things like this, but see these shoes?
They're Steve Maddens, they retail for about $80, and they're 4" tall with an extreme pitch that made me feel like I was going to tip over on my face when I tried them on at Nordstrom's a year ago.
But yet I loved them.
I tried them on at Saks Fifth Avenue.
Again, the pitching forward. The inability to walk in them.
Today, I found an incredible pair of knock-offs of this exact shoe by PAYLESS, for $20. Best of all, they're only 3" heels so I can walk comfortably in them and no pitching forward on my face.
PeaceBang is delirious!!
Do you know how HARD it is to find really good knock-offs???
They're Steve Maddens, they retail for about $80, and they're 4" tall with an extreme pitch that made me feel like I was going to tip over on my face when I tried them on at Nordstrom's a year ago.
But yet I loved them.
I tried them on at Saks Fifth Avenue.
Again, the pitching forward. The inability to walk in them.
Today, I found an incredible pair of knock-offs of this exact shoe by PAYLESS, for $20. Best of all, they're only 3" heels so I can walk comfortably in them and no pitching forward on my face.
PeaceBang is delirious!!
Do you know how HARD it is to find really good knock-offs???
posted by PeaceBang at 11:35 PM
8 Comments:
*An off-topic thank you*
You were SO right about Revlon's Skinlight product. It works amazingly well at hiding those late-in-the-day shadows under the eyes.
Thanks!!
Over on my blog I'm looking for shoe advice for a Very Big Important Church Conference at which I am co-presiding. I've pretty much decided on the strappy bronze, but I'm still open to suggestions.
I found the cutest little white strappy sandal at PayLess the other day for $3.00 !!!
What fun.
I saw those very shoes at Payless a few days ago!!
Good-looking.
Mazel Tov. Wear them in good health, as my Jewish grandmother would say. (Caroline Divine has such a diverse religio-cultural background that someone once said to her, "Girl, you are a walking World Council of Churches.")
Me, I can't wear those. Too narrow and high and coincidentally --what better procrastination from a) scholarly writing and b)listening to NPR and reading up on Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, and other war zones-- I have been trawling the web for shoe ideas. I can't find the kind of platform sandals I wore into the ground a few years ago and can't bear to throw out but are literally split in two so I can't wear -- high but not steep, if you know what I mean. I loved those and I could still walk on them if I could find some. And now that I have an Official Foot Problem related to Back Stuff it behooves me to wear orthotics a fair amount. A recent development, though as I may have mentioned in a previous post, I was a flat-footed kid who wore orthotics and high-laced shoes till I could bear it no more in the pre-teen years and tossed them out. It has all returned with a vengeance so there is no avoiding one's given body in the long run.
This summer it's fine, I wear athletic shoes with orthotics since I am just shlepping around, and then briefly something leather and elegant for preaching or going to hear a symphony (and omigod did we ever hear a Mahler 5th in these parts last week -- yowza!) but I am not sure what I am going to do in the fall. I simply can't wear heels all the time. And even some of the flats won't do. I do have several pairs of Dansko, including two nice pairs of sandals, one black criss-cross which I have seen on lots of women, hugely comfortable but nice-looking, and some leather slides with a great pattern -- but for fall daily wear the current option is some clunky but serviceable closed-toed shoes that are finally falling apart, so I have to replace them and there IS a slightly nicer model now. this is the outlet shop one and I know, it's clunky, but it works with pants. Not with a dress of course. So for everyday professorial duties, when I am on my feet a lot (I am one of those walk around the class and gesticulate profs, plus I teach at a college where we value conversation and interaction -- in the pulpit I am different, more formal and poetic with some informal cracks thrown in and a written text) they do fine. (When I wear pants, which is at least 3/4 of the time.) But they don't solve the problem of what to do for some height, and sometimes as you know, you just gotta have a little height. Not super height, which is a crime against womanity (I mean, really, who wants to wear those super high heeled things and a) wreck one's feet b) not be fully mobile and c) totter around on four slim inches) but even a two inch height would do.
I went to Footsmart, which an older friend of mine used to go to, and of course besides their useful foot things and whatnot they have shoes that I used to refer to (mea culpa) as "old lady shoes" and a couple, just a couple, of respectable, fun sandals that have room for a large, flat foot and maybe even an orthotic (one says it's designed to hide an orthotic in there instead of the removable insole) and are well-designed, good material, nice line, good color. But fall or winter shoes are another matter. Nothing workable there. Yet.
I did in a comment on an unrelated post some weeks ago refer to these This wass on your read the archives, I'm going away, talk amongst yourselves post. I wondered what y'all thought. They are much higher than what I usually wear but for special occasions I think I could bear them, and they have the all-important thick sole even in the front -- thin shoes kill me, I literally limped through an entire day of a national conference because even on my expensive allegedly comfortable Beauti-Feel pumps which I had gotten for job interviews the year before I was now no longer comfortable and was almost in too much pain to walk.
But they're not daily wear.
So I am actually thinking, because the place I teach at is sufficiently funky-dunky, and I could figure out outfits that would work, and I'm fiftyish but have been taken for fortyish or even (by students who have no concept of age at all and need Gloria Steinem to utter her famous "this is what fifty looks like" to them) thirty-eight-ish, of going for some Dr. Martens, which would support my feet, in which I could hide orthotics, but which would have a certain, er, kick. Like their black lace-up boots. They also have some not too bad chunky semi-dress shoes, and not just Mary Janes. This is for teaching, mind you. In the pulpit I'm not sure that would work, but the Dansko would do in the pulpit even though they are clunky. They're high-class clunky.
Sorry to be so long-winded (as usual only more so) but this issue of finding nice-looking shoes when one has unavoidable foot things to deal with (as in: if I don't watch out I rapidly get either horrid foot pain or a backache -- neither of which I have right now because I wore orthotics inside athletic shoes all day) is a big one. I bet other folks have funny feet too, or just aging ones. (As one colleague of mine said in a talk about aging, "it's not a question of 'if' we are going to be disabled someday, but 'when.'")
And of course there's the issue of women's shoes in general. Feet are a feminist issue. (Albeit not a major one, compared to violence and poverty.) So being in pain to meet a standard of beauty is out. But we still want to be beautiful. In the matter of feet, the compromises may be dicey.
P.S. I love the ritual of the washing of the feet on Maundy Thursday -- very intimate and beautiful and all feet are welcome and cherished. It's once we are clothed for Jesus that we get into more trouble.
On a tangential matter (I use it for fingers but I'm sure you can use it for toes), I just got some more Burt's Bees Lemon Butter Cuticle Cream. Anyone else tried it? Great stuff. Rub some in while you're watching those Law & Order reruns (or Project Runway if you watch that). Unlike nail filing, it won't take your eyes off the tv screen, and you'll have great nails. Rub some on the whole nail, not just the cuticle, and on your finger tips. A little goes a long way, and it smells really good, and it works for any gender.
You can massage your sweetie's fingers with it, too, if s/he is watching tv with you, or just hanging out on the couch. Or have him/her rub some into your fingers, so that next time you wave your arms in the air from the pulpit, or hold up the communion cup, or make a pastoral call, your hands will have that extra little something. (And be without those extra little rough areas.)
Works nicely when you're on the phone listening to someone and can help you stay calm and concentrate.
Yay! I could walk in those shoes when I tried them on at MY local Nordstrom's but I thought they were too expensive. I will have to cruise by Payless soon.
FWIW, I love Nordstrom's. I can't always afford to shop there, but it's my favorite store. They seem to always have the outfit I need for a special occaision. I can cruise in there before a job interview or a formal dinner party and BAM! there's what I'm looking for. Sometimes, it's even on sale.
CC
Caroline,
I love the Burt's Bee lemon cuticle cream, it smells so yummy. I do just what you said, sit and rub while I watch TV - but it's usually Will & Grace or Fraiser.
Star Jones will be so pleased!
I had to buy shoes for a wedding and I went straight to Payless. The shoes I bought were $20 and they looked like they could've been worn by a glamourous, 40's pin-up. How much do I love Payless??
Mind you, I brought along booties to change into during the reception because there was no way I could've walked/danced on them all evening long.
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