Shoe boo-hoo

Well, I was going to blog about my new Miss L Fire 'Betty' shoes today, but they arrived and didn't fit, and instead I posted them back. Miss L Fire have sold out of the next size up, so I guess this is something I will have to mark down as Not Meant To Be. (The shoes were horribly expensive, meaning my sorrow is tempered by a sort of relief, especially as Vix's recent post on her car-boot boots has inspired me to look harder at footwear in my local charity shops.)



The thing that excited me about the shoes was that they were yellow. Gloriously, uncompromisingly yellow. I can tell you exactly what the last pairs of non-neutral shoes I bought were: a pair of dusky pink crushed velvet ones with Louis heels, bought circa 1995, and a pair of purple suede stilettoes, bought circa 1990. This is the effect of a skint childhood; I grew up with the idea that you had ONE coat and ONE pair of shoes, and to this day I've never been prone to buying many of either. It felt so frivolous to buy yellow shoes. Shoes that would NOT go with everything. Shoes that shouted, “I'm fabulous!” rather than muttered “Forget me, I'm just getting the job done.” I bought a midcentury dress by Mode O' Day earlier in the year, and while the print is exuberant it's in mostly neutral colours, and these shoes would have been perfect for perking it up, whereas black or brown ones will look a bit drab.

My disappointment at having to send the shoes back is making me think: maybe the things I wear, aside from my jewellery, do need to be less staid, though I'd like to achieve that without veering towards kiddy things. I'd like more playful elements, but still to look like a grownup. Some of my favourite bloggers manage this with aplomb, but their tastes are very different to mine and while I admire their looks, I can't imagine dressing the same as them. That's a good thing; it'd be a rubbish, uncreative sort of world if we all went around copying one another all the time. However, there are things they do that I could learn from without slavishly imitating.

A shot of the brown dress. Not my colour!

One thing I do love about many of my favourites is how they use colour; no beige there. That could be a good lesson. Today I am wearing a cappucino brown shirtdress, more to avoid looking like I fervently support any particular political party on election day than anything else. It's really comfortable and I love the large-scale broderie fabric, but every time I see a photo of myself in this dress, I think, 'Girl, that's not your colour' – and so there could be an encounter with a box of Dylon in its future.

How do you inject a bit of fun into an outfit? Does it mean wearing ruffles? (Please say 'No'!) More novelty prints? More bright colours instead of brown and navy? Or should I just embrace the frumpitude and accept – nay, revel in the fact - that I instinctively dress like a grandma who's also been given her pick of Liberace's diamante drawer, and keep my eyes peeled for another pair of yellow shoes?