On footwear

New shoes. :)

Aren't they beautiful? They make me exquisitely happy; I wear them with everything. I can honestly say I want no more from life in the matter of footwear -- not that if a pair of knee-high flat black leather boots on sale were to walk into my life, I would spurn it and walk away. But my new shoes have effectively stilled any sense of yearning.

And yet, it's as if buying them has tripped a switch in my brain and turned it back onto gazing obsessively at shoes. I don't really feel the need to buy them; it's just quite nice to speculate what one would do if one did.

And is it just me, or has the shoe section on the Oxfam online second-hand store improved remarkably? If I were not so very well-supplied in the feet region, I would be tempted to buy these:

Gino Ventori black ankle boots, £3.99

I like the buttons, and you've got to admit you can't get much better than £4.

Gant brown leather and suede boots, £65

And if these were my size, instead of being a vile unattainable 6.5, I would buy them right now despite their unOxfam-like price. I'm not 100% sure, but they look exactly like a gorgeous pair of boots a friend of mine owns, which I have been quietly coveting for the past term. The different textures! The shades of brown! The fact that they look a little like riding boots and a little like boots for the style-conscious spaceman!

There are the sensible, pretty Fly London Mary Jane wedges, which one does not perhaps have a passion for, but which one knows would be much worn and would go with everything.

Fly London wedges, £29.99

And an obligatory nod to the always wearable classy black patent heels, vintage --

Vintage Miss Holmes black patent heels, £9.99

or designer --

Salvatore Ferragamo black patent court shoes, £39.99

I've got to say, though, of all the shoes there? I'm most tempted by these hypnotically dreadful purple snakeskin loafers.

Peter Kaiser purple snakeskin effect shoes, £13.99

Yes, they are awful. But are they not also somehow transcendent? Think how well you would have to dress all the time to pull these off. They would add an interesting touch to these spring pastels the shops keep throwing at us, in defiance of the gloomy fact of the weather.

- Zen