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How did you procrastinate this long, it’s already Halloween!? Now don’t expect me to tell you how to become Marie Antoinette out of toilet paper; your costume will probably have to be fairly basic unless you’re super lucky – most costume stores will be picked bare by the time you get out of work), but never fear, you can work with what you already have and I’ll show you how to get inspiration from your shoes (of course!). You won’t have to dress up with a “My Name Is…” sticker on my watch! (side woot to The Office).
Do you own a pair of mary-janes? Or do you have time to run to Payless to scoop these up? If you do, you’ve got an instant school-girl costume. Add knee high socks or tights, a short skirt (pleated is better but not necessary), button a white button down shirt half way from the top and tie the ends in a knot (or tuck it in but I’m going to just assume that most people aren’t going for modest), then add a neck tie. Put your hair in pig-tails for a Britney Spears twist. Add fake blood if you want to be a zombie schoolgirl (ooh or vampire fangs; more people should be scary).
Any platform shoes hiding in your closet? Seriously, why are you worried about a costume when you have an instant hippie outfit waiting to go? Add some jean shorts or wide leg or bell-bottom jeans, a brightly colored t-shirt (or something covered in a floral print, or tie-die… seriously, if you have a tie-die t-shirt you better wear it!). If you have none of these shirt options but you do have a vest, go with a white tee and the vest instead (if you’re really ambitious, make fringe out of a piece of plain paper or brown construction paper and duct tape it onto the inside edges of the vest). Wear your hair down or recycle any long wig front last year, tie a piece of string around your forehead, draw a heart or peace sign on your cheek in lipstick, and hold your fingers up in a piece sign.
Last but not least, the I’ve-got-nothing-but-I-have-to-wear-something-better-than-just-a-fake-mustache-or-they-won’t-let-me-into-the-party costume. If you have a pair of shoes that are a solid color (easy enough) but I suggest not black or white, you can work this costume. The brighter the color the better and if they’re patent leather or glossy, that’s even even (yes, double the even) better. Now get a long shirt and some black tights or tights in that same color. Next, make yourself a cone out of matching colored paper and wear it like a party hat (or find an actual solid colored party hat). Then… ready? Draw or use tape to spell out the Crayola logo on the front of the shirt!! Yay you’re a crayon!! This is an excellent group idea too if you have friends also stranded in the costume quagmire. If you want to see some girls pull it off in a super cute way, click here.
Happy Scare Day / Pumpkin Day / All Hallows Eve / Candy Day / Halloween!
UPDATE 10/28 : Check out the exclusive coupon code I got for you (below) to save 10% on your first order!
My first online destination in the Shoe Store Spotlight is Gotham City Online (thanks to PollDaddy in my previous blog). Not only does Gotham City Online (GCO) have fantastic prices on designer styles (they actually claim the lowest guaranteed) and free shipping, they also raise money for charity (nice!). I dig this store too because you never know what you’re going to find. GCO says they list new items every day and I’ve seen shoes from luxury brands like Chanel, Viktor & Rolf, and Marc Jacobs almost equally as often as shoes from fashion brands like Steve Madden, Kenneth Cole (Reaction, Tribeca, Unlisted), Nine West and Via Spiga.
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Here’s another cool thing about this online store (and a true story): One day a random girl (ahem) tried on a pair of shoes at a store but decided to be “good” and not get them. After she left the store, she (of course) immediately regretted it and every outfit she wanted to wear to work that week would have been perfect if only she had just gotten those amazing shoes. Finally (after deciding, for justification purposes, to swap Starbucks for cereal at home for a while), she decided to go back to the store that weekend (realizing death to be the most likely outcome if she didn’t get them into her closet soon) but they were SOLD OUT!! And they were sold out in every other store she frantically checked. Now, she might have been be able to stave off her panic attack if she had know about this website a little earlier because… (happy ending alert) she found the shoes about a month later at GothamCityOnline.com!
Gotham City Online gets those last pairs of shoes from stores in NYC when they are making room for new merchandise, so hard-to-find styles are always popping up there even after brick & mortar stores (yes, real term. yuck.) have stopped carrying them (and when summer sandals are being sold in stores in Decemeber, that’s kind of great). Plus GCO still gives you the sale price!!
This website doesn’t give out coupons super often, but I am trying to finagle a coupon code out of them for you & all my readers so I’ll post it here (SUCCESS! New Customers Can Use Coupon Code: SPYTEN for an Extra 10% Off Any Order!!) as soon as I’m successful.
There’s your online shoe store lesson for the week, class will be in session again soon!
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In response to some great comments, I have decided to do my blog (and my BlogRoll!) a favor, and start a recurring entry titled “Shoe Store Spotlight,” each special entry dedicated to a different online shoe store that I personally shop at and would live inside, given the opportunity. (If you want reviews of shoe stores I don’t love so much, I can throw some of those in too, but until I hear otherwise or have a really bad experience of my own, I’m making it a love-fest)!
I already started something like this in the BlogRoll section under the non-BlogRoll heading of “Nothing But Shoes” which I have recently re-named “Shopping Directory – Nothing But Shoes” to make it even more clear. That section is dedicated to a list of online shoe stores that only sell shoes, or at least 90%. As you probably know, there are tons of stores out there that sell everything high fashion: clothes, purses, jewelry, etc. Sometimes they carry great shoes too and I do link to websites like that in this blog, but for the purposes of a shoe blog, I thought only shoe stores dedicated solely (ha) to shoes should be recognized. Check out my list to the left for some stores soon to be featured in the Shoe Store Spotlight blogs coming up and let me know if you see a favorite website missing that you’d like to see get some love!
I just stumbled across this cute blog and had to post her homage to a certain pair of boots. An excerpt:
“You’re not my normal type: You’re high maintenance suede, your heel is too low to cause me bodily harm, and worn with the wrong thing, your intricate latticework could be downright dominatrix. “Fierce”, is not usually what people would use to describe my wardrobe. But I can change, oh believe me, I can change for you!”
Read the rest and see the boots here. I know how you feel, Hanna. Long live the lust for shoes!
And I don’t mean to stand in the way of true love, but I humbly offer some alternatives below:
Also, In Shoe News:
Payless Shoe Source will soon be carrying an eco-friendly (and affordable) collection! Yay! According to sources, Summer Rayne Oakes (model, activist, television host) is going to help develop the multi-season line which is projected to appear in stores April 2009.
The first collection will be 8 to 12 styles of women’s shoes and handbags made from materials like organic cotton, linen, hemp and recycled rubber. But this line, unlike previous Payless designer collaborations, will eventually include shoes for men and kids too. Always cool. Company heads are supposedly hopeful that they will be able to see some of these eco-friendly aspects seep into other Payless brands and/or are just jumping the bandwagon of the “major marketing gimmick” that is “green” so long as it is profitable (according to Reuters). I prefer and hope for the more optimistic interpretation.
Everyone and I mean everyone (fashion magazines, celebrities, department stores, blogs, etc) has been talking about shoes & boots with fringe* (P.S. handbags too) in kind of an obsessive way.
As any hippie Halloween costume wearer knows, fringe had been around for a while. Even back in the 1920s, many flapper dresses were dripping in fringe. So there must be some appeal for this trend to keep recurring in apparel, but I don’t know, I’m just not crazy about it, at least on footwear anyway.
But if you’re all for it, let me know your thoughts. And for you, I’ve chosen two of the least offensive boot styles below that I’ve seen recently and I’ll tell you why…
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First above me are these tan boots by Material Prima. I like that they are only subtly a moccasin style with the stitching around the toe box not super pronounced. If you wore them under long pants, they’d look like a basic loafer. And, I like that the tassels are a little stiff. Maybe I have a default dislike of fringe just because I can’t help thinking about it flying around as I walk, hitting against my legs, other people, small animals, etc… these boots would solve that problem and still incorporate the trend. (I admit I’m a fast New York walker).
And second, I chose these Jimmy Choo Bill Boots from their new Catwalk Collection. Okay, yes this fringe is super swingy. But. But they also have a darn high heel so who’s going to be rushing around in them anyway? Wear these on your chauffeured limo days (a.k.a taxi days and/or mass transit 
). A beaded fringe is also less common which makes it more worthy in my eyes, and when you add that it’s subtly colored, elegantly patterned, and paired against a plain black suede boot – even fringe haters might find themselves smiling at these.
Last I have one example below of the fringe that I feel ruins it for the other fringes in the world; unfortunately, although the brand has some other cute styles, (cliche or not) these over-the-knee Sam Edelman boots will never be on my feet unless I’m playing Pocahontas.
*FYI just in case you wanted to know - Fringe is basically a long strip of leather (but I suppose any other material would qualify) cut every 1/4 inch or so along one end to create separate, movable pieces hanging down in a row.
P.S. Yes, I’ve been watching Fringe on FOX too. The story line really draws you in even though it’s a bit repetitive sometimes. I can’t wait to see how “The Pattern” connects everything.
Showing Some Love