My Favourite Shoes (Blog Comp Entry)

I love shoes. That is no secret. I often talk about how I like to start an outfit from the feet up – I’ll decide what shoes to wear first, and then choose the rest of my clothing based on that.

This was different though. My brother-in-law was getting married and so this girl needed a new outfit. I wandered around the shops trying to find something when I came across the perfect dress. I saw it in Oasis one lunch time then had my friend come along with me the next day so I could get a second opinion. She loved it too. It fitted really well. But I didn’t buy it. The following week there was a 20% off sale so I marched straight there and did the deed.

But now what shoes should I wear? I didn’t have anything that would go. Nothing that matched the colours quite right. Nothing that was a shoe rather than a sandal. Nothing that popped. I looked everywhere where I live, more than once. Apparently I’d picked the wrong year for colour. I wanted bright pink, blue or green, or at worse a dark beige to match the base colour. I wanted court shoes with a simple shape. I wanted high heels but ones that I could wear all day. There was nothing.

One Wednesday morning I got up early and headed to Meadowhall in Sheffield for an appointment with the Apple Genius Bar. I’d taken the day off work so had every intention of finding the shoes… and again I looked in all the shoe shops and department stores, more than once, even in the really expensive shops. I’d even taken the dress with me so I could match the colour. Nothing. I ended up  wandering around aimlessly until I found myself in Zara where there were these shoes piled underneath one of the displays.

Perfect! Bright green. Court shoes. Softly made. Not so high I couldn’t totter about in them all day. And just gorgeous too in that suede finish. And a bargain – they were in the sale – about £20 or something like that. Fabulous. I tried them on – they didn’t have many sizes left – and they fitted really well. I was going to buy them anyway because I was in love but I took the dress out of my bag just to check – they would be just right.

Phew.

I don’t make a model by any stretch of the imagination, but here’s my sister and me and that dress and my shoes.

I reckon those green shoes made my outfit on that day (they even made it into the cartoon drawn to commemorate the occasion), and every time I looked at my feet I smiled. I love it when shoes do that – make you and other people smile. So my pick of the new shoes available from Next do just that too – make me smile.

Here…

Floral Courts | Bow Flats | Red Boots | Wooden Platforms

Of the four pairs of shoes there I think the ones I’m off out to buy first are the “Multi Printed Block Heel Sandals” (the floral courts with the strap!). They are just stunning aren’t they? The shape is lovely, and that pattern is oh so feminine. They would definitely give me that pop of colour I like on my feet – they’d look great with anything from a little black dress, some skinny jeans or poking out of wide flowing black trousers. The 11cm heel is high but is nice and chunky so I should be stable.

Oh and for the record… while my favourite green shoes shoes are soft, high, flattering, fit really well and are a fabulous colour, I’ve simply hardly worn them since. I blame the British weather for that – every time I have an opportunity to show them off again it rains and frankly I don’t want to ruin them. Every time I’m getting ready to go out somewhere I get the out of the wardrobe, put them on, look out the window, take them off and put something else on. I need to wear them again!