... this blogger gave to thee...
... six party dresses...
... five gold rings!..
... four favoured films...
... three rosy bubbles...
... two iterations...
... and a tale for tugging heart strings.
Of course on Day 7, to go with some of our Day 6 dresses, we need shoes. So...
"Get on your dancing shoes
You sexy little swine"
(Dancing Shoes by Arctic Monkeys)
Don't they just look like something Elsa would conjure out of the snow? Or at least ones some shoe maker in Arendelle would create in homage to her. They're even the same colour as her dress pre-Snow Queen glow up!
In my opinion, they're stupid pretty and rather tame for the brand, which given they specialise in true insanity and excess, is saying something. They're even something that if you're on a budget and had a spare spare pair of shoes, glue and enough sequins you could probably DIY.
If Louboutin can create his iconic red soles using red nail polish on the sole of his high heels, I don't see anything wrong with gluing sequins and glitter to your shoes to add a little something extra.
Perhaps next year I'll dedicate this entire post to Irregular Choice and they're more insane side, all snow globe heels and excess, but for now, I'll just post the ones I would actually wear out, and I'd definitely wear these ones.
Link || Irregular Choice "Glory Days" in Blue via Irregular Choice
Link || Irregular Choice || Website || Instagram || Twitter || Facebook || Pinterest
The little sister is going to hate me and almost half of my choices because I'm sticking with Irregular Choice, and she thinks they're some of the ugliest shoes she's ever seen. She even commented as I was writing that she'd be really annoyed with herself if the paint from further on in the post were by the brand she'd be annoyed because she liked them. Though, I think if she saw of the truly extreme shoes they have within their other collections.
However, despite my sisters aversion to them, I have had a soft spot for these shoes since I was in college, and got my first pair. Currently I have two, a set of kitten heel Tapetastics with measuring tape rosettes on the front and kissing cartoon couples on the soles, which were my first and I will always love, and a pair from the Flick Flack range. There were a third and fourth pair, but in hindsight they were not only borderline hideous, but they didn't really fit, so I recently donated them so someone else can argue with their sibling over whether or not they're actually pretty.
I'm not unaware at the excessive, insane, gaudy and often rather ugly style of some of their shoes. I just love how quirky they are and that they aren't your stereotypical pump. They're silly and fun, their inner linings and soles have just as much personality and thought in them as the actually shoes, and there are very few pairs that involved toes being on show, or pointed fronts, which also a bonus.
The fact that a lot of the base shoe shapes within the brand are quite old fashioned looking is also appealing. It's like for some of the collections they've taken a general shape and given it to four different designers, then told them, "as long as you put the same style accessorise on, go nuts!". Other collections, such as Picollo, rely on the pattern from the tartan and a bit of sparkle to be enough, and just switch out Stewart black tartan with a black bow (above) for Brodie red tartan and a gold bow.
Now normally I'm not a huge fan of tartan. Don't get me wrong, it can be freaking awesome in the right situation, on the right garment or fabric, but it does get horribly overused. And with the glitter bow and heel, I actually think Irregular Choice have been remarkably restrained and thoughtful about their use of the traditional fabric.
Again, I'm not the hugest fan and it's not because of the check or the colour, or the tradition. It's the overuse. It's the fact that if you're Scottish (by birth or ancestry), it's almost expected that for special occasions you should break out the kilt and adorn everything with your clans cloth.
Ironically my family name is a sept (division) of the Stewart clan, so these particular heels, I guess, are part of the family? Maybe I should have picked the red ones...
Either way, if I ever get married, don't turn up in a kilt, because you'll be kindly told to bugger off with your traditional nonsense.
Pretty shoes though.
Link || Irregular Choice "Piccolo" via Irregular Choice
Link || Irregular Choice || Website || Instagram || Twitter || Facebook || Pinterest
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And I couldn't resist these Halloween inspired Mrs. Webb heels, with they're spiders, webs and splattered blue metallic spots.
That and a third attempt to get my sister to actually like a pair of Irregular Choice shoes!
Link || Irregular Choice "Mrs. Webb" in Black & Navy via Irregular Choice
Link || Irregular Choice || Website || Instagram || Twitter || Facebook || Pinterest
Normally I really do hate open toed strappy shoes. And don't get me wrong, if these came with a close toe I'd think they were a hundred times nicer, but there's something about the shape of the heel/ankle and the two tone muted gold of these Sophia Webster heel that I find really very attractive.
Though, I really kind of hate them for the open toe too... I'm very confused, but part of my narrowing down of my choices is what would go with the dresses from Day 6, and I thought these would go with most of them...
... God I hate the open toes!
Link || Sophia Webster "Nicole" Sandal in Gold via Sophia Webster
Link || Sophia Webster || Website || Instagram || Twitter || Facebook || Pinterest
Why Sophia Webster? Why do you have to make these beautiful, beautiful butterfly heels only in open toes?
These Chiara butterfly sandals come in such pretty colours, and yet they're ruined by exposing peoples toes to the world. Toes don't even bother me, but no. Just no!
Luckily, the reason I know about these embroidered butterfly heels by Sophia Webster is because of a YouTuber called Orly Shani, who runs a channel called The DIY Designer. Even more fortunate is the fact that I had only started following Shani on YouTube a few weeks before she posted her DIY method for making high heels inspired by Webster. So when this video arrived in my subscriptions, I had to click on it:
Sophia Webster shoes cost around £600...
... um...
... yeah, no, I baulk at spending upwards of £50 one shoes, and while I absolutely love the embroidered wings of this pair, if I ever want something like this, it's going to have to be as a result of a DIY project (with a god damn closed toe!) and I'm not ashamed to say that. Because in the end, there's no shame in making a homage to something yourself, for yourself.
Doesn't mean you should go out an start selling knock offs, but you could certainly make a flap...
Link || Sophia Webster "Chiara" in Black & Rainbow via Sophia Webster
Link || Sophia Webster || Website || Instagram || Twitter || Facebook || Pinterest
Link || Orly Shani (The DIY Designer) || Website || Instagram || Twitter || Facebook || YouTube
Chie Mihara is another brand that seems to specialise in more old fashioned shapes in their shoes, something I obviously find attractive, but inevitably if you add something metallic and glittery to a shoe there's a my higher chance that I'm going to like it. Guess what sold me on these shoes?
I know these aren't necessarily the most extravagant, different or unique of designs, but when you keep finding excuses to keep something on the short list, it probably means you really like them. I found that with these shoes.
Now, I mentioned earlier that most years I try and match Day 7's shoes with Day 6's dresses, it's become kind of a fun game, to try and style an outfit. But my process is this:
- I make a file with all the shoes I'm considering on it in miniature.
- I open all the dress images from the previous post.
- I copy each pair of shoes I think match up over on the dress file
- I tally up.
Anything with no votes I immediately cross out or hide, removing it from my list... unless my gut tells me not too. If I can't bring myself to remove a pair, it stays on the short list and I keep whittling the options down until I have seven.
When looking at these shoes next to the last posts dresses, I would have worn with most of them and even if they'd scored low, given that I kept going back to them, they'd probably have made it anyway.
Chie Mihara makes some really lovely shoes, and these are no exception. This shape of shoes over the years has seem to become ones I really gravitate towards and as always, if you add glitter, I'm sold.
Link || Chie Mihara "Hera" in Green via Chie Mihara
Link || Chie Mihara || Website || Instagram || Twitter || Facebook || Pinterest || YouTubeg
It's not one of my lists without a pair of boots. There were heeled suede ones from ASOS that almost made it. Velvet ones from Chie Mihara that would have looked darling with the devore dress from Boden, but just didn't feel right for the list. And pairs with shearling tops that make me really, really want boots with shearling tops. But then I saw these.
Black glitter Dr. Martens. I will never not love the 90's aesthetic of pretty floaty dresses with chunky boots, and Docs will always be my boots of choice given half a chance.
Can I bring myself to spend the money on them? No. Even though I know they last for years.
Could I bring myself to break them in if I did buy them? I've tried. I bought purple metallic ones years ago and couldn't break them in. It was much easier when I was a kid, hadn't finished growing so had smaller feet and the fashion was for them to be worn with your thickest winter socks rolled over the top of the boot.
But imagine these paired with that sheer star dress from Shein instead of heels... that outfit would be so much fun and I no one will persuade me otherwise.
Link || Dr. Martens "Jadon Glitter Platform Boots" in Black via Dolls Kill
Link || Dr. Martens || Website || Instagram || Twitter || Facebook || Pinterest || Tumblr || YouTube
Link || Dolls Kill || Website || Instagram || Twitter || Facebook || Snapchat || Pinterest || Tumblr || YouTube
Fashion's funny, and the fact that designers take inspiration from previous eras just makes it weirder. Sometimes you're blessed with something coming back into fashion, that you love and have fond memories of, Dr. Martens being a prime example for me. But more often than not we're faced with the same shapes, styles and products over and over again that we didn't particularly like the first time round and still don't like. Once in a while however, old fashions sneak back in that have been re-imaged well. The return of velvet over the last couple of years - something I distinctly remember and loved from childhood in the '90's - was not only welcome, but well done for the most part.
I was born half way through the 1980's. I've had to live through the 70's, 80's and 90's fashions returning over and over again, seemingly every single year. Some years this means there are tonnes of gorgeous shoes around, other years we seem to be in platform, chunky, pointy peep hole hell. So I think that's probably why every year for this post I come back to Irregular Choice, Docs, glitter and block colour suede heels that are plain but pretty and for me, incredibly predictable.
Fashion is cyclical, we relive the same styles over and over again, which means as you get older, the dislike for fashion is also cyclical... so for me at least, while I found shoes I love and I hope you liked too, 2019 was not a stellar year for shoes.
Fingers crossed 2020 is a little more interesting! And if not I'm going full Irregular Choice madness and trying to find some other companies who specialise in similarly wacky, excessive designs, to torture my little sister with.
Could be fun.
Happy New Year! Part eight coming to a computer near you spring 2020...
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Listening: Let It Go - Idina Menzel
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