Shoe Personality of the Week: 03/22/10

I can pull inspiration from damn near anywhere. February 22nd to March 15th was all about the month of Pisces, in honor of my own birthday and all the dope Piscean women people I know. For some reason, while trolling the innanet looking for my next shoe muse, I recalled J.Lo’s FAILed attempt at a music comeback when she performed some trash with Louboutin’s in the title or the hook. J.Lo’s camp convinced her, somehow, that this was a good idea for a 40-something woman to try to attempt Fly Girl-esque choreo wearing [no less than] 4 inch heels on an award show. Needless to say, the air up there got a little thin and J.Lo bit the proverbial dust. When she landed on her ass bottom we were able to see the red bottoms of her Louboutins. My favorite color is red, my favorite things are shoes, you see where I make the connection, right? Lets let another month-long tribute begin. While I cannot say that the red bottoms won’t creep up again later, since they have made prior appearances, I apologize now if my obsession serves to bore you. In any case, I bring you: THE [Christian] LOUBOUTIN.



When I was a little girl, I had an obsessions with spats (learning moment: use your dictionary, friends, if you’re not sure what they are). Jiminy Cricket used to wear them, and my Daddy used to tell me stories about Jiminy all the time. Spats represented class to me, sophistication, aristocracy. All things that a little girl probably shouldn’t be chasing when there were plenty of real crickets, grasshoppers and other jumpy things to chase. Don’t get it twisted, I spent a GREAT DEAL of time chasing them too, but my mind would sometimes wander.

In my 30’s, I’ve long since let go the idea of aristocracy, but sophistication should always be front and center on a woman’s mind...in my opinion. There are days when, dressed in yoga pants and comfortable sneaks that I lose sight of it. It’s not my fault though, it’s the uniform of my job, and it’s often my job that causes me to forget how dynamic I can be. When you have to dress to sweat and potentially have boogers rubbed on you, sophistication is the last thing on your mind. I promise. I am den mother to roughly 160 children and any mother of 1 knows how destructive children can be to your sense of style. But like any mediocre cell phone plan, nights & weekends are included.

I must fight to maintain my sophistication after 5 and on Saturdays. I can’t let the comfort of the weekdays throw me into the style oblivion of Soccer Moms. I’m at that stage in my life [in my mind] that I once laughed at when I must now grocery shop and run weekend errands wearing heels so as not to forget my femininity and sophistication. In actuality, the energy this requires is beyond me, as I’ve always been a sneaker freak, but time and place appropriateness do still mean something to me. When it’s time to break out the kit, Mama does her thang. Right now, I’m watching 2 different revolutions happen to the women around me. The first is the women in their 30’s whose babies are older now and a lot more independent with activities of their own. These women are Sankofa’n going back to fetch their femininity. The lines are softer, the fabrics more enticing, the silhouettes are fetching, and their shoe game is finally becoming PROPER. I’m so excited to see the women I’ve always found beautiful connecting with their own beauty. I guess you gotta grow into it. The second is the women [friends] who have so fully identified with motherhood, that they don’t even try to look like anything other than women who drag kids around all day. This makes me sad as I see all that beauty drowning underneath too much fabric and not a hint of respect for a woman’s form. See, even when wearing my yoga pants, there’s a certain way to put it together. Comfort can be fly too, it’s just that wearing it all the time makes it not feel fly [for me.] I was told by a colleague that “you’re the only woman who make sweat pants look sexy.” Thank you, dah’lin, that meant a lot!!

Anyway, before this drones on any further, this is a call to my sister friends [& women everywhere] to tap into what makes you feel pretty. Find that thing that screams sophistication to you and OWN it. Find your shoe equivalent of a fox stole and find a day devoted solely to you to rock it. Move forward with audacity, taking care to feel and BE beautiful from the inside out. And if you don’t feel it anymore, start from the outside in. I promise it WILL make a difference.

Watch me move.