Shoe Coup

I am a taller than average woman with longer than average feet. For many years as I was growing up my shoe size matched my age: I wore size eight when I was eight years old, size nine when I was nine, and size ten when I was ten. These are adult women's sizes we're talking about here. By the time I was thirteen my feet had reached their full length at size 11, which made it a challenge to find cute shoes to wear for my graduation from 8th grade.

Having longer than average feet in a large and -- shall we say -- frugal family meant that my standards for shoes were very, very low. For many years my shoe buying criteria were: 1) Do they fit? and 2) Are they affordable? Cute was simply not an option. As a result, I spent a lot of my youth wearing ugly oxfords and athletic shoes purchased at a deep discount. The lone bright spot was a pair of preppy penny loafers I bought in high school and decorated with a couple of lire coins my brother brought from Italy.

With few exceptions, this situation persisted through college and grad school and into my working life. I hated buying shoes and did so rarely. My mother, who continues to feel guilty for her genetic contribution to my lengthy feet, would check the clearance racks and occasionally find a pair of shoes she thought I might like. I shuffled through my 30s in beaten-up Birkenstocks worn with or without socks.

Then I met Amanda S with her adorable shoe collection and I knew I had to raise my game. Thanks to her influence and the wonders of the internet my shoe wardrobe has quadrupled since the spring of 2008, and now includes (at least) two pairs of red shoes, sparkly high-heeled sandals (bought to wear at Amanda's wedding), black boots, brown boots, patent leather slingbacks, and metallic flats. I have a lot of cute shoes.

This past fall I decided to replace my sad old brown boots. I don't have an image of these boots but you can probably picture them in your mind: square toe, ankle height, with a low and clunky heel. They were a gift from my mother several years ago and they have been well-worn, with gratitude if not with enthusiasm. Last winter they were my go-to shoes with jeans or brown trousers.

I wanted to find a pair of low boots with a pointier toe and a well-shaped heel that I could wear to work or on weekends. A couple of weeks before Christmas I ordered these shoes (Partridge, by Clarks) from DSW:
And they were too big! Even with insoles my heels slipped out the backs of the shoes. I sadly packed them back into their box and left town for the holidays.

This past weekend we were in the Portland area and made a pilgrimage to the DSW store in Tualatin to return these shoes and look for others.

I approached the clearance rack.

The clouds parted. Angels sang.
Imagine this shoe (Muesli, by Franco Sarto) in chocolate brown leather. Although it's about the same height as the Clarks, the shoe looks much taller and lighter because of the elegant heel. The high vamp gives them the look of boots when worn with jeans, but they're also versatile enough to go with tights and a skirt.

Okay, and the best part? Thanks to DSW's generous rewards program, I paid $4.97 for them. That's a clearance shoe I can live with.