Cat in Heels

I watch a lot of movies. Husband is a total film buff, and we usually catch a couple a week. Usually from the comfort of our couch via Netflix. Christmas however provided a rare day off with nothing to do (because almost everything is closed) and with family celebrations behind us or still to come, and realizing after the babies arrive we’re not going to a movie again for a while, we seized the opportunity to go to the theater and catch a movie. We also went to dinner so I could have an excuse to wear my new boots (more on that in another post). Photo courtesy of Red Granite Pictures Wolf of Wall Street was the film selection, and I knew I wouldn’t be disappointed because it’s Martin Scorsese (who doesn’t make shitty movies) and Leonardo DiCaprio, who has been consistently amazing since What’s Eating Gilbert Grape . As usual Scorsese had a great attention to detail, not letting anything slip. Including the shoes. This movie was chock full of shoe porn. Once almost literall...

Sometimes when I'm out shopping I see something that triggers a memory of a conversation I had with someone or makes me think of a friend or family member. Sometimes that feeling is so great I'll snap a photo and send it to them. This week I escaped the confines of the hotel in San Francisco long enough to wander out into Union Square and find Ross , a discount superstore akin to TJ Maxx and Marshalls  (which I love). As I wandered through the shoe section (because where else would I start) I saw a pair of black glitter with black spikes, Steve Madden Andiie heels, that made me think of my friend Esther (who was at the conference with me) and a conversation we had over sushi that day at lunch. It can be summed up by this: We both love spikes on shoes. The rack of perfect shoes. Since I have an insane number of shoes (with and without spikes), I sent Esther a photo of the shoes, letting her know that she obviously needed them, and what size should I pick up. She repl...

A few months ago I blogged about cap toe shoes , saying they're going to be the hot new thing, and they're amazing and here's why. Then I didn't hear anything about them for a while, and I thought maybe I was the only one in love with them. Then last week I was on Twitter , taking part in the #stylechat with Style Caster , and the topic of conversation turned to shoes, and the cap toe trend, which has suddenly made its way from the designer's stores and into the mainstream, and now everyone wants them. I had quite a few questions about them, including where to find them (which is now almost anywhere). As promised to the fabulous people on #stylechat , following are a few cap toe heels that are fabulous, available, and at varying price points, so there's no excuse to go into Fall without them. ShoeDazzle At $39.95, ShoeDazzle probably has the best deal on a metallic cap toe. The "Ann" heel, which was released just a few days ago, comes in a ...

Sometimes shoes wear out. It's a sad fact, but after years and years of being loved and worn on a regular basis they just start to wear down, and sometimes they get to the point where even a cobbler can't fix the problem. This weekend some of my favorites, which had been dying, long, painful deaths, were put to their final sleep (which is really the garbage cans behind my building). The pile of dead heels, and one flip flop Thor ate. A pair of my favorite heels was among the deceased was my red Nine West heels with the black and white piping around the edges. I bought these heels about a year after I got my first real job, and I spent all my grocery money on them and ate nothing but cereal for a week.  I also wore them constantly and with just about everything. Eventually the sling back was falling down, the leather was peeling, the heels were ripped up, and they were just sad looking. The gold heels were Jessica Simpson  , and were some of the first that came out...

Manhattan called again, and here I am. Too bad I never get any time to do anything fun while I'm here. Like shop. I'm in a city known for its boutiques, and I see the inside of a hotel and the airport. This trip I did manage to steal one hour, which was spent power walking down Lexington Ave. looking for places to shop. My ultimate conclusion: this part of New York has most of the same stores Chicago does. I did find one little shoe store with a couple gems in it, but none in my size. There were also a bunch of jewelry stores (speaking of gems), but I'm not here for purchases of that kind.  Aldo and a lovely color block. Unfortunately, I'm not here to shop at all.  What I did realize as I swept through the stores at warp speed, was that some trends that were around last season are here to stay for a little while. So breathe easy, because those color block heels and cap toe shoes are going to slide right through summer and sea...

Monthly shoe clubs are all the rage right now. Actually clubs of all kinds are, but let’s focus for a hot second on the million shoe clubs out there. Just Fabulous , Sole Society , Shoe Privee , ShoeMint, ShoeDazzle …the list can continue on, but really, why bother. That’s a wide enough sample for discussion purposes. Each one offers something different than the other one. With exclusive designs, celebrity collaborations, company collaborations, and fixed prices on everything you generally know exactly what you’re getting, and you always know how much you’re going to pay. Yeah for flat pricing! ShoeDazzle gets points for leopard, red and studs On the other hand, are the designs really all that exclusive? In the 39.95 range clubs the Iron Fist designs that Just Fabulous carries are available through Iron Fist, Shoe Privee carries mostly Qupid , which are available in various retail outlets and online stores, and ShoeDazzle actually carries their own brand that ...

I am about to commit shoe-lover blasphemy. I have an opinion that goes against everything you've been told by bloggers all over. I don't care for ShoeMint . I'll give you a moment to clutch your pearls and call me some horrible names before proceeding with my argument. Wedge booties I've been wearing for months. First, let me say that I don't own any ShoeMint shoes, and I know nothing of their construction. They're probably great. I generally like Steve Madden  and I have plenty of his heels. In all honesty I had great hopes for ShoeMint . Steve Madden is great. Shoe clubs are cute, and I kind of love the idea of a celebrity collaboration. I let all my readers know, bought into the hype, and waited with bated breath for the big launch. At which point I then made a face and went, "That's it?" Almost everything was freakishly close to stuff I already own. A pair of teetering Mary Jane stilettos, lace up wedge booties I didn't li...

Rainy days destroy me. I never know what to wear, I don't own rain boots, always get water in my shoes, I'm short enough that my pants drag on the ground and get muddy and wet, and my hair goes flat. Rain and I are not good friends at all. This weekend I had a kid's birthday party to attend. Party in the park with yelling children hopped up on pizza, caffeinated pop and cake frosting (because none of them eat the cake part), and then they run off to play on equipment that can't give them splinters or tetanus like playgrounds of yore. This leaves the adults alone to sip beer out of coffee cups (because park rules frown on drinking outside at noon), and talk about adult things like the economy, work, how much they both suck, and of course, shoes. I was standing around, drinking my beer and nodding about some economic story or discussing work, hoping no one bloodied a nose on the playground, and wondering how bad my hair looked because of the on again, off again rain...

A few days ago I couldn't find the shoes I was looking for in the closet. There I am, rushing around, getting ready for work, probably brushing my teeth while trying not to trip on a shoe and end up bleeding to death on the floor of my closet with a stiletto in my temple, and I couldn't find my damn navy blue heeled loafers. Finally I gave up, grabbed a different pair and ran off to work. Once I got to the office all my suspicions were confirmed. The missing shoes were sitting in a drawer. Yep, a drawer. Some people own less shoes than I keep at work. I have managed to create a shoe drawer at work in one of my file cabinets. It's rare that I travel to work in certain shoes, especially when it's raining or snowing. Sure, cheap shoes put up with crap weather, but rain ruins suede and tweed, sidewalk construction can rid the patent off a pair of covered heels, and snow...I don't even feel the need to explain myself. As a result of big city living, I often c...

Shoes wear out. I realize that, and am totally OK with it. Sometimes I can get them fixed. A new heel cap or sole does wonders to breathe life into a new pair of shoes. Then other times shoes are damaged in a way that makes you want to cry. (Like when my puppy chewed the strap off a Fluevog ). Or today when I saw a tear in a pair of Steve Madden shoes that are near and dear to me. From this angle it's hard to see the tear. These are affectionately known as my "Grandma" shoes, because she would have loved them. That means their either old lady shoes, or my grandma had awesome taste in footwear. Hint: It was totally the latter. So you can imagine my horror today when I saw a tear in the side of my white and black snakeskin shoes. A tear in the middle of the shoe, near the seam, that was a folded piece that created a little pocket. A little pocket of terror. A pocket with a tear that is threatening to become something larger and ultimately destroy my shoe. How do...

Every few years the classic loafer (this season it's called a spectator) makes it's way back into the stores and hearts of the world. There's something about that round shape, too much stitching, tassels and/or fringe that doesn't move, that people gravitate towards at least once a decade.  My heeled loafers and spectators A few years ago a friend of mine managed to find me a pair of blue patent leather loafers that had fringe, tassels, a bow, and a wood stacked 4 inch heel. He bought them without even asking. He knew I'd love them.  Around the same time I bought a pair of loafers/spectators (with a heel) from Steve Madden . I saw them and loved them. The color combination paired with the narrow toe and wooden heel made the shoe look a little 1930s and a lot corporate chic. This season spectators and their monotone brother, loafers, seem to be everywhere. Unfortunately, they're all flat. Kenneth Cole and Cole Haan boast beautiful spectators in v...

This weekend I went on a much needed shopping trip, and of course visited the obligatory shoe stores. I was sad to find that both the Steve Madden and Nine West stores had closed (thank god for the Internet), and I was "only" left with Bakers , Aldo and Nordstrom . Her feet look smashy.  Nordstrom was wildly uninspiring, Bakers seemed to be having some kind of sizing problem where a 7 was too small and a 7 1/2 was too big (really?), which left Aldo , where a salesgirl (who was not the one helping me) tried her damnedest to sell me on the idea of "toe cleavage." Salesgirl : "Those are amazing on you." Me : "I don't like them. The toe is too narrow, there's no platform, and it shoes the cracks of all my toes so my feet look fat." Salesgirl : "That's the way people are wearing them right now." Me (still being polite and trying on a different pair): "I prefer to wear my shoes so you can't see the cracks...

I make fun of people. I'll admit it. I'm snotty and totally call people out for looking like idiots. And in case you missed it I spent my whole last post making fun of a woman who couldn't zip her boots over her calves. Shortly thereafter I was delivered a giant box of karma straight from Steve Madden . Carmel colored boots. These boots hate me. They are amazing. So amazing that as soon as I ordered them, I ordered this great oatmeal colored sweaterdress to go with them. Then I found a matching belt. Christ, this was going to be the cutest outfit ever. Then the boots arrived. I slid my feet into them, feeling the buttery leather and smelling that new shoe smell, packing materials all over the table. I was feeling smug since I read the description, and knew the boots were 14 inches around at the top. Same as my calves. I measured them before I ordered the boots. So why weren't they fitting? Sure, I got my foot in just fine, but as I tried to slide the ...

There have been some changes lately, and I'm getting ready to change jobs. Along with the joy and fear this brings, there's also the tedious task of going through all the crap that has accumulated in my office over the last few years and taking it home, throwing it out and packing it in boxes. So it's kind of like a treasure hunt of paper and bullshit. Stupid boots and stupid tote bags Like every good big city professional who braves public transportation (or at least one who cares about their shoes), I do not wear my nice shoes into the office on rainy or snowy days. Instead I wear something logical and hideous, and then run to my office before anyone sees me so I can slide on my heels and transform into a professional woman, as opposed to one of those creepy nylon and gym shoe wearing speed walkers. This means that over time I started to develop a shoe collection at the office. The bottom drawer of a file cabinet was devoted to shoes. Sometimes they'd be rotate...

The Daily Express in the UK ran an article about what women spend on shoes in their lifetime. They said it was about $20,000 and assumes that the average woman has 16 pairs of shoes. I think that may mean that I'll spend about $50,000 in my lifetime, if not more, based on the fact that I have way more than 16 pair of shoes. That figure is in no way based on real math, so it could be more over the course of my life. Couple that with the more than seven pairs a year my significant other buys, and he and I will have spent enough in a lifetime to buy a small island. The article goes on to say that women own an average of six pairs of flip flops and ballet flats (I have 2 flip flops and 0 ballet flats), three pair of boots (I don't really have time to dig those out and count), two pairs of "work shoes (what the hell is a work shoe?), four pairs of "foxy shoes" for going out (shouldn't all shoes be foxy?), and a random pair (like clown shoes?). I'm not...

Today I said goodbye to my Godmother Kathy. She was an amazing woman, and died suddenly, and unexpectedly late last week. Recently I spent some time with her at her daughter's wedding, and we talked for quite some time. She was quite a fan of Cat in Heels, and loved seeing all my different shoes, and reading about what I've been doing in my shoes. She loved shoes, frequented DSW, always had something to say about what I was wearing, and was always supportive of my writing. Kathy loved reading newspaper articles I wrote, blogs, and was always giving me journals, asking me when I was going to join my father as a published author. As I was getting ready this morning I realized that I should wear some good shoes for Kathy. Steve Madden heels were paired with a black dress and a lot of Kleenex. I knew she would like them because they're different, just like me. And different just like her. They didn't keep me from sinking into the grass, and they didn't make me f...

When my mom finds a sweater she likes, she then buys it in multiple colors. I never understood it. Then I saw this amazing pair of leopard shoes and found myself wondering, how many pairs of leopard shoes is too many? I think it's a family trait. I currently have two pair of leopard shoes. One is a pair of Mary Jane style wedges I hate and never wear. They will soon be in a garage sale. Another is a fabulous pair of Steve Madden with a wooden platform and heel and they're made of pony hair! How could those be any cooler? How about if they have a giant red ruffle on them? These shoes are so me that I had three people email me photos of them, and I tried to convince a friend to buy them so I can borrow them. She did not bite, and I was really having a hard time justifying this purchase. So then my thought was that I should find the same shoe with a peep toe, and then it's a totally different look. But then, these aren't horse hair, so it's really not the same...