Cat in Heels

I get these ideas where I am suddenly convinced that I don’t have a certain kind of shoe. That of course means I immediately need said shoe. Black, red, floral, it’s all happened, but none more disastrously, or repetitively than blue. I was in Washington, D.C. a few weeks ago for work and decided to take the last remnants of the day to go out and shop at the limited stores around my office/hotel. Lucky for me one of those happens to be Nine West , which means I get new shoes pretty much every time I’m in DC. Also lucky for me, they were having a sale. Just a sampling of blue. Unfortunately, it appears everyone in D.C. who works in that area wears a size 7, because every shoe I asked to see, sale or not, they were out of. For someone hell bent on buying something, this was an awful position to be in. Then I saw them. A pair of abandoned blue, pointed toe pumps, size 7. Perfect. Mostly because I don’t have any blue shoes. It turns out I am entirely delusional. ...

Every so often I impulse buy a pair of shoes. Or like once a month. Or every other week. I will not admit to impulse buying any more than that. Except for the last few weeks. Something has really been wrong the last couple weeks and I’ve been a little more impulsive than normal. So much so that I ended up with a backlog of unworn shoes. I don’t manage to wear all my shoes equally anyway. There are some that never see the light of day, and others that are in a heavy rotation. I’ve been working on this and trying to mix up shoes with different outfits and such, but that’s not always the most successful thing. This recently backlog of unworn shoes though has gotten really bad. So bad that I was making up outfits to go with them simply so I can wear them. I’m not sure when I will simply think I don’t need another new pair of shoes. First up in the new shoes to wear are my aqua Nine West Boutique Nine heels that I picked up on sale during a business trip to Washington D.C. They w...

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...

I travel for work, and it always involves airports. The walking, security lines, finding cabs, calling cars, and running around hotels and offices kind of traveling. I promise you it is not glamorous and I do not get to see the sights. I get to see airports and hotels and office buildings. Board plane and repeat. With all the traveling I do I was recently asked what is my minimum heel height for traveling. I'm not sure I have a minimum heel height for traveling, or even a maximum, but I do have certain heels that are better for racing through airports, towing luggage, taking off and putting on in security lines, and the various other nonsense I put my heels through in an average trip. Perfect airport heels - from Nine West My go-to heels for a business trip are my Nine West Mary Janes. They have two straps and a pointed heel, so they're cute and go with anything, but they also have a small platforms (totally helps with comfort) and a three to four inch heel. If I w...

Years ago I bought what instantly became my favorites shoes. Red, round toe sling backs with red and black piping by Nine West . They were the perfect combination of trendy and classic. Something simple with a '60s flair that went with everything. I wore them more than I ever thought I would wear red shoes. It turns out when your entire wardrobe is black and white, red shoes go with everything. They look so much better in the picture. Then this week they died. I slipped them off at the end of the day, looked down, and realized that they were really done. Little red flecks from the inside leather inside of the shoes had peeled off and were all over my feet. Plus the white piping along the side of the shoe was cracking and peeling, the red heels had become discolored from being subjected to water, snow and whatever other stupidity I had subjected the heels to over the years. All this simply adds up to their ultimate demise. I really am way more upset about this whole ...

I once had a sales associate at at shoe store tell me that I would ruin the sole of my shoes if I wore them outside. On the list of dumb shit I've heard in my life, this ranks up there. Aside from the obvious fact that a main purpose of any kind of footwear is to protect your feet from the elements, I was unaware that there are shoes that have soles not meant for outside. Sure, there's a billion different materials, accouterments, designs, styles and materials that can make shoes a little more difficult to wear in various outside weather, but to not be able to wear them on concrete seems a little insane. One of the first ways I break in a new pair of heels is to take them on a stroll around the neighborhood, wear them on my commute to work, or walk the dog around the block in them. It helps the shoe conform to your foot, gives you an idea of where the problem points will be (if any) and tears up the bottom a little so when you are inevitably inside on carpet you don...

In case you haven't been following my tweets over the last week, I've been traveling. A lot. As in less than 72 hours at home this weekend before I went back to the office and then to the airport. Now I'm in a hotel in San Francisco and my husband and dog are forgetting who I am. Just high enough to keep my hem from dragging. And before you start thinking this is all glamorous, let me tell you, it's not. I do not get to see the city I am in. I don't have time to shop, or visit (assuming I know anyone in the city which is rare). My days start before the sun comes up and end after it goes down. None of which makes any difference because I rarely get to see a window and actually bear witness to the fact that the sun came out. Hell, it may not have come out at all. Makes little to no difference to me. All the traveling causes shoe issues. What does one wear when you're going to be tearing around airports and standing for hours at a time? Something professio...

This weekend I went out to dinner with my husband a friend to catch up, have a few drinks and hang out. Because I’m incapable of dressing down or bring casual, I was channeling Peg Bundy with a pair of Leopard print capri pants and a black halter top and black sandals. They’re a classic pair of Nine West sandals with a buckle across the toe, three inch heel and ankle strap. I’ve had them forever, and every so often they get dragged out when I’m going somewhere that involves walking but still calls for a stiletto. Like a summer dinner in the neighborhood. A little girl loves these shoes. She has good taste.  As we’re standing outside the restaurant, waiting to be seated, a mother passes by with a little girl in a stroller. She was probably about 2 or 3 years old, and as they approached she stuck her little arm out of the stroller, pointed at my shoes and screamed, “I love your shoes.” As she got closer she said it again, and again. I laughed, exchanged a look with ...

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...