About a month ago I was wearing Chanel flat sandals that look very much like a Chanel bag on my feet with quilting and chains etc. The back strap often fell down so I lashed the front strap to my foot VERY tightly to prevent the back from annoying me too much that day. I could feel the front strap pressing on the top bone of my foot all day but it was worth that minor discomfort to not have to stop every 10 feet to pick up the strap. Until the next morning when I was in so much pain I couldn’t put weight on my foot. That pain didn’t go away though I found that in flip flops I could manage to walk so I went to work…I didn’t do anything about it because I had plans a few days in the future that I really did not want to give up.
However, when Monday rolled around and I went to the doctor I learned what my punishment was to be. My rather fashionable doctor, herself in very high Christian Loubutin wedges told me that I had to wear, “well padded shoes”. It took me a minute to realize just what she was saying and I asked her in horrified tones, “you mean sneakers, don’t you!?!?!?!?!” She was sympathetic but told me that it was just a pulled tendon and that it would go away as long as I took care of it now, and properly, that I should think of the sneakers as medicine. I bravely asked her for how long and her response was 2 weeks, maybe a bit longer. I was resigned to my fate even though I didn’t realize ALL the implications.
In addition to being a heel wearer I love being dressed up, I wear suits or a jacket almost every day and mostly with skirts (and I wear dresses when they are fashionable). I rarely wear denim. And, I never wear sneakers. I couldn’t wear a skirt with sneakers, I just couldn’t. To go to work, I pulled out my wide leg tuxedo pants (let’s just say it’s a good thing the summer ended early in the north east this season) so I could wear my cute round toe Pumas (which I hadn’t worn in 2 years) and hide them a bit. It was fine but emotionally, I was really uncomfortable though the worst was yet to come. I managed…I wore all my wide leg pants (thankfully it’s a look I love). People all over my office were wondered why I was suddenly so short-I explained…
A week into my ordeal it was “Fashion’s Night Out” and I had no choice but to come to terms the fact that I was going to be stuck in sneakers for the biggest fashion party since Seventh on Sale. Thank God Anna Wintour was in Queens and I wouldn’t run into her. I hung out that night with a friend at my favorite cross roads of 57th St and Madison Ave. but I was in SNEAKERS. All around me was Chanel, Loubutin, Blanick, Vuitton and I had my gorgeous Saint Laurent cage shoes in my bag!!! Not on my feet. I cannot begin to describe to just how devastating this was for me. How soul killing. But, I somehow survived.
A day or two after that was a very high level meeting in my office, for which I was responsible for set up and greeting the ultra senior executives. I was greeting, chatting, and walking with CEO’s (including my own company’s) from all over the world in SNEAKERS. I could barely keep from crying.
I am sick of wearing pants, and I am sick of wearing the same 8 pairs-I want skirts. I wanted navy and brown and this season’s ultra fashion forward beige! I’ve even worn jeans a few times. And yet I am stuck.
Suits of any kind with casual footwear just is not the look that represents who I am. Normally I’d wear, even if I were wearing pants, au courant designer heels. In my head my life is conducted in 1925 or 1940, one of the decades prior to the social revolutions of the 60’s which ushered in the ultra casual lifestyles so many live today. I am not a jeans and t-shirt wearer. When I do wear jeans it is with a great jacket, lots of jewelry and heels. My clothes are my soul and to have to wear them in a way that doesn’t suit me is wrenching. People I met, laughed, who wouldn’t want to wear sneakers every day especially with a doctor’s permission?!?! I simply felt that everyone was staring at my feet laughing in their imaginations and I was miserable.
Sigh…I wore my sneakers faithfully for 2 weeks and then looked forward to Rosh Hashanah on which I had to wear a skirt. My family is rather Orthodox and observant Jewish women are forbidden from wearing pants, always, but I am not that strict in my observances. When I go to Temple, though, I would not wear pants. I looked forward to the holiday with a joy I hadn’t in a few years but also in fear. In preparation, I wore my sneakers an extra week, stayed off my feet as much as possible and last Saturday morning put on a skirt for the first time in a month. My heart soared. I put on my ruffly Lanvin shoes and walked the three blocks to Synagogue with a very light step. No pain! The following day I was able to wear my vintage dress with my new and Ralph Lauren Purple Label python platform very 1940’s sandals and floated the three blocks to Synagogue. No pain.
So encouraged, I decided on 1 inch heel black booties, thinking the boot would encase my foot in support and I was right, though I carried my sneakers as a precaution. I even made so bold as to try a pair of suede platforms but after a few hours they hurt a bit so I went back to the boots. Again, encouraged by the lack of pain today, I wore flat shoes to walk to work for the first time in a month with no pain, and I have my sneakers in my bag. I don’t really like flats but it means I am almost back to normal!!!!!!!!!!!!! So far I have spent the whole day in my beloved python shoes and I live in hopes of not thinking about the shoes on my feet except in terms of their beauty.
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