I have become obsessed with jellies. Not food...jam...but plastic shoes I can wear in the rain that look cute and will not be ruined.
2 or 3 years ago I actually bought the one and only pair of shoes I ever bought at Payless. I saw an ad in Vogue that the very obscure French designer, Abaete was doing a season for Payless. I went to look and didn't like what was shown in the ad but found a pair of calf high black vinyl mod boots with a 1-inch Lucite wedge. The box said $110, the shelf said $68 and when I got to the register they were $10!!!!!!!!!!! I should have bought as many pairs were there but I really had no way of knowing how good looking and how comfortable they would turn out to be. Finally cute rain shoes. And it rained a lot that year but I was cool. Of course by the time I was ready for another pair I couldn't find any others. Now they have begun to wear out and I have tried Googling "cute vinyl mod boots" but nothing really comes up.
I was wandering on Madison Ave one weekend day a few months ago and walked past a store with very cute plastic ballet flats I went in and had so much fun talking to the lovely ladies- I bought a pair of brown plastic tortoise shell ballet flats. Enter the Vivienne Westwood for Melissa jelly! I discovered she had almost every conceivable style of shoe or bootie-even strappy sandals with spikey heels!! In plastic, for the rain!! Sadly, they don't make 1/2 sizes and I am a 1/2 size, so I bought the 6 as my foot fell out of the 7 as I knew it would. They are not the most comfortable shoes on earth but my feet are dry and my really good leather shoes aren't being ruined and I look much more stylish than I did before the Abaete vinyl boots. I don't believe one has to give fashion for comfort or comfort for fashion-and now my theory is complete. Rain was the weakness in it. Throughout the summer I found really cheap pairs of jellies at fancy stores and scooped them all up! At BCBG, at French Connection (ok, maybe not so fancy) even at Donna Karan.
Saturday I was doing some errands and went into Bergdorf's to say hello to a friend who works there and on the 5th floor shoe department I noticed a group of jellies. Some even by Jean Paul Gaultier!!!!!!!!! The salesperson brought out the 3 pairs I was interested in and stayed with me while I was deciding, thereby foregoing other customers. When I decided on which pair I wanted I gave him my Neiman's card (Bergdorf's and Neiman's are owned by the same company and one can use either card interchangeably, I'm very happy to say!) he refused to take it as it had a man's name on it. I "politely" told him it was my husband's card, I'm an authorized user and I've been using it for years all over the country" he refused to check with the credit office and I left him with the shoes, however not before telling him he was quite foolish for wasting his time, that he lost other customers because of the time he spent with me and that meant lost commission. I reminded him that there is a little thing called the internet where one can get anything one wants.
The very next morning I went online and not only found my shoes within seconds at Saks and they were cheaper! And all black whereas in Bergdorf's they we're black and white two-tone which made me a little uncomfortable going into the winter. My shoes arrived yesterday and I wore them home-very comfy (!) everyone I showed them to got the same kick out of them that I did. Classic men's oxfords done in plastic!!! I'm thinking about going back to BG and showing that stupid man but I have decided to be a gracious winner. And besides there is another pair I want that seem (so far) to be only at BG, they are a sheer grey with black lace embedded in them. I will just make sure not to try to buy them from that stupid man. By the way I was in Bergdorf's last night buying something and guess what, they took my Neiman's card with no problem.
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