fashion chronicles: shoesies

hooray!  thank you for all of your comments (both on the blog and e-mailed to me).  it’s lovely to know that i am in good company on this recent interest and i very much appreciate all the links you shared with me.  i’ll try to also share links with you as i discover them.  today, let’s talk shoes!

one of the first things i noticed when i began deconstructing the outfits i liked on the fashion blogs i discovered (see list at bottom of this post) was that everyone seemed to be wearing heels or wedges or very fancy flats (gladiator sandals are apparently hot this year?).  no one was wearing keen flip flops.  if i wanted to up the style quotient, i was obviously going to need to get some new shoes.

but i hate uncomfortable shoes.  and i didn’t feel like i could justify spending a ton of money on new shoes right now.  so, i began the hunt.  maybe i could find some good quality shoes at thrift stores for a steal?  one day, when the happy toddler was at daycare and i had an unusual day off of work, i actually visited 7 thrift stores in one day.  i found a few pairs that felt comfortable enough in the store and were only a few bucks a pair, but most of them, after being worn for more than a few hours made my feet feel tired.  or at the least, made me begin looking for excuses not to walk very far.  i realized i needed to reconsider the importance of comfort.

i discovered these born beauties on a date night when we stumbled into a “one-day sale” that knocked these down to 75% off of their regular price.  i wasn’t sure i needed pink shoes, but the price was right and they were comfortable!  (spoiler alert:  turns out pink is actually my new neutral–i love these and they go with so many of my clothes!)

they actually go great with my outfit today, but i wanted an excuse to wear the indigo sylvie shoes.

these were purchased at a resale shop and were more expensive than i’m used to paying for anything secondhand, but they were, in essence, 75% off the original price, so i’m still counting them a steal.  and they are surprisingly comfortable for pumps.

here are some other accessory peeks from today’s outfit:

shirt thrifted last year in detroit.  necklace made by me.  cleavage made by one of my new bras.  ahem.

bracelet from my stash.  skirt swapped from a friend.

as for my full-length fashion shot… still don’t have that figured out quite yet.

i realllllly thought i had it, but when i looked at it on the big screen, i realized that my autofocus had chosen to highlight a fence in the foreground right on the edge of the photo (cropped out).  sigh.  maybe we could call this intentional soft focus?

while i’m still figuring it out, here’s some fashion bloggers who have their photography (and wardrobe) already under control:

a beautiful mess  (maybe i should twirl my hair more?)

the hidden seed (love love love how she’s done backgrounds!  thanks for the link, beans!)

kendi everyday (i think she and her husband go scout for shooting locations together.  i don’t see that happening in the happy household anytime soon.)

do you have other favorites to share?

oh, and many other style bloggers put links and labels on all their clothes and accessories (i guess just in case readers want to buy the same thing).  since the vast majority of my stuff is from thrift stores (and therefore not likely to be available for re-shopping) is it worth it?  would it be interesting to you to know where i bought it?  or what brand it is?