There.
You can’t identify them in the bell photo. These were one of the FOUR PAIRS I bought on that memorable day this summer. So I was not merely being self indulgent. I was going to need a pair of girl shoes I could ring bells in!* I was going to need them soon!**
* Well, okay, I could have taken the shoes off. This would be no weirder than bicycle clips.
** Yes, of course I needed the other three pairs too.
Wedding dress
. . . for someone else’s wedding. I bought this yonks ago when Dickinsons were getting married nearly every other weekend. I don’t think I’ve worn it since the last of the previous generation got fired off, and there’s been a lull while the next lot grow up. There is a truly fabulous hat that goes with it, but as a mere member of the wedding–a member, furthermore, hiding in the back row ready to dart upstairs and grab a bell rope*–this did not seem to me suitable. Sigh. It’s a big black straw thing with red roses and veiling and I adore it, but I don’t lead a red roses and veiling sort of life.** Which is a good thing. But . . .
Fortunately Peter has many other talents and virtues because photo-taking is not among them. Be sure and get all of me! I said, repeatedly. So when I went to plug in the camera I discovered three photos of me cut off at the knees which not only is not all of me but looks really dumb. So here’s a cropped one to which I invite you to observe that I’m wearing make up. The last time this happened was probably the last time I wore this dress. Most of the time I don’t care if I’m wiped out by the brilliance of my apparel but this dress gets all sad if you look like a ghost in it.*** I’m not sure if you can see the eye paint behind my glasses, but the lipstick is what I could get on a Friday afternoon in a small town corner pharmacy. Apparently deep hot pink/non-scarlet reds are not in vogue at the moment. At least not in small town corner pharmacies. Last time I needed lipstick for this dress I was spoilt for choice.
* At which point where would I put the hat? This is not a hat you just idly lay down any old where and we don’t have padded velvet hat stands nor even coat check personnel in bell towers.
** Even without the hat, Oisin, who was playing organ, blinked at me a couple of times and said, you scrub up rather well. Maybe I should change out of the muddy jeans for my piano lessons. No, I can’t be bothered.
*** It’s even worse if you’re wearing The Hat.
Best Hot Frock Shoes
And all four of today’s pairs together cost less than these did. I took this photo several days ago because I decided that Best Hot Frock didn’t do them justice. Well, you know, rhinestones.
Generally speaking I make it a rule never to buy clobber full price.* But in this case I was trying to make a good impression on a publisher. I can’t remember why. But I still have the dress. And the shoes.
* This has less to do with my body parts being mostly funny sizes and more to do with the fact that I spend 99% of my time in hellhound-hair-covered jeans, with lashings of garden and countryside mud (and lately a small but significant britches-with-horsehair activity). I want another pair of nonhellhoundwalking shoes why?
Cute overload
I mean, have you ever seen cuter shoes?* The ones that first caught my eye were these in pink . . . and the whole want, want thing was very strong. But I already have some amazingly silly shoes in pink and look at this adorable green! How did these survive long enough to go on sale??**
* If there were any men reading this blog, there aren’t any more.
** No sane person with feet this big wants to draw attention to them this way.
Shoes, illustrated
I bet Neil Gaiman has never posted a photo of the four pairs of shoes he bought in one afternoon* on his blog.
* Four pairs of shoes is nothing really. If I find a good Converse All Star shop I go into a berserker frenzy. My record is, I believe, nineteen pairs. Fortunately I don’t get to good Converse All Star shops all that often.