Fashion is where you find it
My wife sent me out this past weekend to buy new dress shoes for Italy.
I tried to tell her that hiking boots look great while traveling, especially with a sports coat and nice shirt. In a nice trattoria, say a little place somewhere in Tuscany, where the locals will marvel at your sense of maverick style.
She wasn’t buying any of it.
“I’d rather you get nice shoes for going out,” she said. “You never get anything for yourself anyway. It’s fun to see you get new clothes.”
Yes, I did get a few new shirts, as well as two new pair or those wrinkle-free, stain-free khakis (and let me say right here that these pants rock. Spill anything on them, and it beads up; pull ‘em out of the dryer, pull ‘em on and go).
While I will take my hiking boots _ comfort does trump fashion sense with me _ there I was in the mall on Sunday looking at dress shoes. Bleck.
It has been nearly four years since my last dress shoe purchase (for my wedding and the boy killed them the one time he wore them). In that time, I’ve run through three pair of hiking boots and four pair of running shoes. I’m a hiking boot kinda guy.
And looking for shoes other than the coolest new style of boot does nothing for me. So I took my 10-year-old daughter.
Who walked 10 feet behind me at all times and ignored me if I looked in her direction.
She was no help.
“These are all really ugly,” she said.
They were. We stopped at store after store, dedicated shoe places and department stores. What wasn’t ugly was uncomfortable. I wanted something in a black monk-strap style. All anyone had were these butt-ugly block-toed black slip-ons, with cheap rubber soles.
We ducked into Macy’s for one last look. Macy’s has decent style, right?
Wall-to-wall butt-ugly shoes.
Then I had an epiphany.
“You didn’t get any shoes?” my wife asked.
“Hon, we’re going to the fashion shoe capital of the world,” I said. “I’ll pick up a pair when I get there.”
I tried to tell her that hiking boots look great while traveling, especially with a sports coat and nice shirt. In a nice trattoria, say a little place somewhere in Tuscany, where the locals will marvel at your sense of maverick style.
She wasn’t buying any of it.
“I’d rather you get nice shoes for going out,” she said. “You never get anything for yourself anyway. It’s fun to see you get new clothes.”
Yes, I did get a few new shirts, as well as two new pair or those wrinkle-free, stain-free khakis (and let me say right here that these pants rock. Spill anything on them, and it beads up; pull ‘em out of the dryer, pull ‘em on and go).
While I will take my hiking boots _ comfort does trump fashion sense with me _ there I was in the mall on Sunday looking at dress shoes. Bleck.
It has been nearly four years since my last dress shoe purchase (for my wedding and the boy killed them the one time he wore them). In that time, I’ve run through three pair of hiking boots and four pair of running shoes. I’m a hiking boot kinda guy.
And looking for shoes other than the coolest new style of boot does nothing for me. So I took my 10-year-old daughter.
Who walked 10 feet behind me at all times and ignored me if I looked in her direction.
She was no help.
“These are all really ugly,” she said.
They were. We stopped at store after store, dedicated shoe places and department stores. What wasn’t ugly was uncomfortable. I wanted something in a black monk-strap style. All anyone had were these butt-ugly block-toed black slip-ons, with cheap rubber soles.
We ducked into Macy’s for one last look. Macy’s has decent style, right?
Wall-to-wall butt-ugly shoes.
Then I had an epiphany.
“You didn’t get any shoes?” my wife asked.
“Hon, we’re going to the fashion shoe capital of the world,” I said. “I’ll pick up a pair when I get there.”
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