Autumn in the Air

Of course, the new air has me dreaming of fall and fall clothes. Every magazine is touting their new fall fashion issues, and with them come the usual proclamations: "The Little Black Dress is Back!" "The NEW Gilded Age" (cause, like last year, it wasn't the gilded age.) "Forty Looks for Forty Bucks" blah blah. The forecasting I can do without. 

Instead, my need for new fall gear, comes, I think, from deep within my reptilian memory. Going-back-to-school shopping was a ritual initially detested, then dreaded, and finally enjoyed, though my mother and I would fight about what was appropriate. (And sometimes SHE was the misguided one, letting me get ridiculously sophisticated clothes that I insisted I needed, and then never wore again, after getting mocked by my peers. A suit comes to mind. Like the kind secretaries wear to work. Fall, '93.)

These shoes fit my fall mood perfectly. I bought them several months ago, but they aren't very summer, are they?  They are womanly, as opposed to carefree and girly, but I wouldn't call them serious or old either. The round toe, high high heels and the black soles are too subtly playful for that. I like to think of them as the Sophia Loren of shoes: Cool without trying at all, smart, Italian, and round in all the right places. They'll look great with anything, and everything, or nothing at all.