The Bias Cut

We all have dreams about the way we want things to be. Whether it's our careers, our love lives, or yes, even our shoes. Maybe it's not JUST shoes, but our whole appearance, of which shoes are part and parcel. And that is as important as any other dream, is it not? Just as we want to work our best, and love our best, we should also often strive to look our best, for our better inside feelings, if nothing else. (Just today I went to the dentist in a long, black, leather-belted cashmere dress coat, for no other reason that it is not nice out, going to the dentist is as mundane as it gets, and the coat was a nice balm for my soul.)

I had a dream about a pair of shoes once, a fantasy almost. I always think a fantasy is a dream that you really want to come true but probably never will. When a fantasy comes to life, it's magic. (Well, hopefully. Sometimes I imagine a fantasy come true could be a let down, if not an all out disaster. But that is hardly the point here...)

The shoe of my dream was black, and I guess what one might call a sort of sandal. The heel was very high, but not skinny. Indeed, the heel was thick, but not TOO thick- there was no hint of clunkiness in my mind's eye. There was a small bit of detail, but nothing outrageous- a chaste silver buckle at the side perhaps. The shoes were both serious and fun, a difficult thing to pull off. They were the sort of shoes that a girl could actually traipse around in day or night, if one ever felt like traipsing. I, for one, often hope that I am the sort that could pull off traipsing. In these phantasmorgial shoes, I was indeed a traipser, but certainly not a prancer. (Prancing, I think, is for the sort of ladies who claim to have slept with Tiger Woods.)

At any rate, during the period where the dream of this particular shoe was happening on a recurring basis, I was flipping through the pages of a fashion magazine- most likely Vogue, most likely at an airport, though I can't recall- and I spotted my actual fantasy shoes in an ad. If you've ever read any of my shoe blog before, you can probably bet it was a Prada ad, of course. It was. I was pleased to realized that the shoes even existed, to be honest. Their presence in the world was a comfort- both to know that my at-that-moment perfect shoes were out there, and that someone had thought to design them, much less Miuccia herself. I stared for a moment, and flipped on, to read Jeffrey Steingarten probably.

Months later, at the Jefferey sale, I was confronted with the reality of them. There they were! And they were just as perfect in real life, as in the dream and in the ad. The leather was even the right kind of soft. It felt ordained. Of course I had to get them! They were my fantasy shoes! And, honestly, they are still one of my favorite pairs of shoes. I wear them every chance I get- not daily, no, but biweekly in the summer, definitely. I yearn to wear them with tights in the winter. And they are comfortable as heels that high can be! Finding them again in the spring is always a joy and a relief, like having coffee with an old friend you don't get to see often. The initial happiness of seeing them in person, is followed by relief that you still like each other, and indeed, enjoy each others company.

But my fantasy has moved on, to a sort of ankle boot, with a platform, in grey suede. I thought I saw them once, in real life, but I think it might have been in a dream.