For the love of shoes

I sadly can’t remember my first pair of heels, but I guess I must have been 15 or 16 years old when I bought them. Back then (2003) online shopping wasn’t a big thing yet, and my choices were limited, me being a size 35. I got a few pairs in a 36 and used them with an insole, but I honestly can’t remember if it was love at first sight. I’m kind of short (okay not kind of short, just really short), and the heels helped me and my baby-face look a bit more my age. In my late teens and early twenties the love of wearing heels grew. I still looked very young, and the heels made me feel more confident when going out. I think most women feel it when they put on a pair of heels, the way they just lift you up, even more than what those few centimetres can account for. They also made a nice add of femininity during the years I spent in uniform. I joined the Army at 18 and on the weekends I liked to be more girly than usual. I loved everything pink and glittery, and I still do. Being short, I've also always hated clothes because they never really looked good, never really fit right. So heels were my way of dressing up for the occasion. You can get pretty far with jeans, a t-shirt and some awesome heels.

The heels I owned back then were pretty straight forward. Bought to survive taking me out to crowded bars, occasionally getting stepped on, and always getting spilled on. I had maybe 4 or 5 pairs, very similar in the design of the shoe, but in different colors. My favourites were (of course) a bright pink pair. Maybe they'll get their own post one day.

My love of shoes changed when I started Medical School and met my now husband. We actually met a couple of weeks before I started Medical School, but that’s another story. As many other ex-singles I stopped going out as much, and when we went out, it wasn’t to the same crowded bars anymore. I also started on a new kind of medication (also another story), and couldn’t drink alcohol the way the younger me used to. So the time spent in heels lessened, and the need for cheap, robust heels changed. I started wearing my heels at home because I missed the way they made me feel, and suddenly it opened up the possibility of buying shoes I wouldn’t otherwise have bought. Ridiculous shoes, that wouldn’t survive a night out. Or shoes that would be too excruciating to wear for a whole night. Or for ten minutes for that matter. I started loving the ridiculous shoes. Especially the pale pink ones with something "extra". Some sparkles, a flower or a bow, and I was sold. I still am. I call the pale pink ones with extra “Janne shoes”, and I feel very lucky when I find such a pair in my size and prize range.

Today I have more than 60 pairs of heels, and many of them have never stepped a foot outside (if you can say that about shoes). Though I love the shoes that were made for walkin', I might just love the other ones even more. The really impractical, way too delicate, not that wearable, definitely too expensive, ridiculously over the top shoes, that some might even call stupid. Because it's not all about wearing my shoes anymore, it’s about something else. It’s about looking at them every day and just getting a kick out of how pretty they are. To me they’re like beautiful pieces of art or like bouquets of flowers that never die. Flowers that also sparkle in the sun that is. I do realize I also get a kick out of buying them, so there’s a tiny bit of shopaholic in there too, but I like to think that it could be a lot worse. Doesn't all girls have a tiny bit of shopaholic in them anyways? And does me gender generalizing in 2020 mean my blog is dead before it ever began? I guess if that's the case it was fun while it lasted.

Janne

#shoeloveistruelove