I spent nearly 30 years putting my feet into torture devices! I am woman, hear me roar - in pain!Yes, starting at the tender age of 15, foot fashion became an obsession with me and I left the world of Keds and bare feet to enter the "Dark Shoe Ages" of high heels, stilettos, platforms and triangle toes.
Pssst! Don't tell anyone but this obsession really started when I was about 8 and I got my first Barbie doll. Do you remember the little black sling backs that came with those Barbies? Well, around the same time some company got the bright idea that little girls might like to have their own pair of Barbie style shoes and marketed a line of little plastic sling back toy shoes. I whined enough and got a pair for my next birthday. I then spent the next year or so proudly clomping around the neighborhood - falling around the neighborhood would be a better description! My first pair of high heels! I was officially a Shoe Diva!
My obsession with shoes was monumental. My motto was:
"There's no such thing as Too Many Shoes!!!" and I spent most of my adult life on a quest to own every possible type of shoe in every possible color from every top designer. I had pumps, spectators, espadrilles, sling backs, high heels, stilettos and, yes, I even had a pair of high heeled sneakers! I could retire on the amount of money I spent on shoes, and this was in the days before Manolo Blahniks and Jimmy Choos! Those two designers would have put my shoe budget in the same catagory as the National Debt!Do you remember that Barbies foot was permanently frozen into a painful arch to match those shoes? Yeah, after 30 years my foot ended up in the same situation! The first thing I would do at the end of a day of wearing most of these shoes was walk in the door, sit down, take my shoes off and rub my feet for half an hour. But this did not stop me from buying more and wearing them ten hours a day - oh no!
Want to know how bad my obsession was? I had purchased a pair of gorgeous, turquoise suede high heels for my 10th high school reunion. Oh, these shoes were bee-you-ti-ful! Soft, supple, made me tall and the color matched my hand painted jacket perfectly! Then a week before the reunion I tripped over a parking block and bone bruised my big toe on my right foot. I was told to elevate my foot and not wear shoes at all - Excuse me? Not wear those shoes? Guess what I did? I wore those shoes, you betcha!
I am somewhat older, wiser - and in possession of a big fat toe - now. I no longer buy shoes that cost a fortune to own and can create a fortune in doctor's bills. I am not as fashion obsessed as I used to be, and I have a wardrobe of more practical shoes now. But don't think I don't have those in every color and design too!
Today, tucked away in my closet, nestled in a box, are a few of my most favorite shoes from those years and every once in a while my obsession overtakes me. I dig that box out and spend a few moments with those gorgeous torture devices of yesteryear. Once a Shoe Diva, always a Shoe Diva.
