The Perfect Pair

April 7, 2000

My wardrobe, while extensive, is pretty basic. A lot of stuff in varying shades of black, gray, beige, camel, taupe, and putty. No patterns. Few colors. It makes putting things together pretty easy.

Last year I branched out a little bit. I added green--loden and olive. But I haven't really gone much beyond that. I do have a few colored tops, but mostly they're white, black and beige--oxford shirts and sweaters, mostly turtlenecks.

Then there are the shoes. I have a lot of shoes. I don't ever think a person can have too many pairs of shoes. But almost all of my shoes are black. Chuck finds it amazing. He wonders how many different pairs of shoes could a person need--especially since they're all the same color. A lot I say.

The thing of it is, until about ten years ago I never wore black. I even had some patterned clothes. OK, the patterns were mostly subtle paisleys, but it was jewel tones for me. Cobalt blue, fuschia, gold. Deep, rich, intense colors.

I think the turning point came the first time I dyed my hair red. I think that unless you're a natural redhead, you really have to worry about your hair clashing with your clothes. Natural redheads don't really seem to face this problem though.

Anyway, I was all about blacks and beiges until about two months ago. Then something hit me. Lavender (OK, schwee). I was going to have a theme color and it was going to be lavender. Last summer I bought the lavender linen top. I got a lot of compliments when I wore it. Perhaps I was on to something color-wise.

Then everywhere I turned I saw lavender and pink. Every catalogue. Every store display. Wow, this is going to be easy. And the icing on the cake is that lavender looks great with black.

Then as if things weren't good enough already, my April issue of In Style magazine arrived. I know I've mentioned before, but it bears repeating: I LOVE THIS MAGAZINE. I read the whole thing, cover to cover, the day it arrives.

OK, read might be stretching it. I'll admit that editorially speaking, the magazine is a bit on the light side (to be generous), but oh those ads and pictures.

Well, round about page 35 of the ads I had a life changing experience. You see, that is where I saw the ad. The 9 West shoe ad. I love shoes. Well, here was this pair of shoes. The most perfect pair of shoes ever created. Lavenderish/pink silk beaded mules. Well, these shoes would be the perfect addition to my growing collection of all things lavender. I tagged the page. Then I thought about nothing but those shoes for three days. I knew then I had to have them.

Tuesday night Zoe and I went to the mall. There's a 9 West store at my mall. We went in. I asked about The Shoes. The salesman didn't have the pink ones in stock but let me try them on in beige for fit. Then he called all over Southern California. He found a pair for me in Santa Barbara. They would ship them out Wednesday morning. He said I should have them by Thursday.

Oh Happy Day!

Thursday morning they arrived. I opened the box. They were all I wanted and more.

Now these are the type of shoes you either love or hate. Me...I love them, Zoe too. Chuck thinks they're the ugliest things he's ever seen in his entire life, and he thinks that 99.5% of my shoes are ugly. You either think they go with almost absolutely everything, or you couldn't ever imagine one thing they might go with.

The perfect pair of shoes...and they're even pretty comfortable.

Until next time...