Tieks Review

I can't remember when I first heard about Tieks but I knew the concept was one that made sense to me. Maybe I heard about them from Oprah? Regardless, the idea of owning easy, portable, fold-up flats that were cute but functional and very comfy appealed to me especially as a travel option. Indecision plagues my preparations for a plane trip. I often swap shoes a few times before I settle on something that I think will be good enough for walking (or potentially running, in the case of a tight connection) through an airport and big enough to handle the potential for water retention (as travels are prone to do).

Since most of the trips I take entail visiting cities, I expect to walk a lot so I always need shoes that can be comfy but also cute. I have a big conference trip planned for October and might have another one in November. I also usually take a trip in December and hope to go somewhere for Spring Break in March.

With many trips on the horizon and my old airport standbys looking pretty beat, I decided to try Tieks. They shipped fast and in a very compact shipping box. I've never seen shoes take up such little space. When I opened the package, the bright blue box was decorated with a bright purple elastic flower (which Emilia has enjoyed as a toy since). Inside the box were my shoes (folded up), a handwritten thank you note from someone at Tieks, and two shoe totes (a small black one that holds the shoes while folded and a bright teal one to fit work or "going out" shoes).

Before ordering I had three concerns: size, color choice, and comfort at the elastic heels. Although there are plenty of flats for sale at higher price points, Tieks are not exactly inexpensive. So I weighed everything beforehand. My size concern was because Tieks only come in whole sizes and I wear a half size usually. The website said to order down in size unless you are between sizes and sometimes go up and/or have a wide food. Because my half shoe size skews larger more often than smaller I ordered up and got an 8. The 8 is a bit big but that is better for travel anyway.

I had no idea about what color to pick. The color I chose needed to be worth the investment from a "statement piece" angle while being neutral enough to be versatile. I wound up with Tangerine in regular leather. I don't have any orange flats, I knew fall was approaching, and the startup uses a lot of orange in the logos which enables me to coordinate and match with our "brand." haha

Finally, I was a bit concerned about the elastic backs digging into my heels. When I attempted to wear my Tory Burch Revas for flight travel, the elastic dug in and felt painful at the end of the day. I am happy to say at least during everyday wear, Tieks do not dig into heels! We'll see if they pass my flight travel test in October!

Thank you, Tieks for providing me with the flats to review. All opinions are my own. 

How high is too high for a clumsy gal?

I admit I am not the most graceful person, regardless of the shoes I wear. But I try not to tempt the fates by wearing impossibly high heels on a frequent basis. I'm comfortable hovering (or perhaps teetering) between 2 and 3 inches. I do have my new-to-me Chloé oxfords, but the sturdy wooden heel and one inch hidden platform make them a bit more manageable. Despite my clumsiness, the above are on their way to me. They are another pair of oxfords I've coveted for some time, from L.A.M.B. Although I am not certain that I will be able to pull them off for day to day, I got them for so little money that I am gong to try.

Guest Blogging Over at Shoe Love!!

Today I wrote a guest entry on the blog of my favorite shoe fetishist, dear friend of 10 years, and talented hair stylist, Erin of Shoe Love! Be sure to check it out!! And while you're at it, browse around the blog and take in her enviable shoe collection. Thank you for the opportunity to review my shoes, Erin! xo

Choosing Wedding Shoes: Advice Would Be Nice!

I am a little confused and since I will have my first dress fitting on Wednesday of this coming week, I need to decide soon. I have some great options and this is in theory a good thing. But sometimes options can makes decisions more difficult. How do you choose pieces for a big event where you know you will remember what you wore? I talked about this before a bit but projecting that kind of anticipation onto a wedding day has me a little intimidated.

This first pair is technically something old. I have had them for almost a year now. They are not very high (3 inches maybe?). It would be practical to wear something I already own but a slingback could dig into my heels causing eventual discomfort. Plus the color reads pretty yellowy with flash and I worry that I should maybe try to dye them to be a little more neutral. I don't have a shoe dye person so I would need to find someone on the fly to do this.

The second pair would be new. I can still return them to Endless. They just arrived yesterday and are a little high even with a platform.  I like that they are a neutral formal color and they have a full back. I would probably wear them again if I kept them but they are the most expensive of my options so returning might be smart.

These are pretty comfortable but still a slingback. My bridal attendants are wearing a purple color similar to this (well I didn't actually dictate what anyone wear except that they wear something purple so who knows the hues that will result but this is the color my sister is wearing). They're pretty enough but new so less financially practical than something old. Still reasonably priced on sale. I would be able wear them again to weddings and what not.

My dress is long so the likelihood of people seeing my shoes for a longer stretch of time than a moment is not that great. Unless I pick up my dress a few times for steps or something. Do I go for comfort? Wear something old? Something new? Go glam, practicality/comfort be damned? Do I bring two pairs in case of emergency (and if so should that be flats instead of heels? Do I return the new stuff because weddings are financially impractical enough on their own?

This is certainly not a "problem" or a "dilemma" so much as a minor moment of privileged confusion but I would love some input.

Buying and Selling to facilitate buying

I got my wisdom teeth out the other week. When I got home, groggy, tired, and confused, I asked Chris for my laptop. He obliged, and I sat on the couch and basically shopped. I decided I needed to finally buy some Baggus for groceries. They were lightweight, brightly colored, and reasonably priced. I bought six of them.

I had also bought APC and 3.1 Phillip Lim dresses from the outnet.com clearance sale since both were over 85% off.

I had a code that amounted to only paying shipping for these Zoya nail polishes:

I was able to satisfy my desire to try matte finish polish.

And because I was going to Ft. Lauderdale for Labor Day weekend, I decided I needed a bathing suit other than the basic black that I have been wearing.

On sale from figleaves.com, this Triumph bikini has a LOT of support/coverage for larger cup sizes.

I eyed these Giuseppe Zanotti flats for a very long time and was thrilled to find them in my size.

It is telling that these same flats were among the items I posted to juxtapose my diatribe about fiscal austerity a few entries back. As soon as I have the chance to shop under the influence I buy them. But I found them for a very good price.

Technically, these were all reasonably-priced thrills, most of which were relatively practical (dresses notwithstanding). But I felt the guilt of indulgence and decided to purge my closet a bit.

I sold one of my multiple dresses that was still new with tags, in the plastic from when I bought it. And I sold two bags. I was sad to say goodbye to the black patchwork Stam but I really only wore it to fancy occasions where I wouldn't need to carry a lot because it is so ostentatious and already so heavy.

This sale alone more than covered all my new purchases. Though I did love the bag, and think it is gorgeous. It just didn't suit my lifestyle. The Stam Hobo makes way more sense for me.

Praise be to my fashion efriends! I found affordable, calf-wide boots!

Though the Fryes were beautiful to look at, they didn't look very nice on me. So I sent them back, and continued my quest for decent-looking, reasonably-priced boots that could accommodate ample calf-width. I HATE trying on boots in stores blindly, with no prior knowledge about calf-circumference. In the interest of keeping my epic-calf-related not-so-secret shame a semi-secret, I will only try on boots in person after thorough research and multiple recommendations from fashion epals. It feels so crappy to go through all the steps to prepare oneself to try on boots (finding the size, unstuffing them from their box, taking off your own shoes, etc.) only to find that you can't tug them past your ankles! My calves measure in at 15.5 inches so I needed to find boots that could fit 16 inches (for jeans, cords, etc.).

Thanks to the reviews and recommendations from contributors at http://fashionism.org/, the calf-circumference info and reviews on zappos.com, and a few specific threads on the Ladies Auxiliary, I was armed with three primary wide-calf boot contenders, this boot season:

The Frye Paige Cuff Boots (which were never quite affordable enough for me to buy, but sure are beautiful):
Shown in Dark Brown, from Zappos. With an approx. retail of $400 (eep!)

The Seychelles "At Last" boots:
Also shown in dark brown. Retailing for around $160 or something but on sale for $99 at nordstrom.com.

And the Steven by Steve Madden "Intyce" boots:
Shown in Cognac. Retailed for $199 but available at various Marshalls and TJ Maxx for $99. Or on sale at nordstrom.com for $117.

Between these three options, I was bound to find something to fit my epic calves. So I went searching in store, to try on boots. I found a pair of the Cognac Intyce boots at TJ Maxx in a size 9. I wear an 8 in boots. I bought them anyway to take them home to try with jeans tucked. I returned them. And I bought the boots in Black from nordstrom, in the proper size.

I also bought the Seychelles At Last boots in Dark Brown. The dark brown color looks almost greyish so it matches a range of things. And the calf width is ample. So between these two boots, I feel very prepared for fall and winter. They aren't the most practical snow boots. For messy wintery weather, I will continue to sport my $10 KMart boots from five years ago. But i am happy to have upgraded my collection a bit. And at the end of the day, I spent basically the same amount of money for two pairs of boots that I planned to spend on one pair of Fryes.

Other friends have recommended the wide-calf boots from Torrid.com for inexpensive wide-calf boot options. I have also heard nice things about the J Crew extended calf boots (except by their measurements, they still wouldn't fit me). If you are in my predicament, you can run a search for extended calf boots on zappos, but they haven't aggregated their data by calf measurement. So that search just generates the boots that specifically advertise themselves as wider calf. I wish they would make the search nerdier, so that it could be more useful!

I was grateful to have access to boot recommendations, fit guides, and quality reviews from my epals about boots that were just surprisingly wide in the calf, and not specifically meant to be wide-calf.

Consuming and Mother's Day Consumption

For a while I lusted over the naplak patch Miu Miu flats (aka "ice creams on a few of the fashion boards I frequent, referencing their color patterns that mimic Neapolitan ice cream colors). I never bought them because I never found them for a good price but slowly various knock offs have tempted me. I found the most realistic looking version on dsw.com's new e-shop. Because I had a birthday coupon, free ship code, and a reward certificate I figured I could try them.

Except they are the least comfortable ever. Too big, also. I have another pair of flats by the brand (Penny Loves Kenny) that are triple strap mary janes (pseudo Chloés) and those are fine. These HURT. So back they go. Thankfully I can return in-store. I only hope I can get the reward certificate reimbursed to me somehow.

I wrote earlier about over-consuming because of various sales. And although I had every intention of returning the Tory Burch Pink Patent Reva Flats, I decided to keep them as a present to myself for taking on this extra work.

I got my spring evaluations back and they were glowing! So I feel even more entitled to them. But one of the perils of studying ideology is that I recognize my entitlement's connection with the rhetoric of retail therapy and emotional buying. The lure of justifying purchases by arguing they're rewards that I "deserve" becomes a fiscally dangerous slippery slope of retail risk. And on top of that, eventually, it seems logical to internalize the notion that "you are what you buy," and therefore, your emotional expression to others occurs through what you give them as gifts. Although I can say with certainty that I do not judge others in this manner, I agonize over finding the perfect presents for loved ones.

This Mother's Day I intend to celebrate three moms and at least two aunts. I began worrying about what to buy these ladies the day after my birthday. I bought my mom a pair of black pearl earrings that were meant to match the black Tahitian pearl necklace I bought her last year. But when they arrived in the mail, they weren't the right color and just weren't worth it. So back they go. Instead I got her this Coach wallet to match the signature print bag I got her for Christmas.
I promise that she'll protest that I spent too much. After all, she only asked for a hanging basket (and I got her a beautiful one). But I wanted to get her something more because she has always gone above and beyond in gift giving to me. I know she'd be just as pleased with a thoughtfully composed letter in a pretty card (which she'll get, of course) or a framed photo (which I've done for various holidays). But I found a good deal on this and think she will really like it.

Chris (my s.o.) and I carefully picked gifts for his mom and stepmom. And I know none will measure their worth by the gifts they receive, but I still fear that on some level my love will not be expressed adequately through these gifts. It's an absurd notion to expect such a thing of gifts. But when you allot too much power to things in your own consumer life, it begins to sound logical.