It's almost like I'm normal.

[elwen]

After three trips in the past month to buy shoes, I may be approaching something like a "normal" shoe wardrobe. Or not.

For a long time, I had only 3 pairs of shoes:
- sneakers, which I wore pretty much all the time
- flip-flips, which I wore for short trips if I was too lazy to put on my sneakers
- black dress shoes, for choir concerts and other dress-up type things

Every so often I would switch to a new pair of sneakers as the old ones wore out, but that was pretty much the limit of my shoe shopping.

Then I realized that I would need more pairs of dress shoes for work this summer. I can't stand anything more than 1" heels, and I don't put up very well with even those, so the first shoe-shopping trip was a complete wash. I managed to find 2 pairs that were acceptable the second time, thus tripling my selection when trying to match my similarly-limited wardrobe of business casual clothes.

Then, during the past two choir concerts, I realized that standing in heels for several hours, after walking around in them all day, was not fun. So I decided that before we go on tour in China this summer, I'd better get some more comfortable shoes. I went to do that today, after walking to the Stanford Shopping Center from Escondido Village. In the process, I discovered that I also should get more comfortable shoes for just walking around in China, since apparently my current pair of sneakers is not providing the desired amount of support. Surprisingly, I actually found things I liked, though I bought them online instead of in the way-too-upscale-for-me department stores at Stanford Shopping Center. So in a few days, I'll get to add 2 more pairs to my collection.

Incidentally, the online shoe market is ridiculous. It's so competitive that they all offer free shipping and free return shipping with a long returns period. Clearly, shoes are marked up way too much. Stupid market for brand names.

But yeah, now that I've made a post about shoes, I will return to the usual programming of dorky anime and law-related posts.

Comments

[toriaezu.livejournal.com]

Wow, your shoe wardrobe sounds a lot like mine. The first one I mean... though I'll also at the stage of having to look for some more appropriate business-type shoes.

[ctrl-a.livejournal.com]

If you want super-comfortable business casual-ish shoes, I highly recommend the Asgi (http://www.asgishoes.com/) Delight. I don't know how you'd buy them in your area, but OMG, wearing them is like standing in thick carpet all the time. I don't like many of Asgi's other styles, especially the ones they're still making (Endless.com still has some stock of things not on their website), but the Delight is a pretty standard Mary Jane aside from the funky (and comfortable) sole.

[jyasu.livejournal.com]

My only comment with regard to shoes in China comes from direct experience in the last week: I am really glad I went to Hangzhou wearing waterproof hiking boots. In fairness, we did show up at the start of the rainy season...

[ling84.livejournal.com]

Dressing for work always throws me off - I keep wondering if I'm too casual/feminine/masculine/stuffy etc. I guess it's different at a law firm where the standards are well defined. I just find it really hard to dress for work after dressing for school all of my life.

[ctrl-a.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't call the law firm standards well defined. I just read an article in TIME about how no one really knows what "business casual" means. Plus, even though they say business casual to us, most of the attorneys in the office dress casual, whether or not it's casual Friday. And then we have trainings in San Francisco now and then, where they tend to dress up more.

[ling84.livejournal.com]

Hm. I'd always thought law was stricter in its dress code since you had to wear suits to interviews and all, but I guess you seem to have the same problem with work attire that I do, then. I never know whether I'm too casual or too formal, since 70% of the office consists of guys in polos and khakis, and the few women around are dressed in a wide range from polished to just-rolled-out-of-bed. >.