Retro shoes

I never thought I'd be a "shoe" girl.

I've always been notoriously fussy about my feet.  Tickling my feet is a sure-fire way to get your teeth kicked in (I don't do it on purpose, but I'll freak out and start flailing.  You've been warned), and shoe-shopping was one of the few things that could cause me to melt down and throw a tantrum when I was a kid.  I was not generally a tantrum-y kid, but I could get hysterical about new, foreign-feeling, shoes.  

Heaven help us all if there was a wrinkle in my sock.

Anyway . . . I was a dyed-in-the-wool sneaker-and-boots girl until I was in my twenties.  What changed me?  The movie version of Chicago.  I'm not kidding.

I don't really like musicals but this one sort-of took place in the 1920's, which is always a hook for me.  And it was loosely based on historical events.  And it had murders.  And Queen Latifah.

A couple of weeks after it came out, I was wandering aimlessly around Target and discovered a pair of kitten-heeled mary janes that looked an awful lot like the shoes that feature prominently in the final scene of the hanging of the Hungarian insomniac.  I tried them on and discovered that I could actually walk in them.  (I know kitten heels are 1950's-1960's, but I think the general idea was there.)

Don't laugh: I come from a family of committed wearers of practical shoes.  Honestly, it had never occurred to me that I might be able to walk in heels, even if they were only one-inch kitten heels.

Luckily for me, retro shoes with Cuban and French heels were very "in" for awhile, and the mary jane became respectable again for adult women (I seem to have narrow heels; straps keep shoes on better).  Target did very well for me for awhile, including these 2008 turquoise Xhilaration Sydney heels, which I got to match the Waffle House Waitress dress; two pairs of very-1920's Merona Morgans, in tan and black; and the 2009 Xhilaration Saida (I didn't get the two-tone gray or camel versions).

Lately, though, I've gotten kind of tired of, well, cheap vinyl shoes and have been looking to upgrade.  This means eBay and DSW.

I've gotten some good things with coupons and inexplicably low bids, but I think the stars are the Bass "Dinah" heels (kind of 1940's)"

And . . . are you sitting down?--the Bass "Corrie" openwork mary janes.

I can't believe the seller accepted my offer.  They might be the cutest shoes I've ever owned.  I might have to bob my hair again and make entire 1930's wardrobes to wear with them.