January 11, 2011

seaworthy

Port Vell, Barcelona
Port Vell, Barcelona

sunglasses - thrifted / trench - H&M / necklace - vintage, Brooklyn flea market / leather wrap watch - La Mer / buffalo Larch bag - custom, valhallabrooklyn via etsy / navy striped sweater - H&M / denim leggings - Target / shoes - Toms

Many people start getting dressed by picking out a particular item, and then building their entire look around that first item. For me, nine times out of ten that first pick is my shoes, especially during "Boot Season" (defined as any time of year sufficiently mild that I can wear boots without overflowing them with calf sweat - gross, right?). I frickin' love boots - the last time I bought a pair (ok, two pairs, but it was at a rummage sale!) Chris asked me to list for him how many pairs of boots I currently owned. I thought it was a ridiculous question, until I started counting... fourteen. I had fourteen pairs of boots. Since then I have sold some on etsy, given some to my mother, and Chris threw away one of my LLBean boots by accident, so now I'm down to a very reasonable eight (and a half) pairs, and I only brought one with me to Europe.

Which is a very long-winded way of saying that I really wanted to wear my boots (again) today, but just had to give it up as my feet have informed me that they no longer get along with my one pair of boots, particularly when combined with cobblestone streets. They have also grown weary of my (one pair of) flats, so Toms it was. These gray canvas shoes with their white laces always gave me kind of a preppy, nautical vibe, so I decided to just roll with it and throw on some navy and stripes for a day spent wandering the waterfront. I definitely would have liked this more with some boots to balance out the volume of the drapey sweater on top, but I'm sure my feet will thank me with flowers and candy later.

I did dress things up a little bit with my fanciest hair-do though:

Fancy hair

4 comments:

dotty said...

one of my friends has that same pair of tom's and they don't fare so well in snow and ice. anyway, the nautical look of this is fantastic!

emily said...

Yeah, sadly these shoes don't even hold up well in the rain, I am definitely thinking I am going to need to beef up my weatherproof footwear selection before we head to the UK!

S. of Narrowly Tailored said...

the nautical stripe here is fabulous! ever since my bunions started acting up in my early 20s (thanks, mum!), i frequently find myself forming outfits around footwear choices. i think it's one of these "you can only have one #1 priority" problems, in a way, though i desperately wish it weren't! Kyla at Blue Collar Catwalk has done some great stuff with building outfits around flats, by the way.

emily said...

Possibly my biggest genetic anxiety is that I have inherited my mother's feet. I think by the time she was my age she'd already had two surgeries, and it was only the beginning of a lifetime of problems (and orthodics). *Shudder*

I think I just need to learn to have a love affair with my flats the way I do with my boots, starting by investing in a pair or two of nicer flat shoes that can actually stand up the beating of city walking.

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