I Twitter!

Friday 6 April 2012

The Red Shoes...


Last time I was here I mentioned my latest pair of shiny red shoes.   I wear red shoes a lot.   They're my 'go to' shoe!   And, unlike many women, I'm not a big shoe person.   I try to hold onto comfortable shoes for years, and hate buying new ones, as I fear they will tear my tender toots to shreds.
As they often do!
I like handbags, though.   I've got a red clutch bag that I adore and wish I could use more.   It's very like this one, made by Karina Hesketh, via Pin Up Polly.

So, red shoes.   I'd never really thought about it until a therapist, not mine, noticed my shoes recently - She drew an analogy to the film, Red Shoes, by Powell and Pressburger.   A film that I'm not terribly familiar with - About why I choose red shoes...   What draws me to them.   
I like the colour red, for a start.   I'm currently sitting by the heart(h) of my home and it's painted a warm dark, almost-blood-red.   So are two other walls in the room.     The rug under my feet is deep red wool with a small Rennie Mackintosh-style rose stripe. 
This has got me thinking now.   My kettle is a red Duralit model.   We've only just thrown out the matching toaster, because it no longer functioned as it ought.   The new one is silver and looks like a commercial toaster - I like tough things!   I'm prone to being a little bit cack-handed when it comes to handling implements...
I started to ponder on the subject of red shoes.   And then I realised that I don't think I've ever been without a red pair - of boots or shoes - in my wardrobe.
I have a short 'Pixie'-like pair of boots for winter.   Once they're on my feet, I hardly ever take them off.   Lourdes knows what I'll do when they finally wear out!   I'm hoping they won't.   Ever.

I've also got a calf length pair which I haven't seen since before last winter, and when the kitchen renovations began a lot of schtuff went off with the house-faeries!   
Thinking back to the Eighties, I wore a matching pair of teetering court shoes in rotation for my work in a factory shop-floor's office - Very 'The Rag Trade' - One was blue, one red.   
At University I remember going with my then boyfriend, now my husband, and his friend to a shop in the city where I fell for a long red pair of lovelies that kept my tootsies warm for years...
I wore flat shoes a lot then.   Turquoise pumps with a yellow star across the front.   I remember another pair that were orange with green soles.   I like colour in my life and I'm not afraid of it.   For years I did steer clear of black as it made me look very pale.   Now I've made my peace with black.   I've also always had a black pair of shoes too, while I'm on about it.
Black and red - I used to wear black and red combined back in the Eighties.   A colleague said he believed they were my 'war-like colours'.   I might have been angry during some of those years, when I couldn't achieve promotion at work, owing to recruitment freezes, in spite of my bosses telling me I should have ambitions towards promotion.   I became a little twisted then.   All those years seem so far away from my life as a fledgeling counsellor and soon to be trainee psychotherapist now, I must admit...
My favourite ever car was my red Alfa Romeo.   We had an earlier mustard model, but the red stole my heart until it rusted to scrap on the drive-way.   I thought it looked like a crouched tiger when it wasn't moving.   Red obviously features muchly in my life.
Why?
I found this short article - Well, why do the work, when someone else has?   I'm lazy good like that!
"Scientists have finally made a breakthrough, tackling an important issue close to the hearts of many people: “Why do women wear red shoes?
Dr Elaine Webster, a Sociologist from Otago University, New Zealand has spent the past six months asking why women wear red shoes. And, she has concluded that young women wear them for excitement, and out of a desire to be noticed; whilst most men associate red shoes with sex and sin.
Dr Webster, whose long term interest is “dress and identity” conducted the research after being impressed with the way that women spoke about their red shoes. She said:
Women always say ‘my red shoes make me feel great, I love my red shoes’. They never say ‘I love my brown shoes’.
Many of the women interviewed made a connection between their red shoes and Red Shoes, the film of Hans Christian Andersen’s fairytale, or Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz.
Dr Webster believes footwear, more than any other items of clothing, has a special quality in our lives. And red shoes are a way to lift you out of a drab and ordinary existence. She stated:
Women and some men wear red shoes because they’re really wanting a richer and more exciting life than the one they are living."

So, I have no life but live in and through my dreams.   'Nuff said, non?!


You knew that anyway, right?   

I think I need to put a clause in my will to ensure that when I dance off this mortal coil I'm buried with a pair!


Oh, and Happy Ostara by the way!   Mwah!   Gotcha with a big fat slobbery, but nice, kissy-poo!


Serves you right for lingering over my red shoes!

14 comments:

Expat mum said...

I bought a pair of red shoes only yesterday! They're actually not really what springs to mind when you say "red shoes" though. These are more of a dark coral/red and are fabric summer, pee-toe sling backs. Very safe!

Mrs Jones said...

Isn't that interesting? I do not own, nor ever have owned (as far as I can recall) a pair of red shoes, boots or sandals. All my footwear is black except for one pair of fabulous backless chunky shoes that are grass green. I also have very little red anything in the house - a Persian rug, dark ruby red staircarpet - I think that's it. I also don't own any red clothing. It's quite odd as I wear all the other colours, including orange and lime green (occasionally at the same time!) but red really doesn't do it for me. I wonder what that says about me?!

Gigi said...

I've got at least 4 pairs of red shoes/boots in my closet as I type. A pair of red shoes is an instant mood lifter. I love them.

Rosaria Williams said...

How about wanting something so bright you can find it right away in the middle of a dreary winter day. I know that I bought a red chair for the living room just for that very same reason.

Enjoy them.

Chairman Bill said...

You'll have to get some Louboutins with red soles/

Scriptor Senex said...

I was doing all right until I got to the sex and sin bit! Is that really why I've liked women in red shoes? Wow!!! You keep wearing them, girl!

Joanne Noragon said...

How fun. Imelda had more shoes than I, but not many. Back in the day. Age and other issues got me down off them, and now I wear red sneakers and red sensible shoes. Exclusively.

BadPenny said...

I started wearing red shoes during my late twenties out of accident really - I was working abroad but had nothing suitable to go out in so bought some red pumps which I replaced twice as I wore them so much.

I'll never forget getting out of a boat & climbing onto a dock - putting my shoes up first. A man exclaimed "Oh, I love red shoes !" So I put his shoes on & clip clopped along the jetty in his over sized deck shoes yelling, "Great! you have them ! I'll have yours !"

Everyone was giggling. No it wasn't the start of start something wonderful - the other man in the boat was my fiance !

Haven't worn red shoes for years but have a pair of stunning orange silk slingbacks for weddings.

Suldog said...

I don't know about all of the psycho-babble, but you reminded me of something from my childhood. My Mother had a porcelain pair of red shoes, ballet slippers, that hung on the wall as art. I remember once, being very very very very young, and taking them down and trying to get my (even then) too large boy's feet into them. Lucky I didn't break them!

Anonymous said...

I love my red shoes, too! They're flatties and very comfy (I don't do heels). So many things in my life are red also. Kettle, toaster, dining room, video camera.

CJ x

Unknown said...

I'm wearing red shoes even as I type this comment - and I want MORE. I don't believe there's anything psychologically significant about the colour choice - it's my favourite colour and has been since I was a baby. It goes with just about everything, it can be warm or cool and there's a tone to suit every skin type. I will always always always love red best. Sarah xxx

Unknown said...

I'm wearing red shoes even as I type this comment - and I want MORE. I don't believe there's anything psychologically significant about the colour choice - it's my favourite colour and has been since I was a baby. It goes with just about everything, it can be warm or cool and there's a tone to suit every skin type. I will always always always love red best. Sarah xxx

Unknown said...

The design section is entirely good. I would say that it could be used as custom logo design for all kind of sets of designs.

Sextant said...

Enjoyed your post on red shoes. A bit of an aficionado myself but from the opposite side of the gender fence.

To say I have a fetish for red shoes is a bit much, but I definitely have a fetish for my wife in red shoes. I think your New Zealand study may have merit. Well you can read my thoughts on red shoes and enjoy some red shoe imagery here:

http://navfin.blogspot.com/2011/10/red-shoe-fetish-and-my-avatar.html

Something I wrote earlier...

Blog Widget by LinkWithin