Women's 7 deadly sins: #1 Shoes

I live in the country side in a quite rural and remote place along a country road. The next baker is 5 kms away and the next tiny supermarket (or what goes for that hereabouts) even further. Before we moved here I have been living in St. Pauli, the amusement district in Hamburg, with sex shops, tattoo studios and concert halls virtually next doors. I don't really mind living in the country most days. I have children in the kindergarten age who benefit greatly from the garden and outdoors activity. I don't have to search our sandbox for used condoms or needles before I let them play there and even the road in front of the house is safe enough for the first attempts on their bikes. But two or three times a year I miss the city. That is because while the marsh where I live offers great hunting opportunities for foil it offers zero hunting opportunities for fashionable shoes. You guess it, like many other women out there I like to spend too much on shoes. I have nothing from Manolo Blahnik - not because I don't like his designs, but because spiky high heels are not really recommended for the squishy marsh grounds here. Instead my favourite brands are Audley, Konstantin Starke, sometimes Jimmy Choo but most of all from the spanish god of shoes - Pedro Garcia.
Many many years ago I bought a pair of Swarovsky studded titan silver sandals from Pedro Garcia at the Hamburg Jungfernstieg Shoe Shop "Prange Duo" - to date my very favourite shoes and worth every cent of their exorbitant around 250 Euro price (seems a lot for a bit of sole with two straps of cloths).

It was an older (and more beautiful) brother to the Modell "Sissi Gold Lurex" thongs shown in the above picture that can be bought at 210,00 Euros at footlux.com. Garcia brings out a re-release of this kind of shoe almost every season slightly changed for variety and to go with the current fashion trends. I have acquired several other models by Garcia from sandals via loafers to high heeled pumps and boots and all of them are very well made. Garcia likes to work with svarovsky stones, punk elements and like most top class designers he always brings out a wide range of high heels, but he has proved repeatedly that he can do low heels and no heels and still look classy. Therefore I like his flats (especially flat sandals) and his boots best (the below picture shows this season's flat boots modell "Kaori" which sells for 300,00 Euros at footlux.com). There's too many frilly and over-decorated pumps out there already.

My favourite high heels therefore are plain but classy grey suede with a small Robin Hood-like detail to them. And they are not from Pedro Garcia but from Konstantin Starke. But suede ... shudder! It is such a delicate material that I hardly ever dare to wear them, therefore they lead a sad shadow existence within their original shoe box and only get taken out about once a year.