Tango Shoe Divas

I just received these shoes from Marlene Taconeando – they are high and I haven’t worn them yet but they fit nicely and are comfortable – she was very helpful considering I bought by email (they don’t have an online store) I’m looking forward to wearing them soon. Fern

Here is my long awaited post. I will try to keep it short (for me) on words and sweet…

I joined Greta Flora’s Facebook group, where they have a running list of limited edition shoes they have available and saw a really great pair of shoes that I instantly loved.

These were the shoes I saw:

I saw them about 2 days before I got my first pair of Greta’s (in October) and as soon as I saw that the size was right, I wrote to find out if they were still available. They were not, but the shoes I got from Kathleen were great. Greta Flora is a respectable company…so I asked if they could make another pair for me, in a slightly lower heel. They said yes.

After almost 3 months of waiting, this is what arrived at my doorstep…

And if I loved the UT Longhorns (I hate football), and orange patent leather, these would be great but did I mention just ow much extra work I had to do to save up for these???

They do fit, and are very well made. The flower is HUGE (but not the red suede I loved on the other pair)…and they do have the saffron foot bed and straps I wanted…but all that other PUMPKIN color…OYE!

So, I love Greta Flora. They couldn’t even make all orange look truly horrible. I will still buy their shoes (from places I can return to). But I am seriously unhappy that they didn’t tell me they were out of the reddish reptile material for the heel….

Now what to do? Tell me readers…do I leave them alone, and glory in their orange-ness?

Do I make some effort to at least change the flower color? (Patent can’t be changed.)

Stone the back and flower with Swarovski?

Combination of any of those?

Comment away!

This past year was the year I decided to go back to wearing open toe shoes. I don’t know why I ever stopped, except that needing lower heels, I never had many choices about the shape of the front of the shoe before and didn’t really think that much about it until late 2008.

I am seriously hoping that 2010 will see some changes and  hopefully more tango shoe manufacturer’s broaden their somewhat narrow outlook of this aspect: “low heel shoes means closed/peep toe”.

I am glad Greta Flora broke this mold- and good on them. I know a couple of other brands like Tango Brujo, Nueva Epoca and Darcos also make pretty, open toe, lower heeled shoes so good for them too!

In 2009, I was determined to decrease my foot pain so I ruthlessly sold most of my higher heels and switched to lower ones. Unfortunately, this didn’t really help much and I was convinced it was just about time to give up dancing before I crippled myself, but got a chance to pre-order some low heeled open toe Greta Flora shoes from Kathleen at Diva-Boutique. (She’s great by the way.) The shoes were great; my feet mostly forgave me and now I can continue dancing.

So I scrimped and saved, taught private lessons on my days off, did special orders when I didn’t really want to and sold ALL but one pair of the shoes I had previously bought  (9 pairs), including my 2 pairs of Comme Il Faut, I’m sad to say, and have been slowly replacing them when I get a chance and find something that will work.

Here’s what I have now:

There are 2 pairs of Greta Flora, soon to be 3- a special order (oh no) directly from them that hasn’t gone well (what a surprise). There is one pair of Nueva Epoca, a pair of Darcos and a new pair of Jorge Nel’s. The raspberry pair (middle of the second pic) I bought in 2008, sort of a harbinger of things to come.

Now  a quick review.

Greta Flora- Overall, I love Greta Flora. The neutral pair required about 1 hr break in. Theya re very soft, shape to my toes and I can dance for hours in them. The black/red pair has potential but is a bit stiffer and tighter, I’ll probably need to have them stretched a little. The 3rd pair (more later as it will need it’s own story) is on its way from Argentina.

Nueva Epoca-The model I got is “Palma”. Carmen at Carmen’s Dance shoes has them on sale right now. Apparently the price is going up so I don’t know that I’ll buy them again with the new pricing, but if you can catch a sale, Nueva Epoca is good. Carmen is easy to deal with and returns are simple. They are flexible, comfortable, quality materials that aren’t stiff and are nicely made. I had 1/4″ taken off the Palma model to bring them closer to 2.5″ .They are actually 3″ up the back and not the 2 3/4″ listed. (The higher models have the height up the back posted so I am not sure why the lower heel ones don’t do the same.)

The Palma model I got is actually metallic purple (not the posted patent) with a iridescent pleated satin front- quite pretty! Lined in pale gold. I wore them for New Years and didn’t even bung up the metallics.

Jorge Nel- I got the raspberry pair in 2008 and added some trim (can’t help myself on that). They are comfortable, with a 3″ heel (up the back). They’re also rock solid stable.

So I special ordered the purple pair (yes, purple is my “black”) with the silver and black  star back…yes…note to self…stop doing that in 2010…The purple pair turned out nice on the surface. The suede is nice and the lining is soft, but he made them about 1/2 size too long for my foot (and he measured my feet himself!) and I just can’t get used to his heel placements (too far towards my heel). Overall- I’d only continue to get Jorge Nel shoes at a festival, where you can get a bit better price and try them out first.

Once bitten on special order shoes, twice shy, but 3 times I’m just dumb! So my resolution for 2010 is to NOT special order shoes from ANYONE and only buy from people whom I can return an item that doesn’t fit properly.

Sometimes you simply fall in love with a pair of shoes, but it isn’t meant to be… I love the cut and the snakeskin. And the color… I mean when you try on a shoe that already matches your toe nail polish you have to think that it might be a sign!

I wanted these shoes. But look very carefully and see if you can figure out why they are not mine… Give up? Look at the heel cage. There is about a half centimeter gap between my heel and the shoe! I briefly considered whether I could put in heel padding like I have done with a couple of the used pairs that I have bought. But I reminded myself that $200 shoes should fit really well, and not be made acceptable. So I left them there and made it through the entire Hot Winter Tango festival without buying a pair of shoes!

I have been mulling over whether I might be a 37, not a 38. I have a lot of 38s that fit me pretty well, but I tried on some sling back 37s that fit me better than my 38s. So here is the problem. When I got home, I found the same pair in 37 at Felina! They are gorgeous! But can I wear a 37 in a closed heel? Grrrrrr. I liked it better when my feet seemed easy to fit!

I don’t really need any advice. I just wanted to share my pain… I am sure you have all been there! Rock on shoe sisters!

Hi not sure if I have up-loaded picture correctly! Just want to say what a neat site!

These are my silver shoes just arrived from Tango Wear, I love them, but they took 3 months to get to Wellington, New Zealand. I had to arrange a shoe sitter at my house to receive them as the day they arrive I was off on holiday. I’ve heard of baby sitters, and house sitters, but never had to get a shoe sitter before! cheers Fern

As of late, I’ve had to seriously curtail my shoe-buying ventures because I just moved to DC and am in the process of applying for my PhD in political science- and those applications are expensive! There goes all my shoe-buying money.

That being said,  there is a pair of Comme il Fauts that I just cannot get off my mind. I saw them on the Lisadore website in size 34 a few months ago and I have been lusting after them ever since and I have not been able to find them anywhere let alone in my size! I have checked all the websites and I have asked all the distributors I know and they are just…. gone. This is one of those times that I curse Alicia Muñiz and Raquel Coltrinari for being so smart and frustrating by only manufacturing limited batches of their designs!

Here they are- and I realize that they may not be everybody’s favorite because they have stripes, but I love stripes and T-straps and purple is one of my favorite colors, so in other words, they are perfect:

Where are these shoes!? Has anybody seen them anywhere in size 37? Let me know if you find them, I am going to find these shoes if it’s the last thing I do! I will even halt my shoe purchasing hiatus if I can get my hands on them. I suppose I will just have to keep an eye out in case somebody decides to sell their pair somewhere.

In the meantime, I might buy these because they are gold and pony print and fabulous and I love them almost as much as the purple and striped pair:

I put myself “on the wagon” from shoe buying after my trip to Denver (more on THAT later )! One of my rationalizations for my insane shoe habit was that, since I have a young child, I didn’t get to travel a do the festival circuit like my friends. But then THIS year, with my son in 1st grade, I decided it was time for me to have a different kind of tango treat… so I went to Denver for the Labor Day fest… and then to San Fran just a month later… So now I have two competing tango loves! Shoes AND travel. Thankfully BsAs is still off the table for a couple of years… so at least I don’t have to worry about saving up for THAT!

But the shoe sellers are determined to make me spend my money! First Tango Wear, then Darcos and now Tango Wear again! And I can say that I am sorely tempted… on both fronts… and there is also this pair of CiF… but I am not ready to talk about that yet…

…see the temptation

Hello dear tangoshoesdivas!
I guess I’m one of you now
I’m dancing only six months now but I’m absolutely hooked on tango shoes.
My first experience with tango shoes occurred in Sitges tango festival this year when I saw Comme il faut selling their shoes. There I saw these gorgeous shoes, ones I always dreamt of…. They were absolutely stunning, I tried them on, they fit perfectly and look soooo sexy on my legs. I payed 140 EUR without even thinking that I never spent that amount of money on one pair of shoes. I put them on immediately and once I had them on me, someone invited me to dance. After 5 seconds I realized I can not dance with them ((( I guess the heel was too high for me (9 cm) and the open cage didn’t helped either. Off course I couldn’t give them back because I already worn them on a floor. So now I use them as a show off shoes when my friends come to visit me and that’s all.
Well, here comes my question: Do you think I will use them someday, maybe when I will be more stable and secure my self on the dance floor? Maybe more experience will help me? Or I’m just kidding my self and I’m doomed to wear low heels forever. I just have to mention that I don’t have any special problems with my feet (knock on wood…). Anyone?

It was a seven month quest, but I finally got myself squared away with a pair of low heeled, (non-boring) neutral shoes.

These are from Greta Flora via Diva-Boutique and I wish I’d had them for Tangofest.

I love them. They are very well made. The materials are soft and not too stiff (unlike I find Comme Il Faut texture leathers). Greta Flora does half sizes on request though these are a regular size 36. Kathleen was able to give flower placement and color options as she adds them herself upon purchase.  The lining is excellent and the heel is lined in soft suede. The padding is average and about the only thing I could wish for a little more of (as usual).

These are a silvery taupe lizard texture suede with light cream accent and flower on the heel (my choice of placement). The heel measures a comfortable 2.5″ up the back (the 5.5cm heel).

Overall, I am very pleased and happy to recommend Greta Flora. Sizing runs similar to Comme Il Faut or Neotango for those who are concerned. Maybe just a hair wider in cut to similar band sandals for CiF, but similar in footbed length (size 36 is 9.25″ insole length).  CiF size 36 band sandals often bind my toes unless it is suede or velvet, but these were very nice in cut- not binding at all.

Yay for Greta and Flora!

Next step…a colorful pair of low heels!

***Update: I just wore these out to a milonga last night and despite the fact that they have less padding than I would like, this is the first time in quite literally years, that I have come home and NOT felt the need to ice my feet (though I did it anyway).****