Tango Shoe Divas

Question from new user Isocephaly:

I’m not quite sure where to ‘file’ this question, so I’m posting it here. Budget: A Question for the Shoe Divas.

I’ve long been a silent reader & fan; I find your forum so useful, that I’ve linked to it from our tango club website. However, I feel there’s a big hole in discussion and that is a review of budget footwear. I’m part of a university group, and many of our members are raw beginners, living off a very fixed income. They can’t afford Comme il Fauts, and maybe aren’t even sure yet whether they’ll stick with tango long enough to make the shoe-investment worth while. I’m struggling to offer advice on where to buy budget shoes.

I first suggested Guaranteed Fit because they have a good selection of the low-cost “Very Fine” dance shoes for c. $50; but now am locked in a standoff with them over my own order, which I placed two weeks ago for a pair that I’d planned to wear to outside events. They were supposedly in stock for shipment within two days. Now, having taken my money, they aren’t responding to my e-mails or calls about when I might expect them. In looking around online for other budget alternatives, I’m realizing that many of these vendors seem to have such problems. There was even a news report about the company ballroomdancingshoe.com ripping people off.

I’m wondering if other tanguere have had experiences (good, bad, or ugly) with buying budget shoes, and which vendors might be reputable enough to recommend to our fledgling dancers. Thank you!

I don’t even want to tell you the horrific shoes I started dancing in, so I do not have the best of advice. I have some friends who have bought some chunkier low heeled ballroom or character shoes for <$100 (sometimes significantly less) but most are UGLY. I bought a nice pair of leather bottom heels from Nordstrom’s once for ~$90, but I know how to feel for balance and flexibility, it is way harder for a beginner to do these things.

So does anyone have any good sources?

After reading all the mixed reviews of Tango Wear, and failing to find any shoes to fit my extra-wide feet on the festival circuit, I decided to cautiously order my first ‘dressy’ pair of stilettos from them.  I am a tight-fisted person by nature, and a full-time student to boot, so it was not a decision to make lightly:  this investment has to last me a while.  But my shabby $50 practice pair was worn to a shred, and I had fallen in love with the lattice-backed “Sabrina.”  I hoped that the vamp would be high enough to wrap around and hold in my unusually broad toe girth.

Sabrina

I had some trouble with the measuring process; the instructions describe how to trace one’s foot on a flat piece of paper, then measure from heel to toe.  I consistently got two separate readings, with about half a centimeter’s difference.  I traced and retraced, measured and re-measured.  Finally I chose a happy medium, and added a meticulous verbal description of how I’m an 8 or 8.5 in length, but often have to buy size 9 shoes that are too long for me in order to obtain the proper width, so that I’m not entirely sure which size I actually am.  I also wanted a tapering “pencil” heel rather than the one pictured.  I asked for confirmation, whether my directions were clear, and got ready to wait.

I was prepared to wait a long time, having read the many Shoe Diva testimonials; but in the meantime my old Very Fine shoes were growing so battered that I was afraid they might give way in a good drag, and leave me scraping my foot against the floor.

old Very Fine pair

I cajoled my reluctant Italian shoe doctor into gluing patches onto my failing dance shoes, sent periodic e-mails to the sales team in Argentina, and desperately hoped the delivery time would be closer to the promised 4-6 weeks than the 2-3 months experienced by fellow Divas.  And miraculously—it was!  I received the shoes almost exactly 6 weeks after I ordered them, with pencil heel exactly as specified.  But do they fit?  Mostly.

It seems that Tango Wear sent me a size 9, and even so they’re a wee bit too narrow (the picture shows how my foot hangs out just a bit over the top of the vamp), and are also slightly too long so that the jaunty little heel cage gapes at the back, unless I’m fully flexing my foot.  Also I’ve found that my foot occasionally pulls right out of the vamp mid-tanda, which necessitates an inelegant pause for readjustment.  So—would I order from them again?  Probably.  I’d specify a half-size smaller, a vamp style that’s just a little higher, and perhaps a cross-strap or a t-strap to keep the vamp in place more securely.  They are also much less stable than my old pair, but this is undoubtedly related to the fact that they’re substantially higher.

Someday if I can 1) afford, and 2) find a wide-enough pair of Comme il Fauts, then I’m curious to see how their legendary quality and balance measures up.  In the meantime, my new Tango Wear shoes are fulfilling what I need them to now:  they are dressy enough that I no longer feel like a vagabond tanguera, yet basic and versatile enough to go with most of my outfits.  And the latticed heel is still cute, even if slightly baggy.  Until a more lucrative period of my life, they’re doing the trick.

There is one sporting event that I eagerly await every 4 years (which is 3 years too long, in my opinion) and basically schedule my work and  life around- and that is the World Cup. I played soccer for 8 years and my brother played it for longer. My dad coached us. For us, soccer truly is “the beautiful game”. When South Korea hosted the WC in 2002, my brother and I got up at 4 in the morning everyday to watch the matches live. In 2006, we were in the Virgin Islands, and while my mom complained that she wanted to go the beach, my brother, dad, and I didn’t go anywhere until we watched the games. This year, I bought a DVR just to record all the games. I LOVE THE WORLD CUP.

Today is my 24th birthday, and I’m sitting here in bed watching the Netherlands versus Brazil quarterfinal match (and rooting for the Netherlands because they are the underdogs compared to the Imperial Dynasty of Soccer that is  Brazil) and browsing my birthday messages on Facebook and also looking at tango shoes because, let’s face it, when do I not look at those? And I happen to  come across THE pair. You know what I’m talking about. That pair of shoes that just catches your eye and you think to yourself, “Oh my God. I have to have those  RIGHT NOW”.

I have not experienced a moment like this in awhile. Ms. Muniz and Ms. Coltrinari have just not been impressing me with their last few lines of shoes- many of them have been “Oh, that’s cute, can I justify getting that pair? Nah” kind of shoes, not “MUST HAVE” kind of shoes.  If you will recall, I lusted after a striped T-strap pair of Comme il Fauts that had long sold out and have never been able to find them since.

Where are you??

For some reason, these stripes SPEAK to me. I don’t really understand it, but I must get my hands on a pair of CiFs that are striped (or “Rayos” as all the websites that sell CiF like to describe them in Spanish in order to maintain some modicum of authenticity. As a Spanish speaker, I must say it works about half the time). And here they are, casually hanging out at the bottom of JuliaBella’s website.

So the moment of Must-Have hits me during the game and my attention is diverted, which is no easy task because the Dutch are putting up quite a fight and the Brazilians are getting angry and losing their composure and yellow cards are being handed out like candy- it’s an intense game! But JuliaBella has this shoe and IN MY SIZE. I whip out my MasterCard and fill out the online order form because I am justifying this as my birthday present to myself. I hit “Place Order”.  Suddenly, a window pops up that says my billing address doesn’t match my card. WHAT?! I try different addresses (my nomadic existence as a college student entails many addresses), to no avail. I try to log in to my online card account, only to get locked out because I mixed up my pin numbers. I don’t have time for this! I look at the JuliaBella website and, Lord have mercy, my shoes are gone. Is that because they are in my online shopping cart or because somebody bought them? PANIC.  Suddenly, the Netherlands/Brazil game is completely out of my mind- and tango shoes are apparently the ONLY thing that can do that to me.

I call ING and talk to a very nice gentleman who unlocks my account and changes my billing address, but when he tries to get me to open a savings account, I wave him off because I am “kind of in a rush”.  I quickly put in the correct address, and hit “Place Order” again, and fervently hope that another  message doesn’t pop up saying something devastating like “These shoes are no longer available”. And then, my order confirmation loads, and  I feel ecstatic, overwhelmed, VICTORIOUS, almost as emotional as I was when Landon Donovan scored that epic US goal versus Algeria in injury time. Almost. (I cried during that game. Don’t judge me).

And so, I  impatiently wait for the shoes to come in the mail.  Behold, my victorious birthday shoes that distracted me from the World Cup:

Stripes!

PS. The Netherlands just defeated No. 1-ranked Brazil in one of the biggest upsets of this World Cup. It’s a good day.

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: