Tango Shoe Divas

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.

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

I think every little girl at some point in her life dreams of being Dorothy. I can’t believe that I made it this far in my tango career with no red shoes. I have a pair of zebra and red and a pair of burgundy and black, but nothing just red. I recently bought 2 great black dresses with red accents and they just scream for a pair of red shoes. One would think that it would be easy to find a pair of shoes in one of the iconic colors of tango… but when you are a diva… nothing is easy.

		I used to covet this shoe from Tara, back when they were the be all and end all of tango shoes. But one of my shoe advisors said that she thought the platform looks unbalanced with the open back. Plus they are only 3.5 inches!/td>
I can’t remember the last time I bought a shoe that didn’t have a stiletto heel!
I can’t decide what to think of this shoe… It is definitely unique, the heel is 4 inches, it has a platform, and I love the color. But it looks like it is not very flexible. I have one other platform that is patent wrapped and it is impossibly stiff (though it is not a Tara). And the knots are a little bit much.

Of course there is always Comme il Faut
(more…)

I don’t have time to do the full run down on Darcos from the last shoe order I made, I just want to share this picture that I saw today while trolling ebay… (yes, even now, at tax season, owing various governments more money than I care to think about, the siren song of tango shoes still calls my name) This picture highlights the problems with Darcos – In general I rather like the shoes. I’m into neutrals and light colors right now and the little bit of a “bling” heel keeps them from being too boring. And there the eye is drawn to the problem… Look at the angle of the heel on the shoe facing away from the camera. The shoe can barely maintain its own axis and says “Please fall down and break and ankle while trying to dance in me!”


None of the shoes that I have bought from Darcos have this, but inconsistency is their biggest problem and it is really dragging down their value when other things are quite good (Style most of the time, padding that is better than CiF most of the time…) I will have to save my BIG Darcos rant for when I have time to take pictures and really go off.

It’s been sooooo long since I bought any new shoes… My last pair were at the beginning of November! That’s almost three months with NO new shoes. I was going into withdrawl. So I splurged… naughty, naughty, naughty. I would try to justify it by the fact that I have a great skirt to go with the first pair, and really no silver stilettos, but really at this point no one believes my rationalizations at all. So I will just shut up and make with the shoe pr0n…

Yes I love them and I hate them, but I can’t stop buying them, it’s Darcos! I need platform shoes, but these are pretty… Now to wait, and wait and wait. I hope they manage to stay a little closer to their advertised timeline this time… Last time it was 10 weeks, I’ll have the tango shoe junkie shakes by then. Now if I can just resist bidding on any of the new pairs they listed today… these especially…

soooo pretty. I don’t have quite that shade of lavender yet. No! Someone else bid on them, pleeeeeaaaaase!

While my Love/Hate relationship with Darcos has been discussed thoroughly, I have managed to convince myself to order another pair (which I am NOT going to show you yet…) and in convincing myself that I deserve yet another pair of shoes, I also seem to have enabled one of my friends.

So here is my dilemma. Both I and the other shoe diva wear a size 7.5 and have gotten a perfect fit by ordering down a half size (ie a size 7). I had to discover this by ordering one pair that don’t fit particularly well. But my other friend friend wears a tiny size 6! It seems so extreme to tell her to order a size 5.5, but I hate for her to have to go through the wrong sizing issues that I did.

So does anyone ELSE have any experience with sizing and Darcos, especially if you have tiny, tiny little feet? (Her feet are so small I don’t know how she balances to dance!)

And because it would be a boring post without a picture, here is a dose of SHOES!

Bonus points if you can tell me what pair of shoes belong to me!

After some trial and error I am getting a really great fit from Darcos (I have to order down a half size) and as cheap, CiF knock offs go, they have really grown on me. But man, oh man their customer service really gets on my nerves. The last order I made with my fellow shoe diva was a huge nuisance. We got three pair through Darcos Ebay, which with combined shipping were $72 per pair. I paid for the order on August 29th and got confirmation from Darcos the next day. Their auctions state “Item ships directly from factory in Argentina within 2 weeks,” but in my experience it has been closer to 4 weeks. I am a patient person. I buy things from Argentina a lot. I don’t expect them to appear overnight. But on October 5th I thought it was time to light a fire under them. I emailed them, and to their credit, they did respond the same day, “Your shoes are ready to be shipped on Monday. We apologize for the delay.”

OK. I can live with that. I wait. I stalk the mailman. The other shoe diva harasses me. I stalk the mailman some more. I really want those shoes!

So, another 2 weeks pass. I email again on Oct 18th and get back this response the next day, “Your shoes are almost ready. We are giving the final touches to the last pair and we will send them on monday. We apologize for the delay.”

GRRRRRRRR!!!!!! So much for them having been “ready to be shipped!”

At some point in this my fellow shoe diva also started harassing them, and she is a little more, how do I put this delicately, high maintenance than me. So they were starting to feel the pain. Finally when I pulled into the driveway November 1st, the postman was just walking up with a startlingly small package in his hands. At least I didn’t have to wait another day to go pick it up at the post office. I was concerned about the package being so small. Could there really be 3 pair of shoes in it? It was very heavy though, So I figured that they were just very efficient at packing.

I called my friend immediately and told her that if she could get here by the time I made coffee, I would wait to open the package. Yes it was in the middle of the work day, but we love our shoes that much (and are both self-employed). The moment of revelation was both good and bad – the fit was perfect – we are almost exactly the same size (7.5) and we both order a half size down (7) and the fit is really nice.

Here we are modeling the good part of the order. She’s in the green, with the nice, fresh, red pedicure. I’m in the black and white polka dots, with the “oh my god do I need a pedicure!” toes.

But the story doesn’t stop there, perhaps you will remember that I said we ordered three pair. This was the pair that I bid on:

And this is the pair I got:

Aside from the obvious difference in color, and the cool fade heel, which I LOVE, the pair that I wanted (the lavender ones) also appear to be cut higher on the side, covering more of the ball of the foot, so the fit on the red ones is not as good as it would be if my foot was held a little more securely. But the prospect of waiting another 2+ months to get back the right shoes on top of having to argue with them about it just didn’t appeal to me at that point and I do have a skirt that matches the red pair perfectly. So I kept them. I’ve gotten lots of compliments on them but I am still pretty annoyed at the transaction overall. I will probably end up buying from them again, but I will plan to email them sooner and harass them to get my shoes in a somewhat timely manner.

I’ve been on the search for the “perfect tango shoe” for a couple of years now. Even as a ballroom dancer I searched for the “perfect shoe” and I’ll be the first to admit I have spent WAAAY too much moeny on shoes. But, Tango woldn’t be the same without the cool shoes and since I get asked lots of questions about shoes in general (since I know so much from having SPENT so much!), I wanted to get something solid down. Maybe if someone reads this they’ll make better shoe decisions than I did and get better shoes the first time instead of 2 years down the road.

 Here’s my little collection so far:

and

Here’s what I’ve learned:

Comme Il Faut ROCKS! And when I found out I could get a 3″ heel, I was so exctied. I’d only ever seen the 3.5 and 4″ ones and I can’t wear them. Plus the ones I tried on at a show were very stiff and it felt like wearing a board on my feet….Now…when I went to look at the burgunday suede pair I have, my feet have never known such comfort! (well- not outside of a Earth Shoe sandal that is). They were light, flexible and the suede has just the right amount of give in it so my toes don’t hurt. This euphoria induced a spate of quick shoe selling of pairs that I was only slightly to moderately happy with (problem feet) and so led to my second pair with the pony print velvet. So far I am finding suede is the softest and stretchiest, then velvet, then leather. I don’t find the satins very stretchy.

 Next up- Neotango. I have 2 pair. One was too high in the heel and I had it cut down (shoe near-disater story coming soon) and the other is a little too narrow in the toe so I will probably sell them. They are very comfortable otherwise, both of them, with good flexibility. Maybe they changed their cut on the toe or sole area recentely becasue I was expecting them to fit the same….too bad…I guess I need a replacement.

Tango-wear. The purple shoes came from Tango-wear and were on sale and I can’t pass up metallic purple. I’d love to have the so called “metatarsal padding” ripped out and have real padding put in, but am not sure I care to spend anything else on them. They fit pretty well, flexibility is good in the sole, heel is not as stable as CiF for a stiletto. The straps were too long and instead of doing the right thing and NOT wearing them to the milonga, I cut them myself and botched the leather. Now I am too embarrassed to take them and try to get it fixed so I put a bow on it. I rather just save my money for another pair of CiF.

Traspie- I love the pretty brown and flower pair of TRaspie shoes I have. Got them on eBaybee. Fit is a little big for size and the blue pair I bought I didn’t like very well so I sold them. I found it weird that the sizing ran so big on the brown pair but almost ended up too small on the blue pair, despite them being the same size…so…it seems to be a pot shot. I’d ask for inside shoe lengths before making a size selection with them- they do answer questions.

Tara- these black and silver shoes are my biggest disappointment. The amount spent and the hype about their comfort gave me HUGE expectations, which have not been fulfilled and I can’t return them now. I can only hope that dratted stiff platform will eventually become more flexible. But the fact that the are cut more narrow than the narrowest of my shoes when I thought the shoes were supposed to be “modeled off a real woman’s foot” can’t be ignored. Most likely my one and only purchase from Tara, though she was a nice person on the phone.

Other shoes: Darcos- I’ve had 3 pair of Darcos. All sold due to various issues (foot measurement wrong not once but TWICE and the third time the measurements were right but they were too stiff and Darcos seems to have gotten rid of their nice padding they used to do).

Darcos (Ebay) – “Mariela” – $60 (on sale) + $17 shipping – Green and Silver – 3 inch stiletto heel – ordered 2/12/07 – received 3/1/07

These shoes have grown on me. I bought them in February, wore them to my Grandmother’s St. Patrick’s Day party (where I was working in the kitchen and serving food) and by the end my feet HURT and I had huge blisters on my toes. I hung them up on the wall and glared at them every so often, but I didn’t feel like dealing with them. I recently DJed a spring themed milonga however, and that led me to take them down, add some strategically placed gel inserts, and give them a second chance.

I didn’t get any blisters this time and I danced quite a bit, considering that I was DJing and hiding in the booth much of the early part of the night. I think I may have even led in them.

First the good:

They sparkle like “whoa”. I was a little wild that night, dancing late with a near empty floor with a well chosen combination of partner and music. These made my boleos really eye catching. I’ve avoided glittery shoes in the past, both because it just seems like TOO much (this coming from a woman who has made it her life’s work to collect shoes in every animal print available) and because they seem a little too sandpapery for someone like me who likes to FEEL my feet brush each other when I collect. These, however, have the glitter under a lacy fabric layer, and manage to avoid that fingernails on chalkboard sound I had been fearing. So between the glitter and the metallic heels, these really attract some attention right where I want it.

Then the neutral:
The heels are not quite like they were in the picture. The ones I got were a solid chrome (not a crackle like it appears here) which I actually like better, but it always makes me nervous when something is different than advertised. Next time I buy something how will it differ from the pictures. There are a pair of Darcos shoes with a heel that fades from black to pink. I covet them, but if the heel was different than the picture I would be really disappointed. So this experience makes me a little more leery of getting exactly what I expect.

Finally the bad:
The sizing is off on these shoes. They are at least a half size too big. I put gel pads at the metatarsals and in the heel cage and they fit for now (and are pretty comfortable – other than the nuisance of slipping gel pads…) but when they stretch any at all, they will be too big and I will have to find a way to pad them further. My friend just ordered another pair and she ordered down a half size on my recommendation (and I saw other ebay buyers saying the same thing) so soon we will see if it is a consistent size differential.

They are no Comme il Faut… The balance just isn’t quite right on these. The heel is too straight down from the back of the heel cage, making a greater angle between the heel and the foot. (Once I get my camera working again I will show you a visual explanation – but this will have to do for now.) Because of this (and possibly a less stiff construction) it feels like the heel and the foot are flexing apart slightly as I step (ie that the heel is going backwards, away from the foot). When I first wore them I thought that this was a deal breaker, but I did get used to it after awhile. I do suspect that this will lead to an early demise due to catastrophic heel failure at some point, but at least they will get the chance to see a few dance floors first…

These will never be my favorite shoe, but for a frivolous “spice” shoe to throw in a funky color occasionally, I like them well enough. I would like to pin down the sizing issues of Darcos though because it would be nice to have my future frivolous shoes actually fit…