Tango Shoe Divas

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.

After a very long wait, I am happy to say that there are some people making decent looking lower heeled tango shoes. And…to deal with my biggest shoe pet peeve…they are ALL returnable if they don’t fit me!

I have a couple of pair of low heeled shoes on order with Kathleen, from Diva Boutique, who has recently invested in some Greta Floras (one of the few companies making lower heels). Below is a purple pair I am considering and a black pair:

She’ll be getting a range of styles and heels heights for the shoes she ordered from Greta Flora and I am very happy she was thoughtful to order both the 5.5cm heel and 6.5cm styles also. I’m looking forward to them.

Another company (Werner Kern) produced a newline of tango shoes called Nueva Epoca. This year they came out with a new set of shoes in lower 6.5cm heel heights (though they nixed the style I really liked in the higher heels). So I am trying to fit a pair of one of these in my budget somewhere also.

I tried a pair of the higher ones on back in the spring, and found them very well made, and even lightly cushioned from heel to toe…which is a very rare thing in a tango shoe. I hope they kept that aspect as it will bear heavily on my spending $200+ for them.

One pair I am considering is the Ilaria, in red and black suede. My only reservation is about the strap going through the back of the shoe. Other shoes I have tried on in this ankle strap arrangement haven’t fit me in the heel very well. But I really like this shoe…

And then there is the purple and black pair…a color combo I really love and I like the ankle strap arrangement and heel cut outs.

And then the last- I love the crossed ankle straps, not so sure on the purple and brownish-gold color combo…

I’m just happy to have some choices now where I don’t have to beg or plead with a distributor for something special, then end up with something a little too boring, or not at all returnable.

***Update- I’ve decided on trying the red/black Ilaria pair out. I sure hope that heel cage is comfortable!***

Okay, I’ll admit it. I’m a baby Tango Shoe Diva. I’ve danced on and off again for about 4 years but about a year ago I reentered the tango scene with a vengeance and have been working really hard at it ever since. That being said, I  decided about 5 months ago that I was going to graduate from my salsa shoes and finally buy some “pretty shoes”.

Since then, I’ve done much research on many of the styles and brands that are popular these days (many thanks to America, Bastet, and all the other contributors for such great advice), seriously depleted my college student bank account in making purchases, and consequently developed a reputation among my classmates and close friends as a “shoe crazy person” (their words, not mine).  I don’t even have that many shoes! Whatever, if you are reading or contributing to this blog, you know exactly what it’s like to be “shoe crazy”.

I first started with this used pair of Neotangos from a very nice lady on eBay (I LOVE eBay, by the way):

Behold, my first foray into tango shoe shopping! They are beaten up and old (I don’t think NeoTango even makes this style anymore), the insole is red and stains everything, but they were my first and they will always hold a special place in my heart.

I subsequently lost out on another pair of shoes to some powerseller on eBay:

As you can see, they are fabulous and I was very sad I lost the auction at the last second. Incidentally, I recently ran into the exact same pair at a milonga in DC- and they happened to be on the feet of my very MALE DJ friend who was practicing his following! Apparently they were the only pair left in his gigantic size.  And you only can imagine how these looked on a grown man (and of course, I was green with envy and incensed at the cruel irony of it all).

Next, I bought my first pair of Comme il Fauts while living in Atlanta. Katherine of Diva Boutique was in town and brought her enormous shoe trailer (yes, friends, an entire trailer full of CiFs). On the advice of a few people, I bought a simple pair of nude pink leather slingbacks that match everything:

They’re not nearly as white in the picture- more of a very very light pink. I also should probably get the straps cut down but haven’t yet because I am lazy and I don’t know any good cobblers yet up here in DC.

Then my birthday rolled around and I decided that I had a been a good girl and bought THESE off eBay from a fabulous Diva in Seattle for entirely too much money:

They are my FAVORITE- and I am perfectly willing (more…)

We received our first samples, GretaFlora has done a wonderfull job…. our designs look great.

Please send me your comments…… I am so excited that finally the samples have arrived and I want to know what you think about the designs

Thanks,

Lenette

I very publicly gave up buying shoes for Lent. Now, I am not Catholic, but a friend was talking about giving up her snooze alarm and I thought I should play along. I though about giving up caffeine or chocolate, but that seemed too ambitious. So I resolved to not buy any more tango shoes… hard than it should be… I am the tango shoe diva after all. When I mad that resolution however I knew that I had a new pair on the way… sort of a Mardi Gras for my feet. And these shoes definitely suit the Mardi Gras spirit… (more…)

It’s that time of year isn’t it. I got this question twice in comments so I thought I would throw it out to the ladies in general.

From a MALE user:
“I know she reads Tango Shoe Diva so everything will be written with strict confidentiality using only anonymous pronouns; but what do you think of a woman who refuses to let her man (and tango partner) buy new shoes with the claim “but you just bought me new pair of ‘Comme Il Faut’ shoes”? The term ‘fetish’ has even been tossed about by this lovely lady when I complain I need to purchase another pair for her. Valentine’s Day is just around the corner. Is it me … or her? Comments please?”

From my point of view there are two possibilities here, one is the “Oh, honey, you don’t need to buy me anything!” but she will be secretly thrilled. It IS Valentines Day after all and CiF ARE jewelry for the feet. On the other hand, if she’s really serious then you risk her being angry for not listening to her. I know that the more tango shoes I own, the more particular I get about adding new ones to the collection… I’ve become a regular control freak about what goes on my feet. I am only looking for very particular combinations of styles, colors and heel heights, so make sure that you can make a good selection for her on those factors before you decide to go ahead and buy shoes for her anyway.

And on the subject of shoe fetish… Join the club. I think there are a lot of mild shoe fetishists amongst the tango leaders. I am fond of saying that Tango is the only safe place for a straight man to openly notice and admire women’s footwear. Heck, we spend $200 a pair on them, we’d be disappointed if you guys didn’t appreciate them a little…

And for you and all the other Shoe Fetishists out there, here is a picture of me and my “Shoe Sister” when we realized that we had perfectly matching nail polish to each other’s shoes!

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!

A gang of Shoe Divas hang together and watch a milonga performance.