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.

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.

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).****

How depressing. I have no luck when it comes to tango shoes.

No. Really…no luck at all…I think that is why I am so obsessed with them.

If I had easy to fit feet, could wear any heel height I wanted, and was happy with monotone shoes…I’d be such a happier person. But that is not the case.

My feet are small, but wide. I have foot problems and can’t wear high heels,and I HATE monotone shoes.

So I saw a preview for this pair:

They were supposedly going to have a heel cage that had light colored detailing to offset the leather (which looked a lot more golden yellow in the photo) and a flower which I decided to nix because the detailing on the strap and heel cage should have been enough. (Don’t know whether the distributor or Greta Flora made that change.)

The heel cage is from a different model and they are beige. No getting around it. Beige beige beige…all over….even clipping the crystal flower on isn’t enough…

The heel height is great- love it-

well made…check…

Flexible sole…check…

Fit…true to size for the size it is but on the verge of too big for me unless I add a small insole (I ordered this size on the distributor’s suggestion and we were CLOSE, but close doesn’t count here.)

I do highly recommend Greta FLora shoes. This rant is in no way something about them…it’s just why can’t low heel shoe designs also be pretty? Why?

They are returnable (yay…) but that still leaves me with, yet again…no useful low heel tango shoes, and about 4 pairs that are too high for regular use.

Any suggestions on what I could do with these? I think the next half size down might end up too small (maybe not)…

I decided a couple of months ago to give Tango Wear one more try after a lukewarm first experience last year.

I have mentioned before that one thing that bothers me about most of the tango shoe makers is that they usually only have a couple of options for those of us who can’t wear the 3.5 and 4″ stilettos, and then usually only red or black.

This gets very boring for your wardrobe.

SInce I saw that Tango-wear had a knock off version of my very comfortable black Neotangos, I somewhat reluctantly decided to give them one more try.

I went through a lengthy discussion with them about my foot size and what was didn’t fit in the last 2 pairs I had and thought we had everything sorted out so I did some color adaptions in Photoshop of 2 models, emailed them for confirmation and sent them my very hard earned cash.

Granted, they did actually get the shoes in to me in the specified 4-5 weeks they claim on the website, and the purple pair fit at least adequately….but the other pair is a complete disaster, and they refuse to take any responsibility or attempt to fix the mistake.

The purple pair:

This pair was a little wider than I thought it would be, seeing that they seemed so familiar with the neotango model I have. The heel cage is a little low (and my friend who also ordered a pair of shoes with a non-standard heel cage ended up with the same issue). I will never love these shoes. The strange heel cage height makes them not very comfortable and the fact that i had to add extra padding in to make up for the width isn’t helping as there was already double padding in the shoe (which I requested).

Now for the disaster… The pink and black shoes. These were supposed to be made to a picture specification I sent and had approved. It was supposed to be a black suede shoe with pink accents. Black suede base, black heel, black strap…pink toe box piping and heel cage accent. It came with the heel and strap the wrong color and even more unforgivably, TOO SMALL. I can barely squeeze my foot in there, even after switching the insole padding out to something thinner. These were supposed to be long haul work shoes, black with pink accents…not a pink and black shoe, and I need the double padding so I can’t remove it.

In the photos, you can see how my big toe is quite over the edge, even with no weight on them, and yes, I pretty much have to cram my feet in there, they are so narrow, and completely unsellable as I have small feet to begin with and these are even smaller.

 They are now even more unsellable as I started thinking “I know how to sew on leather” and they are only connected by a little tab, maybe I could put a wider one in there…this is how much extra space it needs to fit my chubby little foot. I really need a forgiving shoe person at this point if I am going to attempt to salvage this situation. I am so unhappy. I sold almost all my nice shoes…for this. And so my original opinion still holds after this very expensive and unhappy lesson- buy nice shoes from a well known maker whose shoe sizing is dependable.

UPDATE—- 9-12-08- I found a shoe person who can help me put them back they way I got them. Guess these will go up on the auction block when he gets that new tab in. And I found out Neotango is going to start doing more of their new styles in the 6.5cm heel. So that’s one silver lining to this big dark cloud. I’ll take Neotango any day.

I haven’t shared a shoe story in some time and so here goes. A shoe story of my favorite shoes- Neotango. No, they don’t have all the cool styles that Comme Il Faut has, but they do deign to make shoes at a heel height lower than 3″, and offer a tad more padding than some of the brands out there which makes me pretty happy.

I had been going to try some Delie shoes out, after hearing they had decent foot padding, and couldn’t get a reasonable match in sizing…so gave up. Then I saw these pretty shoes….

I had seen some on the Diva boutique website, but with heels too high and so I ignored them, then I found these through Felina shoes. They are suede (my favorite), style #113 with a sparkly lame’ woven heel cage and a very comfy and stable 6.5cm heel (though you can get them higher) that is slender and sexy but not a stiletto. I swear, it’s like wearing flats after torturing my feet for so long in heels over 3″ high! The front end is rounded, which is nice becasue you don’t get your toes squished together that way, but they are still a peep toe so your toes have some protection.

These are classy and dressy. I really love them but would also love to see Neotango release some more colorful styles in the 6.5cm height. The only current 6.5cm styles are red and black, with one purple metallic sandal in the style I don’t like becasue your toes fall out the side….and that’s my only beef with Neotango…otherwise…I actually prefer them to Comme Il Faut. The soles are very flexible, I can get a lower heel that isn’t ugly and is very stable, and they’ll last a good long time.

I swore after that last pair of Comme Il Faut, I was taking a break from shoes. And then this pair of Tara’s appeared on eBay in the style I had been looking at and in my size, I lost my resolve (but have since regained it). I will say I got  avery good deal. I was tempted by the head shoe divas commentary on platform shoes, but was unwilling to spring full price again after my last fiasco.

 I have only worn these around the house, but they are MUCH more comfortable so far than the black pair of Cubana’s I bought. The vamp is cut wider (YAY!) so my toes aren’t squished and as I said, slingback shoes are very forgiving of size miscalculations. And this is my one bit of weirdness with these. My heel hangs over the back a bit. I would have expected a size 6.5 to be longer in the insole than 23.6cm…but oh well..they *JUST* fit. If my foot were any longer, they would be too short…and I don’t usually buy a 6.5, generally I buy a 6 but these are nearly close toe, so I figured that would be a safe bet….Anyway, these have nice metarsal padding (the kind I WISHED had been in the CUbana’s), and I will trust that the HSD (Head Shoe Diva) really means it when she says the platform will break in…

And here they are right after I got them. A beautiful shoe…Diosa in Bronze, 3.5″ heel with 3/8″ platform.

*********Update***********….PLatform beginning to break in after 3 wearings now.

 Pic on my feet…can you see that my heel is a tad too long for these?

I got these pony print shoes a couple of months ago from Jennifer at Maleva shoes. Luckily, I got to go over and try them on at her place to find out if they’d really fit before I bought them. Yes, indeed, they fit and were comfortable…but…she had JUST gotten new models of Comme Il Faut in when I arrived and there were these fabulous shoes with little lace frou-frou over the peep-toe and tiny little pom-poms on the slingback. They were awesome! But they had a 3.5″ heel, which I can’t wear. So…I got the ones I originally intended..the velvet pony print shoes…but I “had a plan”.

 I would find some nice lacy bits and see what I could do since I had been suddenly overcome with “lace envy”.

 I found what I needed at a local fabric store. In fact, it was even BETTER than what I thought I’d have to deal with. An organze ruffle on both edges of a stretchy velvet ribbon. Perfect!

 I set about sewing my very own special trim on to the peep toe of my pony print shoes. It really gives them that little bit of extra black on the front that I felt they needed…plus the extra little bit of femininity of the organza is what I love.

 A very happy ending…

Before:

And after…over the top??? Well- at least I didn’t try to fnd any pom-poms for them.

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).