Tango Shoe Divas

Remodeling took over my life and I didn’t have time to write. I did, however, have time to buy shoes (of course!). So I have a backlog of shoes to talk about. I hope to avoid buying more shoes (yeah right…) until I have shared my love and hate for the pairs that I bought this summer and fall! Scroll down for the first few installments.

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

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.

The new “Bellissima” from Tara Tango Shoes is very aptly named. What a color! What a shape! I am sorely tempted, though I have tried to put myself on a restricted shoe diet (I need a new laptop unfortunately). I have TOO many pairs of stilletoes and I still find myself reaching for my Tara and Tango Shop more often. In fact I wore my Taras Saturday night for the loooong milonga (9-3) and I danced the best I have in ages! I don’t know if it was the shoes, or just the night. Anyway, these new shoes have a platform AND memory foam. My feet are tingling in anticipation… Now if I can justify them – maybe a Christmas present to myself? I don’t own a single pair of plain red shoes? Hmmm. The rationalization isn’t working.