Tango Shoe Divas

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
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You may remember these shoes from TangoWear:

You may also remember I really didn’t like them and they were a little big on me.

My feet widened out (the joy of being yet another year older and wearing Dansko’s all the time) and now they fit me much better.

I still hated the color choice I picked. Too monotone! That was my mistake.
I tried several things and finally got desperate.

Dye didn’t work on the leather part. I wasn’t going to blow any cash dying the suede black and so I went and got some glitter and glue. Now they have a sheer coat of blue green irridescent glitter on the heel, piping and strap. I like them better now. (but they’ll need and extra coat on the heels, I think.)

When you got a lemon, you make lemonade.

In my search for lower heel tango shoes, and something more interesting than plain black or plain red, I came across a line called Nueva Epoca (made by Werner Kern, a well respected dance shoe company who has made dance shoes for many many years).

I tried out the Lourdes model, in a butter fishscale and matte gold.

The heel is still too high for me, but they can make them lower now and I have to say it was one of the most comfortable shoes I ver tried on.

They are padded lightly from heel to toe, the materials are softer than similar materials I have tried on from Argentine companies (like the fishscale leather). It was clear they would mould to my feet. The craftsmanship was excellent.

My only wish is they needed just a hair more room at the front of the shoe so the toes wouldn’t be too close to the edge. (I sent feedback on this and am pretty sure it got passed on.)

They have some lovely models of 3 3/8″ heels if you are looking for a well made shoe and aren’t all that enthused by Comme Il Faut.

My first encounter with the “tango shoe divas” was in early May. After reading BASTE’s Lukewarm Shoes and Shoe Disasters (September 2008), I wasn’t sure that I had any confidence in Tango-Wear at all.
Our fellow tango shoe divas had warned us, many times, about Tango-Wear: the fit is wrong, the colors are off, and the shipment is always late.
Then, I noticed that Tango-Wear was running a special “saving the world’s economic crisis” promotion – ”Order 3 or more pairs by 5/31/09, and we will ship the shoes for free!”. I was tempted… I thought maybe I should step in and help since their business was hurting so badly plus I would save $47.00 on shipping for three pairs.
So I gave in. After hours of browsing and sketching, I decided to order three pairs in the following styles with my color combinations:
Note: My order for heel is 6cm, thin flared with leather sole.
1. Mallory

I changed the colors to deep red suede w/ black villone
2. Orquidea

Instead of black, I changed the colors to dark purple suede w/ purple satin for heel/strap
3. Buenos Aires Purple

I changed the color to green metallic leather

I sent in my special request and they replied that it would not be a problem or cost extra to change the colors/materials. Right after I placed my order, I got an email requesting me to RESEND my foot measurement because they were concerned the # for circumference was too narrow. Sure enough, I was off by 0.5cm. I was very impressed with their responsiveness. Then, I just needed to wait…

I checked in w/ them once every two weeks, and finally on 7/2, I got an email from Jose saying my shoes were flying across the Atlantic… I was so ready to meet my new friends!!!
The order was placed on 5/19 and I received my shipment on 7/3.
Here they are: