Tango Shoe Divas

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

Hello dear tangoshoesdivas!
I guess I’m one of you now
I’m dancing only six months now but I’m absolutely hooked on tango shoes.
My first experience with tango shoes occurred in Sitges tango festival this year when I saw Comme il faut selling their shoes. There I saw these gorgeous shoes, ones I always dreamt of…. They were absolutely stunning, I tried them on, they fit perfectly and look soooo sexy on my legs. I payed 140 EUR without even thinking that I never spent that amount of money on one pair of shoes. I put them on immediately and once I had them on me, someone invited me to dance. After 5 seconds I realized I can not dance with them ((( I guess the heel was too high for me (9 cm) and the open cage didn’t helped either. Off course I couldn’t give them back because I already worn them on a floor. So now I use them as a show off shoes when my friends come to visit me and that’s all.
Well, here comes my question: Do you think I will use them someday, maybe when I will be more stable and secure my self on the dance floor? Maybe more experience will help me? Or I’m just kidding my self and I’m doomed to wear low heels forever. I just have to mention that I don’t have any special problems with my feet (knock on wood…). Anyone?

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).****

Hello, by accident I found a website called www.infodanceshoes.com ( advertised by google), which sells Darcos shoes, but not with their label on them – the insole is blanc . They also apparently use Darcos’ original pics. As they are much cheaper as on the Darcos website ( I would have them sent to Germany) I am of course tempted. But I am not at all sure wether I can trust this website or wether is is just a fake. Apparently I could pay with paypal, so this might be safe ,but the whole thing remains a bit strange to me. They also give the Darcos shop address in Siupacha 259 as their address without refering to Darcos. Has anybody of you made any experiences with them before? I would be glad for an answer

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)…

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…)

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…)

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.