Am I Grown Up?

In my 25 years on this earth, I’ve worn many varieties of black shoes—mary janes, slingbacks, ballet flats—until last week, though, I had never owned a pair of basic black pumps! As I mentioned in my very first Shoetube article, I tend to find black pumps extremely boring and far too responsible (aka grown-up) for my taste. Well, sign me up for a 401k and charge my blackberry: I guess I’m a grown-up now!

The need for boring black pumps came one lovely afternoon when I was setting up an interview with a potential employer and the recruiter jokingly mentioned not to “do anything crazy like wear silver shoes” to the interview. When I got off the phone, I did a mental inventory of my current shoe collection and realized I was in trouble! Needless to say, the purple platform Chloe’s that go perfectly with my interview suit were definitely out, as were every other shoe in my closet. I knew that at some point in my “professional” life I would potentially have to succumb to the pressure of wearing boring black pumps, and I had already decided that if I had to do it, Louboutin’s were the only way to go (at least their soles are colorful!).

I went to my local Neiman Marcus and definitely horrified a few shoppers when I candidly chatted about how I was purchasing my first black pumps. However, the real shock was when the salesman figured out the shoes were mispriced by $100 in my favor! I figured that was as good of a sign as any, that the shoes were meant to be.

As for the interview, it went quite well and even wearing my “boring black pumps” my shoes were still the topic of conversation on the elevator ride to the lobby!