Not Your Average Plain (Mary) Jane

Over time (and many trips to the Loehmann's sales racks), my denim collection has grown quite a bit. This has enabled me to divide my jeans into several groups: some for heels, some for flats. A few for the highest heels, and most for lower ones. Although I'm pretty sensible about trimming the hem to a practical length, I did hold out on a couple of pairs of jeans and kept the inseam at its very long original length.

One pair of jeans that I never took to the tailor (or my own sewing machine) was the pair of "skinny flare" Fidelity Denim jeans, which I picked up at a sample sale for $20. They made my legs look longer, and I wanted to keep it that way. Sometimes I would fold the cuffs to wear them with flats or low heels, and sometimes I would let out the hem and wear one of the few pairs of shoes that were tall enough to keep the hem from dragging on the ground.

I just added another pair of sky high heels to my collection, which I wore with those long skinny flares yesterday. At 4.5 inches, these are probably the highest of the high heels I own, surpassing even my tall wooden platform sandals that I took to wearing frequently. However, these are not the sleek stilletos that you might imagine. To the contrary, the heel itself is very chunky, and it has an interesting brushed-metallic sheen (although the heel is really made of acrylic). And these are not the pointy toed pumps that one would picture as a high heel, either. Instead, my new shoes are a pair of patent leather mary janes with a t-strap--classic and subtle yet unexpected, just the way I like them. The elongated t-strap and the structured heel make the mary janes less skippity schoolgirl and more sophisticated schoolmarm.


I first became intrigued by these decidedly non-"Plain Jane" footware when I spotted them in the Saks Fifth Avenue online sales section. They are a splurge, but considering what they are, it was a pretty good deal--they were 70% off and under $200, which is a very significant (and rare) discount for "luxury" goods of its kind. Apparently other people also recognized the good deal, and the online store eventually sold out of those shoes. But after hearing a family member talk what good deals he got from the brick and mortar store over Thanksgiving dinner (and my family is definitely not the sort to shop at such establishments), I decided to make my first-ever trek out there to see if this was true. Indeed, the selection was better than what was online, and the pricing was pretty much the same (and in some cases, even better). I was there to try to get a new briefcase-type bag for work (because the limitations of my existing one are starting to manifest themselves), but I could not find one that was acceptably priced, so I moved on to other parts of the store.

Although the recession kept most people out of the regular-priced section, swarms of women descended upon the shoe clearance section. While others jostled over the 70% off Jimmy Choos, I kept my eye on something else entirely. Having an attraction to offbeat footwear has its benefits, as one pair of the above-mentioned mary janes in my size remained on the racks. After the shoes came home with me, it didn't take long before I put them to work, quite literally. Because the heels are so high, it took a little bit of getting used to walking in them, but once I got a hang of it, it's nice to have a pair of high heels that do not get embarassingly jammed in the cracks between slabs of concrete during my hurried sojourns to and from court.

Yesterday's casual office outfit: Old Navy twist collar top (which I picked up from the clearance section after the Black Friday Madness was over), Nave coat, Fidelity Denim jeans, Dolce & Gabbana mary janes

(Ruffles framing a twist. Almost like a pastry or something like it.)

Today: Splendid puff-sleeved tee with abstract patterns (from the most recent warehouse sale), Mike & Chris peplum jacket, BCBG skirt (which, surprisingly, I haven't been wearing with the matching suit jacket), Target dark gray tights, Dolce & Gabbana mary janes