So it turns out, I have always been into shoes….
You know you’re a grown up when your parents decide they no longer have room in their home for all your crap. It’s an unsettling feeling, knowing you’re now rudely expected to fend for yourself, age thirty-something. What do you mean I no longer have a bedroom here??? What if I suddenly decide to follow up on that dream of quitting my job and becoming an impoverished writer? Most inconvenient. And now I have to find space for all that crap I forgot I had but couldn’t possibly part with, and I already filled all the spare nooks and crannies of my home with shoes and skirts. Balls. There is an upside though, sifting through said childhood crap can turn up some little gems, like this one:
That, my friends, is my News journal, from 1989 – 1990, when I was the tender age of 6 (and then 7, though for some reason I didn’t think my Birthday was noteworthy enough to mention as I don’t appear to have written about it). It was a bit of a stretch proclaiming this delightful little book ‘News’ quite so boldly (in orange, no less). What I considered ‘News’ back then appears to have mostly been “played with my sister. It was fun”, but there was one entry that stood out:
Yep. I went to buy shoes. Even back then, a shoe shopping trip was considered important enough to tell the world (ok, Miss Adams, my Teacher) all about it. So perhaps not surprising that I now think you would all like to know every time I put on a pair of heels.
Of course, writing about clothes and shoes would be pointless without pictures. How can you wax lyrical about the beauty of a pair of Louboutins or the fullness of a skirt without showing it in all it’s glory? I learnt this early on, it seems, as I also included this handy illustration of the infamous shoe shopping trip:
It’s clear my innocent little mind singled out shoes as something worth focusing my attentions on at an early age, just look at the attention to detail! How I didn’t grow up to be a shoe designer I’ll never know. A handful of points to note though:
- I didn’t wear heels when I was 6, the ones we appear to be rocking in that pic were clearly wishful thinking on my part.
- I don’t recall me and my sisters swanning about in co-ordinating outfits (at least I’m assuming that is me, my sisters and my Mum, but who knows really?) though now I think about it, I kinda like the idea of matching stripes. I feel sorry for my future children.
- I know you are thinking it, so we might as well get it out in the open. That last bit is weird. I’ll translate for you, it appears to say, “When we got back we played a game and we made a fishing rod with a long stick and some string”. Sounds thrilling. Not hard to see how shoes captured my imagination now, is it?
Now, it wasn’t just shoes I learnt to love early on. Having flicked through the further pages I can see I also was already a fan of a big skirt back then too:
Just look at them! Big, swishy, midi skirts! I’m particularly liking the green one, and the fact I matched it with my shoes. Also – they have bows on them. I knew what I was doing even back then. See, I wasn’t joking when I mentioned their importance to my younger self. And it seems I always thought other people might be interested to know what I was wearing on any given day, hence my overly excited description of what clearly was my favourite red velvet skirt at the time. I think this may actually have been my first ever outfit post:
So next time someone teases me about the size of my collection, or exclaims “How could you possibly need ANOTHER skirt??” I’ll tell them it’s not my fault. Clearly, it was in my blood. Other kids liked to climb trees and play hide and seek. I liked shoes and big skirts and thought they were something worth writing about.
No change there then!
Love,
In this post – Choies Sakura Skirt in Green, Topshop ‘Glam’ in Mustard (similar)
Picking the Day 