What Your Shoes Say To Me
Sunday, November 26, 2006-7:57AM EST
It’s been a nice week end with Blossom. We’ve talked about everything under the sun. I think yesterday we talked about everything from Biblical history to heart surgery, to a woman’s thought process right into the subject of shoes and what they reveal to me about the person wearing them.
The first two things I notice about people are hair and shoes followed by clothing. Those few things tell me a lot about a person and how they feel about themselves as well as a bit about their view of the world. I know what you’re thinking, how does fashion play into general views. Let me explain.
I believe that fashion is a very personal thing. Not necessarily what we wear but how we wear it reflects the inner self. A tucked in shirt gives off a different message than a shirt that hangs. Baggy pants and long sleeve shirts give off a different message than painted on jeans and a revealing shirt. A super long skirt as opposed to a normal cut, a solid colour shirt as opposed to one with a logo, stripes, flowers, animals or cartoon characters all give off a totally different message to me. Those are the things you can see outright but what really lets me know more about a person is their socks. Socks? Yup, socks.
Socks are something underneath, usually “hidden” beneath pant legs and covered by shoes. For me, careful attention to something usually not seen or seen very little means the person attention to details, even the ones most might overlook. My biggest pet peeve for shoes and socks is white socks and black dress shoes. White socks and black shoes only look right on David Letterman. A nice pair of socks that match the “outfit” and the shoes says a lot to me about the person. In certain situations I want those socks to talk to me! Tell me you pay attention to details, you don’t cut corners; you care about the smaller unseen things about yourself.
When it comes to hanging out with friends or general attraction to another person their shoes can tell me a lot about them. Blossom says she wants to see very clean tennis shoes with sturdy, unscuffed soles. I personally want to see them broken in, warn and comfortable looking. A nice broken in pair of tennis shoes says to me the person knows how to relax and doesn’t avoid mud puddles at all costs, isn’t so uptight that getting a drop of dirt on their shoes would ruin their stuffy day. Broken in tennis shoes show character, shows the person knows how to relax and let their hair down. That’s what it says to me. Blossom feels a nice pair of well kept tennis shoes means the person appreciates the value of the object and wants to look their best even when relaxing.
It is simple conversations like this that I enjoy most. Yes, we talked about Stalin’s terror, about the Moabites and about angioplasty but the conversation I enjoyed the most was about shoes and socks. To me, those two items say a lot about a person. Two people can look at the same object and draw a completely different conclusion. I find that fascinating.
Austin
(a broken in tennis shoes w/ white socks, baseball cap kinda girl)
Well gee…your opinion of me would probably go way down if you saw my shoes! Most of the time I’m wearing dirty, very worn hiking shoes with wool socks that Mike and I share, under jeans that are dirty twenty minutes after I put them on fresh from the laundry. Oh and then there are the sweatshirts that are permanently dirty with polishing compounds from the shop…I’m a mess! Carmon
These days I’m wearing a pair of black Crocs everywhere, even to work. They don’t look professional, but neither does a face scrunched up in pain. For work I wear black knee-high stockings (under my uniform of black snacks and a neat sweater) with the Crocs. The stockings go with the clothing, not the shoes, and I hope they send a message that I’m dressed professionally as far as I can. The sweater solves the tucked in/tucked out problem. When I’m wearing jeans, the socks match either my shirt or my shoes.
Around the house, I pay careful “attention to details” to make sure I’m wearing the softest, most comfortable thing I can get by with (everything does have to match, but paint spots aren’t disqualifiers), and I pray none of the neighbors knock at my door.
Like you, I love to talk about the little things, too.
Well keepers hardly ever have shoes on and only have socks on in the winter. Those socks will probably be bright colors and the big fuzzy warm socks at that. john will be loafers for work with black socks, white tennis shoes and white socks for casual, sometimes western boots with white socks and when warm enough we both wear flip flops a lot.
maybe we told you too much!!!!
peace and joy
keepers and john
When I play “dress up” everything matches, but not as well as when Annie was alive to tell me why this shirt didn’t make it and why that tie should be thrown away immediately. I have gone more into undercover mode now, usually wearing Frye high top boots and not disclosing what might be under them, with jeans and a casual shirt (tucked in) completing the ensemble. A Woolrich heavy flannel or wool shirt (not tucked in) is about it for the coat category, but I keep a warm one and a down sleeping bag in the car “just in case.” Dressing down at home is easy as it is simply a more worn version of the above and without the boots. What color socks don’t go with jeans? Now that this holiday is over (I didn’t buy anything for four days,) I need to dress up in my high heeled sneakers and get out to run errands and get some groceries. The boys are getting tired of the same kind of treat. However you enjoyed Thanksgiving and whatever one is thankful for is the point, and I think we’ve gotten that down fairly well.
Peace