Not a book by it's cover

Ok, so we're told not to judge a book by it's cover, but we do... we make all sorts of assumptions about books and people and stores and restaurants based on a glance. It's a cultural thing, how we know to avoid talking to cranky people, how to tell when a friend is needing comforting and... stuff. We live and learn that certain body language, color combinations, styles, what have you... those things mean things to us. If they didn't, style and fashion and design would be pointless. So, I'm not saying that you should JUDGE people by these things, but we do make assumptions. Just, you know, be prepared, open and willing to have those assumptions challenged, redirected, corrected, uprooted or confirmed. Whatever.

All of that was a preamble because I wanted to talk about shoes. I know--they're shoes. It shouldn't be deep and meaningful, and it probably isn't.  It's a trade-off between vanity and comfort sometimes. I often will sacrifice some of one for the other. But the shoes don't make the man/woman. They can make my day though, as you might remember from my fabulous goldfish shoes.

I had this thought beacuse earlier this year, I thought I owned 11 pairs of shoes. I thought this because I could only FIND 11 pairs of shoes. Then I picked up some new pairs at the clothing swap. Then my husband unearthed a box that held lots more pairs of shoes. Many of those I gave away, because obviously I'd lived without them for over a year and never even knew they were missing, so that's pretty compelling evidence that I don't need to keep them. But I did keep a few--mostly a pair of boots and my sneakers. Now I have MANY pairs of shoes. And I'm working hard to wear all of them, because that seems the only reason to have many pairs of shoes. My sister has close to 8 brazillion pairs, and she wears them all. She's a fantastic accessorizer.

So, then I decided that I wanted to take pictures of shoes and tell the story that those shoes made me think of, and if this idea bores you to death (or sleep, or sudden hunger, or interest in the mating habits of South American weevils) well then just go ahead to other parts of the internet and come back later, because I'm doing it!

So, you see shoes and you think, those are the kind of shoes X type of person would wear, or mostly in my case, I would wear those shoes if I was feeling like X. 

Some examples from real life (obviously not all of these are of my feet, but I sort of have a thing for shoes, so it didn't take much poking around in my photo archives to find many a snazzy shoe):

Anyway, the point is, you look at these shoes, and you think certain things about the person wearing them. You might think that they're fun, have a sense of humor, like to be the center of attention, are classy, like to be comfortable.... whatever. Don't judge people by their shoes, but if you notice shoes, what do you notice, and what does it say to you about that person? Feel free to comment on what you think about these shoes too... because instead of telling the stories of these shoes, I'm just going to let you do the judging and making of assumptions yourself. Mostly because I'm still fighting this ridiculous summer cold thingy and my brain is full of snot and dumb. Also so I don't influence your assumptions. See, I'm taking the high road here. Which just happens to be full of antibiotics and hot tea, so it's a win-win thing for me.

The Goldfish shoes

Some red Chuck Taylors

Crocs

Grey Mary Janes

Pink pointy toe high heels with strapps

Some platforms on the dancefloor

Snakeskin pumps