Choose Shooes

Strange as it may seem, I don’t have a pair of black high heels in my wardrobe that are suitable for a skirt.

With standard colors (black, brown), I like a lot of detail or a very strong design to keep the shoe from being plain, and I simply haven’t seen anything I like lately.

Until now, of course.

Consider these three exhibits. The top photo, exhibit one, is Nanette Lepore. I bought a pair of bone asymmetrical NL shoes last spring and realized that I couldn’t get them on my feet, so there’s a bit of an unpleasant muscle memory. But these shoes don’t look complicated to wear.

Below is a pair of Oscar de la Renta cut-out booties: exhibit two. These are very strong, perhaps too strong for anything but a sleek pencil skirt or an Azzedine Alaia-inspired flare.

But I do have some floaty dresses for fall, so maybe these might not be the neutrals I want. They’d be great with trousers, though—always a plus. (Oh, that’s right—I don’t need trouser shoes.)

Exhibit three below is from Te Casan, which has a smashing shop in Soho. I’ve already purchased one pair from this company (and exchanged them because they were defective [bad glueing]), so I’m a little wary about the quality:gorgeousity ratio (gor-JOS-ity).

But for a pump, these are captivating.

In theory I like a pump because it doesn’t break the line of the leg; in practice I find it dull. And when I look down, I like to smile. These, as long as the cutouts don’t take flight as wings, could be smart.

The decadent in me says to buy all three. But that would be impractical and absurd and fantastic.

Do you have a shoe-selecting rubric? And which shoe would you prefer, if you could have only one pair? (You could wear the others in your rich inner life.)