Thursday, January 12, 2012

Prada and Nike: Fleet-Footed Goddesses

I've been contemplating fleet feet for the last few days, as I had an unanticipated adventure in shoe deconstruction with my new Nike Air Max runners. 

To make a long story short, the left footbed (beneath the inner sole) contains an embedded plastic ring, into which one can insert a microchip for iPodding while running. 

This princess quickly felt the pea (had no idea that my two-day-old shoe came with such a feature) and, after my initial crankiness, removed the offending ring with a butter knife, whittled down some irritating arch support, took some anti-inflammatories, and, happily, find myself mobile again.


I would call these "dove" grey.

Always looking for some irony, or, at least, a little coincidence, I remembered that I had seen a new Prada shoe ad for Spring 2012 that showed some hot feet:


These might need an anti-inflammatory too.

I realize that the above shoes are about hotrods and engine-revving, but they reminded me of Mercury, the winged messenger:


And his wings, in turn recalled Henry James' devastating novel The Wings of the Dove:



In the 1997 film version, Charlotte Rampling wears some of the most gorgeous Poirot-inspired clothes:



Tomorrow I shall decide whether my running shoes are propelled by flames or feathers.

1 comment:

Susan Tiner said...

That's one novel by James I've not read. I will put it on the list. Thank you by the way, for the two Gothic novel recommendations. They're both loaded on my iPhone, ready for listening when I work out.