Style Staple #5: A Shoe That Makes You Strut!

Happy day, dear reader!

I hope your day has been full of only good surprises! Today is chapter 5 in our Style Staples repost series. Considering how I feel about shoes, and how your wardrobe should make you feel ready to take on the world, I could have made this Style Staple #1! Style Staple #5 is that pair of shoes that makes you strut. Let me make this clear, a Strutting Shoe is NOT a wardrobe wonder. (It might also be a WOW, but at least one pair should be a staple in EVERY woman’s wardrobe!) Every woman needs at least one pair, maybe two. Heck, even better, have one for each season in the area where you live! A caveat: This shoe will be different for every woman.

To clarify: A Strutting Shoe is not a dinner shoe, or taxi shoe, as I have heard them termed. Those are the shoes you only wear from the car into the restaurant, or the kind of shoe you can stand in for a short while, but have you looking for a place to sit… Those uncomfortable shoes, no matter how pretty, or expensive are not Strutting Shoes. To be a Strutting Shoe, you need to be able to strut! I know that should be obvious, but some things that should be obvious, just aren’t.

Your Strutting Shoe could be a pair of leopard pumps, or cowboy boots, or a pair or purple Converse All-Stars. Whatever it looks like, your Strutting Shoe makes you feel like a million bucks. Powerful. Maybe you might say B/A? You stand a little taller, move more confidently, and maybe even swagger. Finding your Strutting Shoe is often less of a you-choosing, than the shoe choosing you. If you’ve never had this happen, I’m sorry. We need to go shopping.

Your Strutting Shoe will probably feel a little daring, or out of the box. (Bad shoe pun. #sorrynotsorry) It will say something about your personality, who you are, or would like to be. Maybe it’s a shoe in your favorite color. It’s your Cinderella shoe, but you don’t need a Prince Charming to rock these beauties. Be your own fairy-godmother. Wear them because you love them, and they make you feel fabulous!

A Strutting Shoe is a Style Staple because confidence is the best beauty boost out there. No cream, potion, or makeup will give you the boost that your Strutting Shoes will. Confidence is not only appealing, it’s downright sexy. I have run across a few clients who don’t have a pair of Strutting Shoes in their closet. If they have foot issues that make a Strutting Shoe an impossibility, we find them something else that gives them that million bucks feeling. If the problem is self-image, we work on that. Because every woman is beautiful, and every woman deserves to feel good about herself. (The same goes for men, but I suspect most of my readers are women, so that’s the blog’s focus.)

How do you find your Strutting Shoes? When you go shopping, keep an eye out for that “OOOOH!” factor. The shoes you look at and think “I can’t buy those…” I’m here to tell you that may not be true. You must try on a Strutting Shoe. You can’t just buy your size, take them home, and hope for the best. Go look in the mirror. Not just the little one angled under the stool. Find a full length mirror. Can you walk confidently (heel to toe) in them, or are you doing the  mincing flamingo steps thing? Are they comfortable as you walk? Look at yourself as you approach the mirror. Is your stride longer? Are your shoulders back? Are you standing a little taller? Does the sight of those shoes make you smile? If the answer to all of these (except the flamingo) is yes, you might have found your Strutting Shoe.

Wouldn’t it be nice if ALL our shoes were Strutting Shoes? I realize that’s not necessarily practical, but it is a benchmark to which any shoe wardrobe can aspire. Even a plain pair of dark pumps can be a Strutting Shoe, if it’s the right pair! I encourage you to find yourself some Strutting Shoes. Make “Do they make me strut?”the question to ask yourself while out shoe shopping. And let go of those shoes in your closet that don’t make you stand tall, are uncomfortable, and don’t give you that swagger. I’ll say it again. Every woman is beautiful, and deserves to feel confident and special.

How about you? Do you have a pair of Strutting Shoes? What are yours like? When do you wear them? Are they for special occasions, or everyday? (You know I’ll encourage you to wear them every day!) Do they have a story? Please feel free to add to our conversation in the comments below. I love to hear from you…

Stylishly yours,