I have many shoes, yet that was never to be the purpose. It must have been before I started dancing tango when I bought my first pair of #CHIEMIHARA shoes. Now I have 11 pairs , one is lost and n° 13 might be on its way.
“All things truly wicked start from innocence”
(Ernest Hemingway )
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| My CHIE MIHARA collection |
I was walking around in a pedestrian shopping street in Leuven together with an Indian friend of mine. We had finished lunch and needed some fresh air. I remembered from my student time the weird, bizarre shoes in a small store at the corner. I had often admired the beauties in the window but scared away by the prohibitively expensive prices I had never even entered the store.
Window shopping is for free , so on that day we stopped to look at the ‘vitrines’ ( French for shop window ) . I spotted a very nice velvet green sandal with a striped wooden heel. I instantly liked them. And the good news was, they were on sale. But I hesitated. Could I justify spending this much money on a pair of shoes?
Suddenly my friend offered to buy them for me as an occasional gift. I did not even know him that well nor were we emotionally involved. So the sceptical me when it comes to taking gifts from men looked at him with big inquiring eyes.
‘I insist’ he replied, ‘ you deserve it’ and he took me by my arm to show he was talking serious business.
Less than 15 minutes later I was the proud owner of my very first #CHIEMIHARA shoes. Pair n° 1 was a fact. It was end of Summer, but I wore them a lot. I have had them for over ten years now, I still wear them. They seem to last forever.
Pair n° 2 happened to just happen. So pleased with my comfy sandals and finding an excuse to spare them, I bought another pair of CHIE MIHARA sandals. With all the goodwill in this world, I cannot remember how, when and where. It might, it just might have been post ordered. They are grey, ironically called CM.BELGA, higher than n°1 & far less comfortable. Result: the Belgas are still pretty much intact.
One year passes. I am visiting a friend, my first hotel guest, Clare, in London. The ideal scenario for n° 3 & 4. We were on a shopping spree and I had promised to throw a cheese & wine dinner that evening. Clare suggested the best option to buy good cheese was at Harvey Nichols. They have an amazing gourmet shop at the top floor, but watch out for not overspending. From Belgian chocolates to Italian pasta, everything is so overpriced. Winding our way down to the exit, my daughter who was with me, insisted on a stop at the shoe department. God forgive me, the lady was only three back then and already taking care of her mom’s feeth. Better than I she recognised the CHIE MIHARAs on the shelf. She suggested I try the fuchsia ones. I did . They were oh so comfortable, but I figured I might never dare to put on such bright fuchsia shoes. They came in black too. Heavens no, I was not going to buy both pairs. Nerjis and I started arguing as only moms and daughters do. An overheated credit card and a suffering bank account later, I found myself on the street as the proud owner of one fuchsia and one black MIHARA pair .
‘Sin un par, no somos nada’. Without a pair, we are lost. It was the advertisement for an Argentine shoe brand around Saint Valentines a few years ago in #BuenosAires. I found it so appropriate. Yet, I have to admit, without many pairs, I am lost indeed.
Comes pair n° 5. I am in Amsterdam, again with my daughter. Exactly two years earlier I had accepted an exchange for 5 nights at my place against 5 nights in the #MiscHotel in Amsterdam. The building next door of the hotel needed driving piles in the foundations. Amsterdam is like Venice. The water which is omnipresent in the soil attacks the structure of the houses and if at a given time the foundations are not reinforced, the building will start sinking and the walls will crack. This can lead to a dangerous situation. The construction noise during the repair work is unbearable and the intervention not without danger. Hence the request to close the hotel in the meantime.
I welcomed the offer of the Dutch-American couple running The Misc as long as I did not have to use the 5 days all at once.
I had used 4 nights in the course of almost two years, but afraid they might forget I was still entitled to one, I went in Summer.
Amsterdam is a boring city to shop in my opinion. Good food is hard to find. What does one do then when stumbling upon a black & white CHIE MIHARA smiling at me in a shop window? At that time I knew of few boutiques where to buy my most beloved shoes.
I was not alone and my young mentor had to agree. She did not like them. I bought them. I should have listened to her specialist’s advice. They sit in the original box and they rarely see the sunlight.
By the time I was ripe for n°6 I had discovered woman’s paradise in the rue du Bailly in Ixelles. The 3-window store claims to carry the full CHIE MIHARA collection. It was during winter, I needed shoes, no boots, comfortable yet elegant. It took me exactly ten minutes: pair n° 6 , black leather with a zipper, was in the box.
Somewhere on this planet I left behind, on purpose, a n° 7. It is mind breaking to recall where they are and what they look like.
My confidence in online shopping was getting stronger but not strong enough by the time I spotted what I will call almost-pair n° 8 : sandals made out of red, dark brown and yellow leather. I was confident the Bailly store would carry them, so I went there.
Needless to say they were comfortable as heaven. What the hell took me to buy another brand in stead? How could I have been so disloyal? Which devil haunted me?
So soon thereafter I decided to make up for my error. I googled CHIE MIHARA and a few web shops appeared on my screen. #Zalando seemed to be the most expensive, not showing any deals. Strange, as it was end of Summer. Another shop popped up, #Shoescribe.com , an Italy based company. Italians tend to be reliable when it comes to shoes. They listed an orange pair of velvet leather sandals for the ridiculous price of 99€. Exactly what I needed. I had become an expert now. Five days later a beautiful package was delivered. Each sandal was first individually wrapped in a plastic bag, something highly uncommon, and then nicely enfolded with pink rice paper. On top goes a soft cotton carrying bag. Extra heel protectors are part of the deal.
Even tough I wear my MIHARAs lot, I never had no use them. CM are decent quality, they last a thousand miles.
The real n° 9 is another pair of orange pumps, never in, always out of the box. Cute, simple, vintage… walking Brussels the way I do.
N° 10 is absolutely gorgeous: leather sandals in pink and pale green. It took me months to buy them, hoping each time I googled them the price would have gone down. And the price indeed finally came down. Shoescribe has good sales at the end of the season. So ladies, if you are not in a hurry, it’s worth the wait and the gamble.
Pair n°11 turned out to be the one and only mishap. They arrived in a brown box in the middle of the winter. My best friend Ingrid had invited me to a tango recital at the BOZAR in the evening. I wanted to go fancy and decided to wear my new MIHARAs. When I arrived at the BOZAR, I already had trouble going down the stairs. My feeth hurt, I could barely walk. I could not have bought them too small as they were my regular 38.
But such is faith, whatever I try or do, they are too small.
A month ago I was in Bologna on the 25th anniversary of my graduation from the #JohnsHopkinsUniversity . Bologna 1988-89 is on the top of my list as best year ever. I only had to worry about getting good grades. Bologna is known as ‘La Dotta ( the gifted one ), La Grassa ( for being the culinary capital in Italy ), La Rossa ( it’s the bastion for the communist party and most buildings are painted in some shade of red )’
For sure the ‘La Grassa’ had its effect: in 10 months I gained 10 kilos ! Those kilos are long gone and Bologna has grown to the detriment of its charm. But Sunday evening dinner at the trattoria #Scaccomatto with my former study friends was still devine.
Every day is a holiday in Italy, and when I arrived on April 24th, I learned the following day was National Day. I panicked. That would mean no shopping. I managed to get the last available table for dinner at the hotel. I invited another woman to my table who was desperate to eat and tired after a long working week. She was Italian, living and working in London where she is in charge of the handbag production of #VictoriaBeckham.
We hit of so well, discovered we had many things in common: bad luck with men being one of them.
To my pleasant and big surprise I found the shops on Avenida Independenza were open the next day. Most of the exclusive brand stores have traded places for the cheaper, lower market chains. Yet one elegant shoe store has survived. Of all the exclusive brands, they had 4 CHIE MIHARA models. One model I had previously seen online. I went in and tried them. I don’t know why they offered me a better price then the one mentioned on the box. Anyway, I bought them. My suitcase would and should be big enough to transport box and shoes n° 12.
My inspiration to write this post came when I received a 40% off notice from Shoescribe valid till tomorrow. They sell unique models specially made for them. Unless I were to fly to Spain and visit the MIHARA outlet store, I could not find a better deal. They also suggest to acquire the special box. Could shoes be treated any better?
This gives me 4 more hours to make up my mind ! Tomorrow I will know if n° 13 is a fact !