Those Shoes, Oct 2025

Sometime near the end of 2023 I was on the subway going home and was sitting across from a middle-aged woman wearing the most incredible boots - - bright orange floral on a black field, so wacky. I asked her where she got them and she said they were from John Fluevog.

I went to the website and saw that they were more expensive than I would like but why not give it a try? I got a pair of turquoise lace-ups with a chunky sole on sale for $150, down from $225 or some such thing. I figured if I don't like them I'll send them back.

They came in the mail, I tried them on, and the sole had no give at all, it was like wearing a wooden crate on my feet. I looked up the return policy and wouldn't you know it, you can't get a refund on sale items, only an exchange. Grumble grumble. So I landed on these pea soup green shoes with the pointy toe for $175.

I wore them for the first time in January 2024 when my friend Susan Luxemburg and I went to see *Vertigo* at the NY Phil, a screening of the Hitchcock movie with the orchestra playing the sublime Bernard Herrmann score. I wore a black turtleneck, the same navy and black check blazer I'm wearing today, and jeans.

I'm going to dinner with my friend Mason tonight - - originally a friend of my brother Patrick's but it appears I stay more in touch with her than he does so somehow she's become more my friend than his. I call this a free upgrade, it's happened numerous times with both my brothers. Ah well, we all make choices! Anyway, Mason is in town from Milwaukee and she and a friend are going to a concert at the NY Phil. Again with the NY Phil. We're going to the somewhat fancy restaurant at Geffen Hall so I decided to spruce it up a bit and wear a blazer. And then I thought I'd wear Those Shoes.

This seems like something that high-style women do all the time - - they build an outfit around one of the accessories. My whole outfit was built around the shoes. I was thrilled to land on this so-ugly-it's-cool, early-days-of-80s-New-Age necktie, a hand-me-down from Richard. The groove is right with the shoes and the muted lavender gives just a touch of tang. The jacket, shirt, and slacks are all muted in the extreme.

Bonus feature: I'm wearing the Willi Smith rayon trench coat that was a hand-me-down from Patrick. I have to be careful not to wear it when I pass the Fashion Institute of Technology because if someone in there were to see me wearing it I'd be tackled and drugged and they'd steal the coat from me to put in their museum.

*Vertigo,* Jan 2024