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Saturday, November 8, 2008

Sundance Obsession

So ... the latest distracting idea took hold when the Sundance catalog arrived and I saw these boots:


I can't get them out of my head. Thought about them while driving to work. Thought about them while cooking dinner. Thought about them while falling asleep. They creeped in my head during meetings at work. I think, I could be sitting here wearing those boots with a plaid skirt and warm bulky knit sweater in a few weeks! However. Not so fast thinking, Miss Bright Ideas. First they were on back-order. Now they are simply not available. Someone or someones at Sundance has been having some tough days. Tough for me too because these boots likely ain't ever gonna be mine.

But it was too late for my obsessed brain. The vision of these boots was already matched with fabric for a coat. My goal this autumn is to sew a first class winter coat, bump up my sewing skills a notch. So first candidate was this fabric from EmmaOneSock which I put in the shopping basket many times but just didn't hit the trigger:




But you know EOS. It's gone gone gone! Gotta hit that order button!

So more tough poopies for me. I try to forget the boots. Really try my best. But this blog ain't named "Visual Obsessions" for no good reason. Because last night I'm flipping through Burda WOF 11/08. And I see the fabric on the Burda Plus Fashion magazine ad. Wow. It would go with those boots! And thanks to Alfatex, if I can stomach the exchange rate and have enough confidence to start cutting (if you sew, I don't need to say more for you to know what I'm talking about), I can have it! Check it out:


In a longer coat, would look great with those boots, huh?

So today I log on to Sundance website to ogle the untouchable boots some more. I must like frustration or something. You can still get to the boots product page through Google cache. I needed to capture the jpg, to hold the vision slightly more permanently because the catalog will surely be recycled. At least I'll have the jpg until my hard drive crashes again. Because things are more serious now at Sundance ... the SKU is no longer on the Sundance website. So it's truly all over!!!

But I won't let go. Oh no no. Not that easy. Because Zappos has a lot of boots, right? Would they have the same boots or something very similar. If I knew the manufacturer, my search skills would be laser-targeted and I may very well score. All I know now is the picture, the description, they're from Italy, and there's a unique feature, sorta like an identifying mark, like a tattoo or mole or scar that's can help identify crime victims or criminals. And while these may be just boots, sometimes, I do suspect my obsession in pursuing these things is not quite so innocent. Anyway, the telling detail ... the cognac leather is also on the sole, on the bottom of the boot. Now that's a detail you don't find at Macy's or DSW, folks. Maybe not at Zappo's either. Maybe, now that I've developed a taste for Italian leather shoes and boots and gloves, our next trip to Italy must be timed with a better exchange rate and include shopping on the agenda.

Here's a few similar candidates at Zappo's after wading through 23 pages of boots with heels 2 3/4"+ (tenacious enough?). Let's play Boots Goldilocks:

Candidate #1:

The closest in style: the wedge, the wraparound strap and buckle. If it were not suede, it would be a score. Suede just looks crappy too fast, the way I plow through life in shoes. I could live with the dark brown color, but prefer the punch of cognac.

Candidate #2:

Closer on the color but still not quite there. This is a common color. Like the wraparound strap and buckle. The heel is definitely interesting, but for heavier winter fabrics on top, I think the wedge is more grounding. Plus I could see this heel being decimated in cracks in sidewalks, bricks and cobblestone.

Candidate #3:

Like: wraparound, buckle, stronger heel. Too wrong: the color, and may not be high enough.

Time to lose something here. Maybe we lose the wraparound and buckle. What do we get?

We get Candidate #4:

Like: color, height, dark heel, simplicity of design. A possibility. But boring without that wraparound detail.

Candidate #5:

Same comments as above.

Candidate #6:

Same comments as above.

Candidate #7:

Nearly same comments as above. Gorgeous, and they would do. However deal-breaker is that I prefer a heavier visual weight of the wedge heel or chunkier heels.

The visionary issue is, is it inspiring when there are so many others so similar? No. The inspiration of the Sundance boot was its uniqueness.

With that in mind, here's some uniqueness in a different way:

They lack the simplicity I'm drawn to, but they ARE eye-catching. I like. Would I buy? Would I wear? I don't know. Still stuck on Sundance.

For Parting Shot, another uniqueness, ***just for grins!***

Parting Comment: Despite the frivolous pandering over a pair of boots here, will I ultimately buy any of these? Do I take any of this seriously? It's just idle Saturday afternoon fun. Because there's a lot of people out there right now trying to keep their house, and their jobs. But is it not true that in times like these, it's fun to play and dream and escape a little.

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