style obsessions | mary janes

I always say my footwear choices have not changed much since I was five.   Sure, I varied for a bit, Elementary school was a  lot of velcroed sneakers with pastel accents. Junior high was all about pointy flats stolen from my mother worn with stirrup leggings and big flowy sweaters. I wore knock-off Keds religiously through the entirely of high school with my french cuffed jeans.  In college, I tended toward oxfords and doc-martinish boots in cold weather, flip flops in summer. Then there were those strange ubiquitous Steve Madden sliders in the late 90's early aughts.   As an adult for awhile, I tended toward rounder toed ballet flats, which I still have a lot of and wear mostly in the summer when I'm not wearing sandals. I have a pair of black oxfords, a pair of chunkier Mudd penny loafers I love, but I am mostly all about the Mary Janes.

Slowly though, I've amassed a considerably impressive collection of them, which unlike the flats, are much better on my feet when I have to do more walking.  I have a bunch in blacks and various browns, and more in colors--oxblood, navy, a nice olive green. Dansko makes some super cute platformy ones, other great suppliers are Clarkes and Born.  A few years back, I amassed several pairs of Born kitten heel T-straps that I adored, but kept turning my ankles in and had to ditch them after a couple of falls.   As such, I have to watch my heel heights (sadly no sexy vintagey MJs's for me) but I've found some good ones with platform even soles and another favorite, the ballet flat/mary jane hybrid.

I've spotted numerous childhood pics of me in t-straps or one strap mary janes and those toddler shoes are not much different than the ones I wear now.  And also, unlike some of my cuter, but heavier soled ballet flats, the strapping keeps them from slipping off (I have one foot slightly smaller than the other.) I also say, these shoes satisfy my need for comfort while also appealing to my 90's chunky shod self and my love of  30's/40's accessories.


Head over to Pinterest for peek at some of my favorites..