The perfect pair of heels - and other thoughts on shoes

So, I'm back on fashion again. In my previous post about my dream wardrobe, I determined I only needed 6 pairs of shoes: ballet flats, running shoes, flip flops, hiking boots, snow-boarding boots, and the "perfect" pair of heels. Maybe for guys, 6 pairs of shoes sounds like plenty, but for girls, that's really extreme. Especially when 1 pair of the 6 is ski boots. With only those 6 pairs of shoes, the shoes listed have to be mega-versatile. The ballet flats have to work with jeans and casual t-shirts, as well as with black pants and dressy shirts. And they have to be mega-comfortable for walking. And those "perfect" heels, well, that's the topic of this post.

I dream of the "perfect" heels. Heels that are sexy as hell, that you can also run a mile in. I know that doesn't exist, but I really *want* it to. So instead, the closest to the single pair of perfect heels would be a classic leather pump, not too round of a toe, but not too pointy either; not too high of a heel (for comfort), but not too low (for attractiveness); and as comfortable as is physically possible. That heel could be worn with jeans and dressy tops, with black pants, with a suit, and with black and non-black dresses. That heel could be worn year-round, fall-winter-spring-summer.

And yet, I still want other shoes. I want a wedge summer sandal, to wear in the summer and spring with a dress or pants. Because summer sandals feel so much fresher in spring and summer than closed-toe shoes, and wedges are sooo much more comfortable than other styles of heels. And I want a wedge fall-winter shoe, to wear when I want to wear a heel, but I want be more comfortable than is possible in the classic pumps. And I want a strappy summer version of the perfect heel, because it's so much sexier and summer appropriate. And I want a city-sneaker, because it looks better with casual t-shirts and is still more comfortable than any ballet flats I've tried.

And I want boots. Oh, how I want boots. I used to just want heeled boots, but now I want more. I want heeled, knee high boots, to tuck my jeans into and wear with dressy tops. I want flat, knee high boots, again to tuck my jeans into and wear with casual and dressy tops. Now I even want heeled booties, to be super-sexy and trendy, to wear with jeans and dressy tops, black pants, dresses.

Oh, and did I mention that I want all of the above in both black and brown?

I really must rein myself in. Really I must.

First, I must say no to the black and brown. I need to limit myself to clothes that go with black. If I buy brown, taupe, or some other color I need to be okay with it going with black. Sometimes that can work really nicely.

Second, I must say no to the boots craziness. Partly because boots are *expensive*! But I like the idea of one pair of boots. Should it be a heeled or a flat boot? Heeled is more dressy, flat is more comfy. But really, for the comfort of flats, I should just wear the ballet flat. So the one pair of boots should be heeled. Should it be a knee-high boot or a bootie? Well, knee high is so cute over jeans, but that's a trend that will come and go. In truth, either length looks the same if it's underneath pants. But if pants stay slim, it's hard to pull them over a tall boot. So maybe it should be a bootie, which just looks like a classic boot if the pants cover the top. So the one pair of boots should be a heeled bootie, as comfortable as possible. And I could wear them with jeans, black pants, and even a dress as the current trend stands.

As for the other shoes, maybe it wouldn't be so bad to just say yes. So I increase my ideal list of shoes from 6 (ballet flats, running shoes, flip flops, hiking boots, ski boots, and the "perfect" pair of heels) to 11 (strappy summer heels, wedge summer sandals, wedge fall-winter shoes, city-sneakers, and heeled booties). That's really not so bad, is it?