Heels for Formal Attire

Formal Choices: Shoes

Closet Content Analysis: Shoes for Formal Attire

NICE                   NO THANKS         NOTE-WORTHY            NEED          NEW

Formal occasions call for a particular formality in shoes. What shoe should one wear? I say heels, no matter how tall you are; however there are lovely choices in a lower princess heel. I think it is quite fine to tower over those shorter than you, male or female, and I encourage that even though I am vertically challenged.

Nude sling-back peep toe Jimmy Choos, purchased May, 2011.

NICE: As long as the nude peep toe sling back is still in style, it can be worn with anything formal, no matter the colour. If it is patent leather, all the better. The shine adds to the glitz. These Jimmy Choos were purchased in May of 2011 and I still think they look NICE. 

Black Accessoire pump photo taken on my balcony window.

NICE 2: The black alternative, to my Jimmy Choos, are these sling back black Accessoire pumps that I bought in Romans, France in August of 2010. The strap and sides are suede and the main upper front is patent.

NO THANKS: I was at a Grade 12 graduation dinner about nine years ago and a spectacle that my husband noted initially, not me this time, was the shoes of one of the "dignitaries". She was a superintendent of the school district and was wearing a not-so-special outfit, certainly not evening or cocktail wear, and the shoes were . . . yes, just like the photo of the little girl's pink crocs . . . plastic clogs; I cannot remember the colour. I am not kidding. I couldn't believe it.

Pink crocs from a photo taken of a little girl on a bus in Berlin several years ago.

So here is this woman, making six figures and she's wearing plastic clogs to the dinner and exercises for a graduating class in a school district she represents. What was she thinking? (Perhaps someone could comment on this - what is a person thinking when they wear plastic clogs to a formal event?) 

Strappy silver sandals, around seven years old, but still wearable.

NOTE-WORTHY: But of course, a strappy sandal in any one of the metallics is always NICE and therefore NOTE-WORTHY. The strappy silver heels are about seven years old, but in fact, I believe they are still wearable to a formal event in 2012. However this photo illustrates the problem with too high of a heel. Your foot slips forward, leaving a gap at the back of the heel, and then the toes overextend the sole, as they have for this young woman.

Black beaded mules with a moderate heel, purchased in Spain a decade ago.

NEED: I need a pair similar to these black not-too-high-heeled mules. I have had this pair of black beaded heeled mules for a while now. I bought them in Spain back in 2003 - almost a decade ago. To me, they rise a little to high in the front, but I still wore them often. I think that they look NICE with an LBD but dancing is difficult. And as you see, by the worn out toe, they have seen their day - it's time to retire them. 




NEW: Nothing new, as long as I have my Jimmy Choos; I'm good to go to any formal event.