Irregular Choice Shoes I Love & The Imaginary People Who Wear Them
[ 10 July 2007 ]
Jo Jo
The woman who loves the Jo Jo ankle boot/sandal could be described as a modern-day, Harajuku-obsessed, discotheque-loving Marie Antoinette. She loves her pastel-coloured frippery but isn’t afraid to team it up with avant-garde pieces. She would wear these shoes out dancing, with a huge powdered wig, a beauty spot & a short turquoise babydoll dress over bloomers & holographic leggings. Her favourite thing to do is take Japanese sticker-booth pictures with friends after a night out. She screams with delight whenever anyone smiles at her & she uses an enormous feather quill to take notes in her marketing lectures.
Spik & Span
This girl has long, straight, pale pink hair & an eyelash-skimming fringe. She walks slowly & enjoys reciting poems by Yoko Ono verbatim. She wears these sandals with a pair of loose trousers & a pink & white striped halterneck top. She works in an art gallery & speaks so quietly barely anyone can hear her. She is most happy when caught in the rain without an umbrella, or when attempting to decipher her cat’s purring.
La Isla (green & black)
These are the heels of choice for an off-duty, cigar-smoking ballet teacher. She wears them to the Sunday markets, with dark grey jeans, a pale yellow vintage Beach Boys t-shirt & a royal blue, you guessed it, ballerina wrap cardigan. She grits her cigar stub between yellow-stained teeth as she smiles at the man who sells her radishes, then pirouettes off down the street.
Fish Out Of Water (black)
Worn by a Pisces with wavy mermaid hair, these gorrrrrgeous ankle boots get her from the swimming pool to the art studio & back again. She wears these with a black, shin-length skirt, lots of gold bangles & a slate-blue camisole beneath a half-buttoned white shirt (sleeves rolled up, of course). She constantly tucks her hair behind her ears & has a pair of blue, goldfish-embossed chopsticks with which she offers other people a bite of her favourite lunch, sushi.
Quilted
Hermes, Greek god, wore winged boots to get him from place to place. In keeping with this fine theme, the woman wearing these boots would also wear an Hermes scarf tied around her head — along with a fitted, short black motorcycle jacket, black shorts & stockings, & an Obi belt in pink & gold.
Pixie
This is a great shoe for boys. I love its pointy toe & that very casual buckle curled around the outside. The red stitching draws attention to the contours of the shoe, which is actually pretty shapely for a “pixie shoe”. I can picture a boy like Patrick Wolf (drool) wearing these. He’d wear them with a pair of tightly-pegged pants, finishing just below the knee, perhaps playing the lute in a forest somewhere, slugging whiskey from an engraved silver hip-flask & kissing other sweet elfin boys… Okay, I’ll stop there.
Super-love & cupcakes,
Gala
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I am love love loving these Fish out of Water shoes.
As appealing as it sounds to be one of those unique characters with beautiful shoes, unfortunately the majority of us can’t afford such royalties. :[ I found some pretty cool magenta high heels and purple ankle boots at thrift town, though! I found some free butter yellow platform mary janes in a rubbish heap, too. Not quite luxury. Well, at least I try.
I second that…I must have the Fish out of Water shoes…they are the ultimate for wannabe mermaids like myself. :)
p.s. i love the stories about the fictional style icons. :)
Lou — Ooh, me too! Usually I am not an ankle-boot kind of girl, but those threaten to change my mind…
Kayla Lane — 50 quid for a pair of shoes is about 100 US, which is very little to me! (I spent about that much yesterday paying a bill & buying some lunch, ouch!) But anyway, the reason I profiled them is because I think they’re beautiful & inspiring, which to me is what fashion & style is all about. To some people 50 quid is pocket change, to others it’s an amount they save up, but the sum is the same — an incredible pair of shoes with the power to transform your attitude & wardrobe! It doesn’t matter whether you buy them on your lunch-break or you pay them off in installments over 6 months. I’m very impressed at your thrifting skills though, yellow platform mary janes sound divine! I’m so jealous! I’ve never been a good thrifter!
rachel — Aw, wannabe mermaid, that’s so cute! & thank you, I was in the mood to write creatively today ;>
This is a glorious post! So inspiring. I think you might channel Jo Jo sometimes….? I can very much imagine you wearing them. :)
The La Isla shoes are the exact ones I’ve had my eye on recently-but I must say, I loving the JoJo’s!
Do you know what I absolutely hate? The fact that I have tendinitis in both my feet, and wearing amazingly gorgeous shoes like these would have me in bed for days. Who knows, though… that could be worth it. :-) $100 for a few days of bed rest sounds good.
I love them all!
Oh, wow! The whimsy, the free-spirit! I soaked up your vignettes lavishly!
I love your blog. . . but this particular one may take the place of favorite =)
your WRITING! those imaginary people just come alive! it’s wonderful.
Ohhhh how you made my day with the Patrick Wolf comment.
And thank you Gala for being so wonderful.
Nadia — Yeah, I think I have a bit of Jo Jo in me ;D
tee tee — That is terrible! I’m sorry to hear that. Maybe you could have them framed & hang them above your bed instead?!
Jeannine — Awww! Glad you like it!
grace — Thank you! How is Wellington treating you?
amanda — Kiss KISS. I love Patrick.
Fave shoe: Quilted
Fave character: ballet teacher! (Hahahahaha!)
Fave outfit: fish-out-of-water-girl’s white shirt ensemble
:-D
I say, that’s marvellous! I must ask, might I borrow the concept and link back to this entry – a Chookish sequel of sorts?
:O I love almost all of them! wonderful post Gala!
i love irregular choice and own some of their shoes myself… but i swear the person who designed these, just went to japan and copied them off the streets!! i have sandals very much like jojo and exactly like spik&span, although i must say i love jojo’s colour. and i really like how quilted looks!!! “must get me a pair! must get me a pair!”
PATRICK WOLF!!!!
That is all.
Sir Chooky — Of course, go ahead, have a ball baby!
gilda — The Japanese know their shoes. I am DYINGGGG to visit, someone sponsor me to go over there! I’m so envious of your shoe collection!
enna — HELL YES!
i’m excited that you love irregular choice shoes too! and i admire your character-invention skills.
oh, i am in love with the spik and span shoes/character/life. especially the hairstyle and colour, i’ve coveted it for so long!
one of my favourite articles :)
OH MY GOD are you telling me you’ve never been to tokyo yet??? after seeing all your tokyo-mad posts and clothes, i thought you’ve been there before!! go ASAP! and let me know so i can tell you where to go!
Now I just need to meet a ‘Pixie’... :)
this is so strange, i was just at that site the other day and put all of the same shoes in my wishlist! how appropriate
Oh god, the Jo Jo! I would give up my firstborn for them (they come in black and pale pink; the latter makes them one of the most Marie-Antoinettish things I have ever seen); why why WHY must they be UK-exclusive?! woe, woe, thrice woe.
Patrick Wolf is love, and those shoes are made for him. Again, LOVE; I wish I knew a guy who could prance around as merrily in those shoes as they deserve.
I third the Patrick Wolf responses, Gala you put me at risk of making a puddle on the desk from the drool.
I want the Fish out of Water (I’m a Pisces myself) and the Hermes and Pixie shoes, they are amazing. The other shoes are a little too on the side of “art pieces” for me to want them, although they are cool to look at.
Those Spik & Span shoes are to DIE for, I love them! Thanks for showing us such an awesome website!
PATRICKWOLFPATRICKWOLFPATRICKWOLF!
I could make a very bad pun about ‘The Magic Position’ right now. :D
I think you should write a novel with characters like these in mind! All of your writing here reminds me of the Weetzie Bat books.
adele — Thank you my dear! My head is swimming with strange people all day long. & plus, writing about imaginary fashionplates is so much more interesting than just “here are some shoes… they are black… I like them”!
Thursday — Ha! Great minds think alike, evidently!
Lauren — HAHAHAAH! “I’ll put YOU in the magic position!” Phew, damn he’s hot.
Victoria — Awwww. I love FLB so much. (I dressed as Witch Baby for one of the first i.D.U.D.s, if you weren’t around for it!) I used to do a lot of creative kind of writing, my most ambitious project was about a couple of girls living in Stockholm. There was some good writing in it but it was a bit aNgStY you know? Maybe I’ll re-work it one day, I don’t know :>
EEEEEK! Shoes! I love Irregular Choice and have drooled over them more than once (but poor lil ol’ me can’t afford IC). I love how you paired each shoe with the imagined owner; how inventive! :) I have to tell you: reading your blog every day always adds a smile to my face! Keep it up Gala, you are a very unique and happy person who spreads so much joy and fun around!! :)
Ohh the first Girl sounds like me.. I love love Irregular choice shoes, Im obsessed with mine! They are the most comfortable shoes and wherever i go when im wearing them people always compliment or comment My shoes.
The quilted shoe is AWESOME!! i’d so wear that!
I loved this entry, so inspiring I never stop to think of it that way! I will from now on!
Superb design!! Those shoes are looking awesome and need to be in my closet. :-)
Fish Out of Water girl and Lauren (http://galadarling.com/article/icing-infatuations-five-fabulous-nail-polishes) should meet for lunch at a sushi bar! There’d be so much dreaming to catch up on.