I wrote this post a long time ago when I got really frustrated with not being able to find Size Five shoes. I know I don’t need shoes or boots or sneakers or flip flops or sandals or any form of footwear for that matter, but I really want a pair of booties that are Just Right. I know exactly what I want but I just cant find them.
I want a pair of of Booties that look just as good with a dress as they do with skinny jeans. They have to just touch my ankle but not go past them. They have to be a full shoe and not a peep toe. Ideally they are black leather and with either a little zip or an opening at the front and the hardest thing of all, they have to be a Size Five.
It’s time again, time for me to stand up for my rights and those who are like me in the world. It has now gone too far and I am not going to put up it with it anymore. I am standing up for women everywhere with small feet before they phase us out altogether. Discrimination against us has been going on for decades and I for one have had enough and feel that I need to stand up against every shoe maker and manufacturer and say “Enough! Make some size fives!!!” I don’t have an “or else” otherwise I would say that at as well :).
The size five is so elusive these days it is like hunting for the perfect boyfriend at the age of 40-something. I know he is out there but I am so exhausted with looking for him that giving up altogether might be the only option left to me. I am destined to be shoeless as well as boyfriendless and I honestly don’t know which one is worse? Perhaps shoeless or bootieless.
There was a time I was in Lord & Taylor when the sales associate quite literally sniggered at me and said “I’m sorry miss we just don’t do size fives, our ADULT shoes start in a size 6” and then walked away as I stood there with the cutest shoe in hand begging to spend money! What the bleep, am I if not an ADULT? I am discriminated against, that’s what! There was a tear in my eye as I walked slowly out of the store feeling blue from another failed shoe buying trip.
Its not like I haven’t found small sizes, I have as you can see from my Shoesday Tuesdays, but they are getting more and more hard to find. To be fair, a lot of high end designers like Louboutin, Chanel, Jimmy Choo and Manolo do make smaller sizes but I can’t go buying $500-$1000 shoes every time I have a hankering to buy a pair of shoes. I have a lot of hankerings to buy stuff – I would go bankrupt. That all said, I was in Saks ready to buy a stupidly expensive pair of shoes as a big treat for myself and was met with a similar response to the person at Lord & Taylor and then no follow up of “may we call our other stores to check for you!” I mean isn’t the sales associate on commission at Saks? Why wasn’t she helping me spend a ridiculous amount of money?
I stalk the shelves of DSW not even looking at the shoes but looking to see if they even have a size five before building my hopes up. If I spot one I then look at the shoe, which usually leads to total disappointment because it’s an ugly flat loafer that a grandmother with her shrinking feet would wear. Just for a moment all of you size sixes, sevens and eights imagine my sadness at seeing you leave the store with fantastic bargains that I can only dream of purchasing.
On the more affordable end of shoe buying, Aldo’s does have the odd size five but I am not sure what they put in their shoe makers coffee because they are more like a size seven. The woman actually said to me “oh we make to European standards!” Well, I am British and I am exactly the same size there as I am here – a SIZE FIVE (or three in the UK). This is a different type of discrimination, which makes you think you have finally made it to cute size fives only to realize you are walking out of the store new shoeless. It’s like always thinking you were a size two dress and then having to buy a size six. It just makes you sad.
I must say I have wonderful friends who call me when they spot a bargain size five at say, Marshalls. I immediately run out of my office, sometimes when I am in the middle of a meeting (I am sure they would understand) and head to Marshalls to locate the shoes in question. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t but my friends are always looking out for me and I appreciate that. I now need your help for the perfect size five bootie.
So, can one woman with little feet change the world for women with small feet begging for darling little shoes or even that one pair of perfect booties everywhere? I hope so, I am not giving up. EVER!
