December 24, 2012 |
A lady’s relationship with her shoes is complex. She must find the shoe. She must fall in love with the shoe. She must suffer intolerable pain for the shoe and, finally, she must tame it. Or she could just saunter into Tod’s. There she will find a wide array of pebble-soled offerings to cater to all her needs. One where the delicate plateau has been crafted by hand and stitched with needle and thread to a visible leather sole, with a heel padded in leather, imbuing the shoe with an original and extremely feminine aesthetic. Such shoes, though, will not fit on just any foot. Only the right foot for it. The foot that brings it to life. To explain how this process works, we turn to Sesame Street’s Monsterpiece Theatre’s The Taming of the Shoe. We can all agree that the lessons taught to us by them have put us in good stead in our everyday lives.
Grovero: “Oh shoe! Oh shoe! Wherefore art thou, shoe? Oh, there you are. Me thinks I will put you on and walk to the Padua Mall.”
Shoe: “Unhand me, Grovero!”
Grovero: “Oh, what a shoe you are! I, Grovero, only want to put you on my foot and tie up your laces. You see – just like my other shoe.”
Shoe: “Fie, I will not be tied to any foot!”
Grovero: “But shoe, I cannot walk to the Padua Mall with only one shoe. T’would be embarrassing.”
Shoe: “Find yourself another shoe. I walk alone.”
Grovero: “Fine! Go ahead, you shoe. See how farest you can get without a foot.”
Shoe: “Drat! Me thinks this is harder than me thought.”
Grovero: “I toldeth you so, shoe. Please can we not co-operate?”
Shoe: “Co-operate?”
Grovero: “Ah yes. You needeth a foot and I needeth a shoe. Let us walk together.”
Shoe: “All right. But watch your step.”
Grovero: “Fine, I shall be very, very carefuleth… There. Aha! Gadzooks! I have tamed the shoe!”
Shoe: “Yeah.”
Grovero: “Aha! There now, shoe. Is it not better when we co-operate? And now we can walk to the mall?”
Shoe: “Forget it. I don’t want to walk to the mall.”
Grovero: “But, but shoe! I thought you were going to co-operate?”
Shoe: “I want to dance to the mall.”
Grovero: “Dance? Okayeth. We can co-operate and danceth to the mall. Hiteth it.”
And what conclusions can we draw from this? That the correct shoe, when bent to your will, will sing in harmony with your feet? Will make you want to dance not walk? Will be so perfectly fitted to your foot as to let you dance rather than cripple you? Yes. And where does one find such a shoe? The answer to that would be Tod’s.
by Natalie Dembinska
