Shoes, again

Tango Brujo, dark brown suede with bronze stamp. I had these made up for me. I like how they look, they have a nice flexible sole, the heel is a good height for me, and most importantly, the shoes feel good!

 

Tango shoes

Mum`s getting impatient.  She wants to see some shoe action.

I guess most people reading this blog know that I have very small feet indeed.  In the larger scheme of things this is a good thing. I am a small person, and I`d look silly with big feet.  The downside of having small feet is that I don`t have much choice in respect of footwear.  In Australia, most (adult) shoes start at the size just up from my size.  When I started tango, I danced for the first six months in street shoes before biting the bullet and going dance-shoe shopping.

These are the shoes I ended up buying.  I actually had them made for me by a ballroom dance shoe manufacturer in Preston.  The off the shelf model that they were based on was a flesh coloured ballroom satin sandal with diamentes.  While I`m not exactly a clothes horse, there are some things that I just won`t wear. I think you might understand what I`m talking about here. 

For the last two and a bit years these shoes have served me well. My dancing however is at a point where a little more height would be good, and sometimes – just sometimes – it would be nice to go to a milonga in shoes that went a step beyond `functional` in the style stakes.

A few months after buying my first pair of dance shoes, I also bought a pair of dance sneakers.  The sneakers have also served me well, although truth be told, they`re just a little bit too clunky for good tango.  I`ve been yearning for slimline dance sneakers for some time. When I get my new sneakers, I plan to keep these old sneakers for dancing on rough outdoor surfaces.

So we come to Shannon`s Buenos Aires Shoe Quest: hunt down three or four pairs of good looking dance shoes with heels, and one or two pairs of slimline dance sneakers.

How have I gone so far?  Well, it seems that even in Buenos Aires, it`s not easy to buy shoes for small feet.  However, after going to practically every tango shoe shop in the city…

The first pair of shoes I bought were from Tango Brujo.  They`re frippery, and they feel about a centimetre too high for me to be comfortable in for heavy duty dancing, but they have nice flexible soles, and they`re a red that I like   Tango Brujo make shoes on request, so I`ve placed an order for a pair of dark brown suede shoes with a closed back, and a slightly different heel.

 

The next pair of shoes I bought were from a famous Buenos Aires tango shoe manufacturer that doesn`t have a web site, and prohibits on-sellers from posting pictures of their shoes on the web.  There are no printed catalogues of their shoes.  Everytime I see an amazingly styled paired of shoes on the milonga dance floor, they inevitably turn out to have been made by this manufacturer.

In keeping with the game, I won`t name the shoe manufacturer in the same post that has a picture of their shoes, although I will write a seperate post a little later to talk about the experience of buying these shoes.  The height of these shoes is the same as the Tango Brujos, but the balance feels much better.  The soles are stiffer than I like, but I`m hoping that a bit a dancing will sort that out.  And yes, I love the look of these shoes!!!

The next pair I bought were made by Alanis, a designer who runs her own shoe store.  They`re not as glamourous as the other shoes, but the height is just right for me, and apart from feeling a little uncertain about the long term viablity of the sandal style back, I feel like they will be good comfy dancing shoes – so – I`ve asked Alanis to make me a pair with a closed back in a heavier duty black leather, to use as practice shoes.

Other than the shoe shop that I`m being coy about naming, the best looking shoes I`ve seen here are at Neo Tango.  Unfortunately, the heeled shoes at Neo Tango that fit me, and feel good, are in colours I`d never wear (sigh).  Their sneakers however also fit and feel good, so I went a bit crazy and bought a pair with olive trim as well as a pair in functional black leather.

I`ll post pictures of the shoes I`m waiting on once I get them – OK Mum?

And with that, I`m all shoe shopped out.  Just as well, eh?