The Derivatives Trade

Monday: mauve Prada slingbacks

I have this problem — I get fixated on something and I can’t stop buying every iteration of it. A couple of seasons ago I fell in love with the tweed Prada shoes with the curved metal heels and flower trim, so not only did I buy the pumps in brown but I also picked up the mules in burgundy. Let’s not even talk about my collection of embroidered Laineys… And frankly, every time I buy another Marc Jacobs bag — what with the hardware and the pockets — I feel like I’m repeating myself. And yet I can’t stop.

This year, Groundhog Day is coming a little early. I bought these fabulous dark chocolate brown Bottega Veneta woven-vamp, kiltie slingbacks this fall:

I’ve had to consciously force myself not to wear them all the time — that’s how much I love them. The kilties also came in a pump with a 3 1/2″ heel, which I managed to pass on just because they were so hard to walk in. But now Bottega’s spring collection has a pair of kiltie ballerina flats in that same dark chocolate color (though now deemed “hazelnut” on the Bergdorf’s site) and open-toe slingback kilties (same color but in this description, it’s just called “brown”).

Heaven help me! I am feeling hard-pressed not to buy both styles, even though three pairs of dark brown (however it’s described) kilties is, even for me, a bit excessive.

Luckily, the ballerina flats also come in a tan-white -yellow combo. A bit more colorful than I’m used to, but I think I can pull it off. There’s nothing wrong, really, with being derivative if you’re just being derivative of yourself, right?

This entry was posted on Monday, January 16th, 2006 at 8:07 am and is filed under Shopping, Shoes, Fashion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.