I am a shoe freak. In RL I am an obsessed collector and have…well I won’t tell you how many pair I have because I honestly don’t know. Let’s just says lots. Okay, maybe tons. I love shoes and have done since that first sparkly pair of my mother’s high heels I first played dress up with. Maybe even longer but the fact is, shoes have been a lifelong obsession with me.
One of my biggest frustrations in feeding my need for shoes is finances. I mean I really NEED those vintage pair of Hermes suede thigh high boots I saw on e-Bay, but darn it, I just don’t have a spare 20k or so in my pocket at the moment. If I had endless funds, I’d build a library of shoes (oooh library but my obsession with collecting books will have to be another editorial). I am often frustrated, have wept great tears and have dreamt of the wonderous pair that got away. I’m sure there are a million women just like me who dream of names like Blahnik, Choo, Weitzman, etc. Ooh Weitzman, did you see the new ones in the Neiman catalog? Oops digressing a little here. Sorry.
Lately, I’ve been doing some inventory cleaning and bloody inventory losing too (growls) and ran into a pair of my first SL high bling freebie noob hooker shoes and laughed. Those first shoes got me thinking about women, shoes and consumerism in SL.
I’m sure many non-SL people, some SL people and just about all the men are thinking, “Why on earth would anyone want a pair of virtual shoes?”. Well, I thought the same thing when I first landed in SL a year ago. “It’s software, pixels, bits of air why should I spend good (and real) money on a pair of air shoes?” I said to a friend and laughed. Joke on me. I landed as Noobs do after Help Island in a freebie shop getting myself some basic free clothes, hair, etc because well I looked like a Noob. I picked out my first pair of glaring bling pixelated footwear and wow, these even had a sexy walk AO stuffed into the clicking heels. My virtual hips were a’swingin. Yay and who needed to buy shoes anyhow? Here were these nice strappy (blingy) sandals and I was hot stuff. I was a Blingtard. Then I saw them. A lovely looking avatar, obviously not a Noob because she had real looking hair, her skin was omg and her shoes! Her shoes were gorgeous, stunning and classic. They made mine that I was so proud of look like something my puppy Ozzy chewed up and spit out. Suddenly self-conscious I tried to hide my feet.
“Your shoes are so pretty” I said to she who had become Avatar Goddess of the Shoe.
Stilleto Moody Mary Janes in Basquiat Blue
“Oh ty” says she. “Moody’s” and managed to convey in that one typed word all the gasping, hushed and reverent tones I use for words like Chanel and Laboutin. It hit me like a ton of bricks. Moody’s had to be the Blahnik of SL! OMG. Must. Have. Moody’s. The goddess (thank you whoever you were) handed me an LM (landmark for you non-SL’ers) and I quickly teleported to the store and when I rezzed, my little avatar jaw dropped to the polished floor. Shoes! Strappy sandals, boots, pumps, even omg even SCULPTED TOES! There were gladiator boots in fuschia, D’Orsay heels, slingback Maryjanes in the most glorious shade of blue. Incredibly detailed little golden chains and heart shaped sculpted logo on the bottom of the shoe gave me the same pitty pat of my heart that the red sole of a Christian Laboutin does in real life. I saw the prices, gulped and ran to Paypal. Got myself some lindens and became an official and voracious SL consumer of virtual shoes.
N-Core Luxury High Heeled Boot in Black
I’ve since found Heart and Sole, VDI, N-Core, ooh Maitreya Gold, Bax and many others. My SL shoe collection rivals my real one and I will drop everything I’m doing to see a new release or sale. I’m not the only one. Sometimes I can’t even move or TP into these places because the sims are so full of avatars just like me on fire with shoe lust. I know it seems crazy buying virtual shoes but hey, doesn’t 1000 lindens (roughly about 4 dollars USD) sound a lot better than an $800.00 pair of real life shoes for the same thrill? Can’t afford those Choo’s? Head on down to the Grid and get yourself some sexy stilettos with a clicking heel and a brand name to make your heart flutter for what you’d pay for that bag of chips that’s just going to make your cholesterol rise anyhow. Feet hurt in real? Virtual shoes don’t give you blisters and you can dance in them all night long. Heck, I even found a pair of glass slippers at Fierce that have a dancing Chimera hud built into the heel. Yeah baby, you CAN be Cinderella at the ball. Out of closet space? Well until LL limits inventory space, you can store unlimited pairs.
What’s my point? I guess I have none other than I’m now outed as a raging shoe fanatic with a big flashing neon light for designers to spam me with sale notecards (ducks deftly). I know you’re out there all my doppleganger shoe fetishists. Come on, comment and tell me your favorite shoe story, shoe maker, designer, etc. Send in some SLurls. If you see me online, drop me an IM or send me a pic of your favorite virtual shoes. I’ve always got time to hear a shoe story.
See ya on the Grid.
Mari
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Mari Malaspina is a writer, an SL junkie, fashionista, SL sculpture lover and finder of cool sims. She is co-publisher of Slinkmag and is known to Tweet a lot under her RL name as well as for Slinkmag. She's always looking for cool and fun things to write about and buys more virtual goods than she should. Watch out asset server! 
