"There are moments in your life when you know
that something is going to change and there is nothing you can do about it. This
is one of those moments. I know I have to go, I have to move on. But I’m
scared. I’m afraid I can’t do it by myself…”
Earlier
today
The time goes by and there is no excitement, absolutely nothing new. The red shoes
and I are bored, even though our house is filled with Vogue numbers and our
closet has a reasonable amount of beautiful cocktail dresses. It’s been a long time
since we went on a trip and there is a decade that has always fascinated the
shoes. Since we watched “The Great Gatsby” by Baz Luhrmann, they turned this
fascination into an obsession. And as usual I have to follow their lead. Who
knows what happens if I don’t? I mean I just can’t take them off, they are very
powerful…
It
all happened in a very strange way. We went to a park near my apartment and I
decided to rent a little boat. There I was perfectly calm and suddenly the boat
began to spin like crazy and a jazz song was playing (I believe it was this one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJC21zzkwoE&list=PL7337CD7C2638A0A). I tried to scream but no one
seemed to listen. Everything that was surrounding me was getting distorted. I
decided to let myself go and enjoy the trip. At some point I got used to
the craziness... The surroundings began to change and suddenly
I realized that I was no longer in the park. I was in a pool in what seemed
to be the best party ever! I mean I went to great parties before but nothing can be
compared to this energy and madness. I was in the Roaring Twenties!
“I’m
starting to feel like an alien. The women around me are wearing the “flapper
look” – the flapper dress was very common in this decade and it is great
because it flattened the bust line
rather than accentuating it (thank good I’m wearing a LBD, at least I
can be almost unnoticed). The velvet and satin dresses are embellished with fringes,
beads or rhinestones. They all have “bobbed”
their hair and some of them are wearing cloche hats (popularized by Couture
houses like Lanvin). I can smell Channel Number 5 in the hair… It is exciting to observe how Surrealism and
Art Deco influenced fashion in this decade and how the work of artists like Elsa
Schiaparelli is worn by flesh in blood people standing next to me. Most women are
either dancing the Charleston, drinking, laughing or smoking or everything at
once. And when I was distracted observing the environment, I was removed from the pool by a
group of four very fun young women that gave me a cloche hat. I’m in the middle
of the “dance floor" and I couldn’t get out so I tried to copy the moves of the
couples next to me. A very nice boy started to dance with me”.
I would like to tell that it was a romantic and
beautiful scene but that’s not exactly what happened. The truth is I fell. I
fell pretty hard and hut my feet. I had to get out of there. The boy carried me
to a safer place and I took of my shoes. I know what you are thinking “What a
gentleman! This one is a keeper!”. Well, but he was only sweet for a little
while. A very tall blond woman passed by and he followed her like a dog without
saying goodbye.
There I was: heart-broken
(well not that much, I mean I have only knew him for 15 minutes) and without
being able to walk. But I had to keep my mind positive. I was in the 20’s
listening to jazz in an incredible party. I started to watch people carefully
again, trying to take it all in. In that moment I noticed an interesting group
of women. They weren’t wearing flapper dresses; they are wearing LBD just like
me! The fact is Coco Chanel invented and popularized them around 1926 so it is
possible. Little Black Dresses were part of the boyish look of this era – the “garçonne”
– that was directly related with the Women’s Rights Movement of the beginning
of the century. For the first time, dresses were more fitted and women's legs
were seen with hemlines rising to the knee.
“Oh my god! Where
are the shoes? They were here just a second ago. I can’t find them! Oh, there
they are, over there dancing in the middle of the crowd. Suddenly, they turn in
my direction and stay still for a while. Are they trying to tell me something? I can’t walk in their direction. I mean, I don’t think I can walk at
all! Is that a woman trying to put on my shoes?! “Hey! Stop, those are my
shoes!” She doesn’t listen. Why did they let her? I know they have a mind of
their own; they wouldn’t let her wear them if they didn’t want to… I can’t
believe they left me without even saying goodbye. I mean I guess that long stop
was their way of saying goodbye. But it’s hard. I mean we have been together for
almost a year now, since last September. And they are leaving me?! Apparently,
they are… How am I supposed to go home without them? I know they have always
wanted to live in the 20’s, I can feel it, but this is not where I belong… But I
guess they know that, that’s why they have chosen a new owner or more precisely
someone new to own…”.
Here I am in my apartment.
How did I come back? Well, as trivial as it may seem I closed my eyes for a
second and there I was in the boat again, in the park nearer home. It was so
quite. Nothing had changed except for one thing: I was barefoot. I went home
cursing the shoes for leaving me thinking that I can’t even have a successful relationship
with a pair of shoes! And then it hit me: maybe I was better
without them. Yes, I loved the imagination and the power but I guess I don’t
need that extra confidence anymore. Their work with me is done. It is time for
them to move on. It is time for me to move on. I have to keep on writing. I
have to keep on learning more and more about fashion. And I have to do it by
myself. It isn’t easy but I’m absolutely sure it will be worth it.
Goodbye Red!
Just me
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