Should You Cringe When You Buy Steve Madden Brogues?

I bought some Steve Madden shoes this weekend, and cringed.

Let's blame a man with a microphone. It was the annual Nordstrom shoe sale. Complete with open boxes on the floor, empty display cases, and cut price footwear. The man with a microphone directed traffic. I usually hate sales. Too noisy, too much visual clutter, too much pressure to Buy Now.

But I had been thinking about buying a pair of oxfords, having seen them in New York, and in magazines. To say nothing of feeling the breath of fall under the full heat of summer.

So I bought these.

And cringed. The Steve Madden brand is not one I am proud to own. And any time I feel shame in purchases, I have to deconstruct. What is it about Steve Madden?

First of all, actual Steve is a crook. He went to jail for fraud and was removed from his company. That puts him somewhere between Bernie Madoff and Martha Stewart. But that is not enough, by itself, for brand shame. Greed in America often takes entrepreneurs off the Calvinist track.

[This] cost him about eight million dollars and control of the very company that brought him such riches. Madden was sentenced in 2002 to 41 months in prison for his role in a stock swindle scheme coordinated by the now-closed brokerage, Stratton Oakmont. His wrongdoings include conspiring to manipulate the stock prices of more than 20 companies, including his own. And, he did it at the expense not only of the public but his own investors who lost more than 100 million. (LegalZoom)

The answer to my shame can be found front and center on Madden's brand management website.

Madden has innate sense of what’s hot, what’s next, what’s exciting and more importantly, how this will translate to his consumer. [GRI]

There you go. The company targets strivers. Unabashedly markets to happy wannabees. Actually wants to be trendy. High WASP are mortified to show any signs of trying. Any at all. We prefer to at least pretend we do not care. That we are not trendy. Au courant, perhaps. Fashion forward, rarely. Trendy, never.

It's not that we want to buy brands that show our wealth. The opposite. I suffered a veritable crisis when I bought a Louis Vuitton bag. I could only do so because the Monogram Vernis line renders that ubiquitous logo nearly invisible. Nor do High WASPs shun discount stores. Target is our friend. Merona makes fantastic tee shirts, in both fit and price.

But we don't want to strive. We were supposed to have finished striving in 1892. Steve, clearly, is not targeting me or my ilk. I am fascinated by his clarity of vision, and shaking my head once again at the power of well-executed branding. Brand well, and you will attract your target consumer, alienate others. Design good products at a good price, and even those you alienate with your brand may purchase your stuff.

The brogues, on the other hand, I liked very much. Soft distressed leather. Nice detail. Comfortable. Interesting color that works well with khakis. One cannot, after all, wear nothing but black on the feet forever. The only issue I have is the synthetic sole, preferring the texture, sound and sensation of leather. Of course, to prevent wear I always have to get the shoe repair place to cover them with rubber, but that is beside the point. Uhuh, it is so.

Finally, Steve prices for value. The brogues cost less than $70.00. To a woman who has sworn by Ferragamo all her life, and confesses to having regarded Stuart Weitzman as down market, $70.00 is a remarkable price for a pair of shoes.

Let's face facts. My family fortune has faded. I need to keep building up a decent casual wardrobe for what appears more and more likely to be my imminent retirement. I am a Sturdy Gal who hates high heels. All signs pointed to one and only one conclusion.


It would have been dumb not to buy these. Dumb, and a symptom of the High WASP snobbery I struggle to resist. I liked the shoes. I could afford the shoes. I bought the shoes. Some of us grow both by indulging in slightly vulgar dreams of Louis Vuitton and by coming to terms with a reality of Steve Madden brogues.

And lest you think I am virtuous, it has occurred to me that no one will know they are Steve Madden unless I tell the Internet.

Images: me
Shoes: Steve Madden "Trouser" from Nordstrom

Delayed Gratification. And Too Expensive Shoes.

About 4 years ago, I bought these shoes.

As of this morning, they look like this.


For good reason. I have worn these shoes 3 days out of 5 every work week since I bought them. They are black. They are flat. They are classic. They are terribly comfortable. They are now dead.

Saturday I bought these.


"Well," you might say, "Well, LPC, aren't those Ferragamos, um, rather pricy?" "Why yes they are, " I would have to answer. $420, to be precise, and quite non-High WASP in my directness. That's what happens when you buy no new black shoes for 4 years. You defer gratification. And then you go for the big hit. And you feel quite satiated. For the most part. You have two marshmallows, not one.

This High WASP buying cycle is quite common, although this is probably an extreme example. I had my Manolos repaired and refurbished at least 3 times. I polished them. I loved them. And, as is common when you love something, failed to notice when they were no longer serving me. I kept thinking I would fix them again. All the while, in the part of my mind that I keep for shameful behavior, I was plotting. I was fixating. I was researching*. I was committing in my heart to these Ferragamos. As a result, I wore my Manolos, frayed, for far too long to be appropriate. That shabby chic thing people attribute to High WASPs? Nah. We are just telling ourselves we will mend the toile, all the while planning for the interior designer to come and cover everything in yellow faille with piping.

Delayed gratification has its benefits. And its symptoms. No? BTW, this was not my only purchase Saturday. But we are practicing delays.

*Allie is partly to blame for the Varinas.

What Shoes To Wear With Khaki?

I can't go on and on about how khaki without proposing some solutions to the shoe problem. It wouldn't be responsible. Not the done thing.

Shoes For Khaki by High WASP featuring Old Navy

Because khaki was, originally, military, I recommend that you stay away from navy. Stay away from green. Shun primaries. Shoes with reddish undertones look best, brown, purple, oxblood. Metallic sandals in the right context (see?). And black. Nothing sharper than a pair of black shoes with khaki. For work, black perfect loafers, khaki pants, black alligator belt, black cashmere top. Sharp. Makes my mouth water to think about it.

Shoes With Navy Blue, Redux

In fashion, there are always arbiters. To me, east side bride is an arbiter of cool. She may not want to be one, far be it for me to insist. However, as professors always say, for the purposes of discussion, let's just say she's an arbiter of cool. And let's just say, in this case because it's true, that she said she was tired of Converse and couldn't I get some Bensimons or some Tretorns. So, always one to respond well to authority, like a good High WASP, I did. Lots of them. Delicious. Rather like a berry salad, only for wearing on your tootsies.

Bensimons To Wear With Navy by High WASP featuring Tretorn shoes

Slynnro is also an arbiter of cool, if you ask me, which of course nobody did. A different kind of cool. A Texas kind of cool. Luckily for us there are many different kinds of cool. She said she would wear these with navy.

I'd ask Kappa Prep what she might wear with navy, (not at her future wedding, there she says pink) as another arbiter of yet another genre of cool. But she is in India at the moment. Um, riding elephants.

I expect that you are all arbiters of one sort of cool or another. Enjoy whatever you put on your feet. I had thought High WASPs by law were not allowed to be cool. I had made my peace with that idea. My sister, however, is cool. I am not sure how she gets away with it.

Have a wonderful weekend.

The Unbearable Import of Shoes and Bags

Shoes and bags are terribly important to High WASPs. You can wear anything as long as you have good shoes and a good bag. Which until recently we called a purse. Sad but true. Not sad about nomenclature, sad about own shallowness. We wish it weren't so, that we were more enlightened. However I am not here to tell the story of who I wish I were. Here are some shoes and bags I would purchase,and carry/wear in full confidence, if the family fortune had not gone the way of the horse and carriage.


Bags: Marc Jacobs, Bottega Veneta, Nancy Gonzalez via Barney's and Saks
Shoes: Ferragamo, Stuart Weitzman, Donald Pliner all via Beren


There are a few salient characteristics. (This is not a test). First, no, or very small logos. Logos are for show-offs. (But we might fall off the wagon and buy Chanel sunglasses for fun). And yes, we are prone to use old-fashioned terms like show-offs. Second, however, and again I regret the shallowness this reveals, all these bags and some of the shoes have discernible brand details for those in the know. We don't want to be showy but we are still prey to the need for social signalling. Third, the shoes are comfortable. I have had more conversations than I like to admit about how the Ferragamo last really is the best thing for narrow feet. Fourth, the bags are large and relatively functional. No fringe to catch in subway doors, no danging charms to snag our cashmere tops, and no oversized chain straps to leave welts on our shoulders.

There are other shoes and bags we would like to purchase, but would avoid.


Tano, Donald Pliner, Nancy Gonzalez, via Neiman Marcus and Beren

Why avoid these things we think are very good-looking? (Good-looking means cool but appropriate in WASP-speak). A yellow purse probably ought to be saved for the beach. Or someplace where you can wear bathing suits to eat food. The lovely purse with coral leaves? Well, we just won't buy enough purses to get around to buying one with coral leaves. We will buy a black one, of course, Then we will have to have brown. Then we might get really wild and get a dark green one. Or navy. But by the time we might have enough required bags that we could justify one with coral leaves we would be too embarassed at the excess to buy it.

The black shoes with the peace sign? I take it back. That we would buy. Especially in the People's Republic of Berkeley.

On a Shoe

Can’t say I agree with this as the archetype of a perfect shoe. Generally for a shoe to be “perfect”, for me at least, I’d have to be able to put it on my foot and then walk to my car. At a minimum.


some notes on napkins


But maybe it's just me.