Most Cherished: Vintage Sandals

I’ve been wanting to start a series like this for a while.  Quite often I run across a vintage piece that really sings to me.  They end up in my personal collection.  Since they will never end up in my shop, I wanted to at least share them here in photos.

Some people seems to find vintage shoes to be kind of icky.  To some degree I agree.  There are some pretty nasty used shoes at our local thrift store you couldn’t pay me to take home.  But if I find myself at a particularly amazing estate sale, I sometimes take a peek at the shoes anyways.  I found these sandals at a Salvation Army in downtown Portland a couple of weeks before the wedding.  They were buried on the bottom shelf under dated pumps and cheap sneakers.  Something about them drew me to them and for a few dollars they became mine.  My feet are pretty small and they just barely fit in them.  The appear to be handmade, possibly European.  They remind me of the sandals Audry Hepburn buys on the street in Roman Holiday.

I wore them the week leading up the wedding around Cannon Beach, to the rehearsal dinner and have worn them ever since.  Last summer I wore them so much I finally cracked the brittle old soles and was so sad to think I was going to have to pack them away.  My grandma suggested she take them to the cobbler and on Easter she had them back.  The cobbler removed the old soles and stitched a new set (see photo below).  I’m so excited to have them in wearable condition again just in time for spring.