If the Shoe Fits



Recently I asked a friend if $700 shoes (and $800 shoes and $1200 shoes) really feel different than $300 shoes.  We had a brief, yet believable, exchange about quality and longevity.  A few days later, pouring over Oliver Messel's design of Rayne's Shoe Shop I thought, "This was a place that girl would dig."

Shelves and pedistals, mirror and silk, this was a shrine to shoes cloaked by a "Shop" with no "pe."  This was one side of one room.  There were rooms.  This is the sort of spot, like the couture section at Hall's, where my foot would never cross the threshold.


Later that day I received an email from a friend who sends me pictures of houses he likes with subject lines like, "Yes. This," and no other text.  The latest contained a link to a post at The Selby with a brown-that-was-supposed-to-be-red chair and this.  A modern day version of Rayne's for one's very own.  A cabinet so lovely that she just might become vain, but who keeps her head as she has such a serious job to do.

This jazzy cabinet belongs to Brooke Cundiff (Director of Merchandise at Park and Bond) and her husband, Michael Hainey (who is just about everything - writer, artist and deputy editor of GQ.)  And the chic grosgrain ribbon on this convoluted shoe box?  This pithy quote at the end of the post that I just might treasure more than a pair of Louboutins:

Image, top, from Oliver Messel: In the Theatre of Design, edited by Thomas Messel, Rizzoli, New York from the Victoria and Albert Museum, Theatre and Performance Collection.  Image, next, via the Selby.

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