Court shoes 1990

I reckon from 1982 until around 2002 I wore a lot of court shoes. Some were stillettos, some had pointy toes, some had square toes. Black, brown, turquoise, navy, cream and dark green with little black bows.

I'd show you, but I gave them all to the op shop just a few months ago when it became clear I was never going to wear heels again.

But this is what they looked like.

          

The most exciting pair were probably the orange ones I bought in Oxford Street for my "going away" outfit when I married Peter in the UK in 1990. I still have these, along with the orange silk dress and matching clutch. I also have the wedding shoes - similar style but white (of course) with grass stain trimmings. I bought those in Bath - a lovely day out by train from where I was living in Bracknell, Berkshire (best known for its roundabouts and multi-storey car parks).

I can jump puddles - Gumboots 1988

I might have had gumboots for jumping in puddles when I was a youngster, but navigating an English winter and the London Transport system in 1988 required seriously weather-impervious footwear.

I was renting a room in Chorleywood, nearly at the end of the Metropolitan Line on the London Underground.


Every morning I had to walk through snow to the bus stop, catch a train to the city, change to another train, then walk about 10 minutes to the office of Dial-a-Cab where I keyed in taxi fares from 9 until 5:30 pm every day.
Then the same journey back home, arriving back just in time to make dinner and go to bed.


Would never have navigated all those icy pavements without the "wellies".


I've kept them for sentimental reasons, but noticed last year at soccer a lot of the mums were starting to wear them as the soccer grounds turned into giant mud bowls due to the unremitting rain. 


Theirs were nice colours and patterns, but I'm happy with my English Winter Sky Grey.

Tilting at windmills - 1986

Burnie. Population 20,000, shoe shops: 3, book shops: 0.

I spent six years of my life in Burnie, and they were mostly good years, characterised by a total immersion in music for the first time and some lasting friendships with teaching colleagues.

I sang in my first choir, joined the musical society, sang in a ladies' a capella group and a jazz trio, and a jazz quartet.

I bought these ankle boots at some stage during my time in Burnie and wore them when I scored the leading role of Aldonza in the Burnie Musical Society's production on Man of La Mancha in 1986.

It was the pinnacle of a six year stage career. I couldn't reach the top notes and they had to transpose everything for me, but hey! I could act like a woman with loose morals with the best of them.

I even got to sport a cleavage thanks to clever make-up and a pair of socks for extra uplift.

Questi stivali belli - 1984

I bought these beautiful boots in Florence, Italy, whilst travelling around Europe in January 1984.


Firenze is my favourite city in the world and not just because a gorgeous South Australian doctor picked me up on the railway station minutes after I disembarked and whisked me off to dinner that night (before meeting up with his girlfriend in Venice a few days later).


I haven't worn these boots for a long while, and they're not particularly comfortable but I will never give them up.

Ugg - early 80s

We know they're ours even if there are all sorts of pretenders out there trying to own the humble Australian Ugg Boot.

These ones have travelled the world with me and are slightly the worse for wear, as indeed am I.

I had them with me in England though my flatmate's new girlfriend/fiancee wouldn't let me wear them inside on the new pink carpet she'd persuaded him to have laid.

I mean seriously, if you can't slop around the house in your tracky daks and ugg boots on a cold day, what's the point?

These boots were made for looking like a cowgirl - c 1982

I went to university on one of the last Education Department studentships. This, and my earnings from working in the Myer underwear department on Friday nights and Saturday mornings meant I had a clothing budget for the first time.

I bought two pairs of boots, one black, one brown that I'd wear in winter with a skirt on the days I wasn't doing Chemistry or Physics pracs.

I suspect I actually bought the boots pictured after uni, but I kept them because I thought I might never get another pair, even though I haven't worn them since the 80s.

In fact, I bought my next pair of boots just last year when Prime Minister Kevin Rudd was kindly giving handouts to keep the economy going.

So I did my bit.

These boots were made for walking - 1978

I've had these boots for 32 years!

I bought them second hand from a friend in the first year of university when I thought it might be fun to go bush walking.

These boots have been around the Freycinet peninsula, including up Mt Graham which took me 7 hours instead of the estimated 3, and up to the University Ski Hut at Mt Field (where I lost part of my right index finger) and other assorted walks in Tasmania's south-west wilderness where I got car sick on the way there, struggled with anything that wasn't flat, then threw up again on the way back.

Soon after that I took up bridge, mahjong, backgammon and other indoor pursuits.

Ah, happy days.

Plastic sandals - 60's

Maybe I should have started here. This is the first footwear I can remember wearing. I fancy I can still remember the smell of the warm plastic.

All the kids had them.

Apparently after the second world war, there was a shortage of leather and Mr Jean Dauphant hit upon the idea of making sandals from PVC.

Who would have thought 50 years later plastic would make a comeback as Crocs?

Platforms - mid 70's

When I see people wearing platform shoes now I think "Been there, done that, NOT doing it again".

I had two or three pairs in the 70's and remember walking as being like having a tugboat strapped to each foot.
No flexibility. And I wasn't particularly short, so they served no useful purpose.

Of course I no longer have my platform shoes, but I remember some brown ones, a bit like the ones on the left, and I think I may have had some like the ones on the right as well.

In the beginning - the Desert Boot, early 70's

I don't actually have a lot of shoes. In fact for most of the 80's and half of the 90's I probably had one pair each of black, navy and brown for work, and a couple of pairs of casual weekend shoes.

But then I discovered that shoes could be exciting.  So whilst my most recent shoe history is colourful and quirky, my beginnings are in beige...

These are Desert Boots. They are the first shoe I remember wanting and being excited to wear - the ultimate cool footwear for a teenager in the 70's.

Beige suede, which of course soon got grubby and shiny.

I probably wore them with my purple V-Knee flares.