General (Shoe) Business I

Did you ever know that you cannot store anything on your balcony even if you pay rent for it? Talk about a waste of square footage. The building instructor vehemently stressed on the need for emptiness on the space -- how Zen of her.

This has forced me to rethink the organisation of my footwear collection, more accurately; the need for proper organisation of my footwear collection. Seeing that I'm on a "shopping ban", I have decided to pay more attention to the current stash of shoes, particularly to the conditioning aspect.

I, for one, find it rude when we subject our shoes to snow, sand, and salt and expect them to continue looking good after the vigorous beating. Good-looking, well-aged leathers require some love.

See for yourself the exhibit of shoes below, in cowhide and snakeskin for the footwear, and lambskin for the owl wristlet (my impulse buy from Marc on Bleecker, back in July).

I don't remember when I started getting religious about leather conditioning but it was probably when I started buying some French and Italian bags and I immediately became serious about "protecting my investment" -- a somewhat lovelorn idea.

The only thing I will say about leather conditioning is that it is time-consuming but worth it. Like all great outcomes, this kind of loving takes time; at least 24 hours but I do 48 hours if I can spare it. I use the museum curator stuff from Pecard, which I recommend to all of you (including your soon-to-be-very soft-hands).