When I put together my outfit for the Style Imitating Art (SIA) Lotus Pond style challenge last week, the shoes I was wearing hit my 30 wears + <$1 cost per wear (CPW) benchmark. So today I'm going to share some outfits featuring these shoes that turned out to be an even better purchase than I had expected at the time. As always, a thank you to Mica for inspiring me with her 30 Ways to Wear series.
I purchased these Halogen brand ballet flats at the Nordstrom Rack in the Mall of America in May 2015 for $29.97. As a big fan of both leopard print shoes and ballet flats, they immediately caught my eye as I was perusing the shoe racks. (Our real reason for stopping in the store was for my husband to find some black sneakers, which he did.) The color of these shoes is just gorgeous; they are calf hair dyed in a lovely variegated mint-aloe-olive color that I call "olive" for convenience. I did not own any olive shoes at that time so they did not duplicate a color in my closet. They fit perfectly, so it was a no-brainer to decide to add them to my small leopard flats collection.
Olive leopard ballet flats - Halogen/Nordstrom Rack - $29.97 - 5/2015
Total wears: 31
Cost per wear: $0.97
Additional wears to reach $1 CPW: n/a
Additional wears to reach $0.65 CPW: 16
It may seem like it took a long time for me to reach 31 wears of these shoes...31 wears in 7 years is under 5 wears per year! And since (in recent years at least) aloe/olive is major color in my wardrobe, it's not like I haven't had plenty of opportunities. There are two inter-related factors contributing to this somewhat low-seeming number of wears:
(1) I admit that I sort of baby my calf hair shoes. I have 3 pairs of them (all leopard print) and I wear each of them a bit sparingly because I want to preserve their condition. Calf hair shoes have a tendency to wear at the tip (the hair rubs away)...and I don't know whether that's a "the way I specifically walk" thing or a general thing. In any event, knowing that wearing the shoes means wearing them down, I don't reach for them as often as I might. This is silly, of course, and I don't defend it logically, but it's a factor. It's interesting because I don't generally save things "for best" but I am overly careful about calf hair shoes. These olive leopard flats are still in pretty much pristine condition on the outside, but my brown leopard smoking slippers have worn away a bit at the front, so I know it's a risk.
(2) In September 2020 I bought a pair of $12 olive ballet flats from Amazon, which I have worn 15 times so far. I am definitely splitting my wears between the nice calf hair flats and the cheap ones. But that was actually intentional. I had bought these random-Chinese-brand flats because I wanted to have a pair I could wear during the pandemic WFH era without having to care about damaging them...being constructed of a more robust material, they hold up well. This said, I expect to start wearing the calf hair flats more often once I'm back in the office, which I guess is the "for best" I am saving them for.
Today I will share six OOTD I have photographed featuring these shoes, organized by season. Let's get started!
#1: Summer print mix with a floral top, olive skirt, and hot pink open weave cardigan
#2: Summer print mix with a floral top, black capris, and red cardigan
#3: Late Summer column of color with an olive top, olive skirt, and cream knit moto jacket
#4: Late Summer print mix with a floral top, olive pants, and poppy red linen blazer
#5: Early Fall outer column with a floral top, black straight leg jeans, and black jacket
#6: Fall print mix with a floral/bird print blouse, black pants, and a wine quilted vest
Do you wear leopard print shoes? Or other leopard print items? Do you have a favorite? Have you worn any of your leopard print for 30 wears?
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