Knee Highs Make My Day

As you have probably noticed, you no longer need to go to a shoe store to find footwear. Most clothing stores have been developing their own lines. For someone like me, who had gotten into the habit of giving approximately a third of my annual income to Browns and Jean-Paul Fortin, I was a tad taken aback when I realized that I could not find a pair of boots that I actually liked.

I used to have this amazing pair that I wore through many, many years of harsh winters until, well it had to happen, they completely self-destructed on me in the middle of winter 2009. They were knee-high, black leather boots with a 4” heel, perfect for my small 5’3” frame. Laced up in the front, they were form-fitting and reminiscent of what a cartoonist would draw on a sexy female Russian spy. And with pencil skirts, they worked like a charm.

If you look closely at the styles in store this season, there are many ankle or thigh-high form-fitting boots, both of which I already own, but very few are knee-high. Since my calves tend to be a bit rounder, I enjoy camouflaging them in knee-high boots that hug back the plumpness. Thigh-high boots would also do the trick but they wouldn't work so well in a corporate environment.

The knee-high boots in stores these days are looser and often come with a variety of buckles and straps that can make even the tiniest of calves appear larger – a big no-no if you’re shaped like me.

Refusing to buy anything but what had clearly become my fetish boot style, I have been going through the first few weeks of autumn alternating, though with great impatience and increasing stress, between my black ankle Miss Sixty’s, my burgundy knee-high slip-ons and a variety of brownish equestrian boots. Imagine my frustration when I have to dress up a pencil skirt…

At 11:35 sharp this morning, I walked into Guess at the Eaton Centre and I believe I heard angels sing. There it was in front of me, an entire display of knee-high boots (among others), each sexier than the next. I must have spent an eternity (not to mention a fortune) in that store today, but I walked out with a pair of fabulous knee-high, black leather boots that have a 6x2 square of fabric on the upper, exterior part of the boot… as well as a stunning pump that was just too hard to pass up.

For those of you on the Guess List, I certainly hope you are signed up to receive promotional offers or you might have missed today’s deal: for a $5 contribution to Habitat for Humanity, you obtained 25% off the price of your purchase. I’ve never been a wiz with numbers but I do know that at Guess prices, this is a fantastic deal.

So as Ms. Pine’s study suggested, I did feel much better about myself on my way out. Maybe it was the hormones, maybe it was the discount, maybe it was that I had finally gotten a heavy weight off my shoulders but somehow, the air smelled fresher than usual in Montreal’s downtown core. I even caught myself smiling at people in my office building, and even chatting one up on the elevator ride up to the 7th floor. I have to say that at this very minute, before guilt over the amount I just put on my card sinks in, I could pour myself a nice glass of Pinot noir and call it a pretty-damn-close-to-perfect day.