It's All About The Shoes....

And short legs.
And vanity.
And fat knees (my Mother had gorgeous gams...I inherited my Father's.   What's up with that???)
And price.
And quality.
And above all - COMFORT!

Shoes, unedited.
Hmmm...Shoe Storage could be another topic.
Remind me to bring out the shoe polish next time I'm watching TV w/ nothing else to to.....

I think I've hit an "Aha!" moment with my last post, wherein I realized that part of the reason I don't wear dresses is the vanity issue.  I dressed primarily for comfort for years.  Years, I tell you.  I could clean up very nicely when I had a situation I needed to "dress" for, but that nearly always involved a silk top and nice pants of some sort - and it's easy to pair shoes with pants.  Some dresses really ARE comfortable, so it's got to boil down to the vanity thing.   For all those years of dressing "comfortably" (aka...non-fashionably, even sloppy/frumpy a good deal of the time!), who knew how much vanity I was hiding behind?  Ah.....field day for Freud time......

Anyway, Freud aside....pairing shoes with a shorter (i.e., knee-lengthish) skirt, when you have short legs and don't wear high heels and want to look non-frumpy and still be comfortable = not so easy!

So help me out here, please!  This is what I've figured out:  

• Shoes with ankle straps, or straps of any sort, really, shorten the legs even more.   Especially when the color is a major contrast to the legs.
• With some exceptions, I top out at about a 2" heel in comfort level.  Platforms, if stable (and, of course, comfortable) are OK.
• I don't like pointy toes.  At all.
• For some reason, shoes that make my feet look small (I'm average size - 8.5/38-39) look unbalanced to me - I actually prefer a wider toe, both for comfort and for looks.
• I love boots.  LOVE boots.  Cowboy boots, wintery boots, tall boots, mid-calf boots...love 'em!   Love 'em with pants, love 'em with long skirts, and if I start wearing shorter skirts & dresses, I think I'll love 'em with tights.  But you just can't wear boots in summer.   It's summer shoes that are my head-scratcher here.
• Sandals/flats with dresses & skirts = more leg-choppers.

Am I wrong about any of those points?

Random Shoe Stuff:

• My single favorite pair of shoes, without doubt, are my Trippen Wallet boots.   Love!  Lovelove!  Uberlove!

Majorly Comfortable?  Check
Make me Taller?  Check (I LOVE being taller than I am!)
Heel Height (over toe height) - Perfect
Look Great?  Check (OK, I know this is subjective, but aren't all shoes, really?)
Wonderfully Unique?  Check
Price?  Ouch.  Only on Sale.  :(

• Other Brands I Like:  Beautifeel (the price on these has skyrocketed!), Reiker, Josef Seibel, Munro, Clarks...
• Price:  You get what you pay for in shoes.  Even when I wasn't spending much $$ on clothes, I would spend on shoes  - nearly always on sale, though.  Cheap frugal, you know...  It seems that any pair of shoes that's under $100 (new, full price), just isn't worth it.  I would love to be proven wrong here though!
• Used?  I have no qualms at all about buying used shoes!   Thrifted, eBay (if I know the brand and size).  If they look new, or nearly new, and especially if they're meant to be worn with socks, I have no ewww factor here.  Probably goes along with the cheap frugal gene, which, if I wasn't born with, I was definitely conditioned with from an early age.

Some examples of what I think works, and my issues (I'm very open to alternate viewpoints & suggestions here!):

The "vamp" style (I think that's what you could call this), with ankle strap,
is OK on a platform, because of the overall height they add.

Again, kind of OK with a shorter skirt, because of the platform,
but I'd like to find a better, and more comfortable, look.
Comfort-wise, these shoes are OK, but not for walking all day in!

Not good.
Not good at all.
And I have nothing to wear with this dress.
Nothing at all.   (Even the strappy platforms above just didn't cut it with this dress -
I think it's the black color.

Which brings me to color.  I think an orange/brown is a good color to pair with blue.   I wouldn't mind adding more colorful shoes to the mix, but maybe that would draw too much attention downward?   I wear a lot of green and would love to find some green shoes, but I've been looking.....not much luck.

Soooo..... what do I need to look for to wear with a knee-length skirt?  And where do I find them?  (I do know about Zappos, although I've not ordered from them, and frankly, when I found a pair of shoes  I liked there & started looking around, I could nearly always find them cheaper elsewhere)   What brands do you love?

And for the rest of you out there with vertically challenged legs, what are your secrets?

And on a side note, should I just get over my vanity issues with my fat knees?  (Yeah, I know...you haven't seen them yet....just trust me....they ain't pretty....)

I'm all ears....my feet are listening....

UPDATE:  Carolyn gave me a great lead to Clarks Shoes , which has a whole slew of shoes on sale at 40% off right now.  I was about to place an order ($8 flat shipping, returns are free) for $240 (gulp...but that's for 4 pair...), when I noticed the space for a coupon code.  I found a code (SCW12), entered it, and got a whopping $48 off my order!   Awesome!   I'll be happy if even 1 pair of these shoes work)  Thanks Carolyn!