Shoes, status…and self-worth

For Christmas, I really want a pair of Evee Doc Martens. They’re adorable, like t-strap meets leather meets heel.

But, as I was thinking about wasting a Christmas wish on this item, I got to thinking. How weird is the concept of the shoe? I mean, the sole (pardon the pun) purpose of the shoe has been protection for thousands of years. It guards against the filth in the streets, and the spare needles you might lose around your apartment (definitely not known from personal experience . . .).

But someone, somewhere (I feel like it was probably the French) decided that the shoe could have double duty. It could also show status, wealth, and aesthetic taste.

It’s such a perfect symbol of humankind. Everything we do is to prove that we are the best, that we are the worthiest. Look at my shoe, it’s made from the finest Italian leather! I must be a good person, trust meeeeee!!

Shoes are, ultimately, unnecessary. I’m grateful for them, not because they can buy respect or esteem, but because I love using fashion to share my creativity. I can’t explain how pleasing it is to match color, pattern, and texture to create an outfit from items I’ve had sitting in my closet for years, but have never found each other. It’s the kind of challenge I enjoy partaking in.

I’ve been to Rodeo Drive in California twice now, and they are the pinnacle of this shoe idea. I like to walk around because the gaudiness of it all, the valuing of the valueless is so strange to me. People roar down the streets in shiny cars whose brands I barely know. They carry purses that I, as a woman, should probably know….but still don’t. They wear belts with buckles so big they must hold secrets, and shirts riddled with namebrand logos.

And it’s all. So. Meaningless.

Who are you, really? If we take away all the glitter and glamor, the belt buckles and the tote bags and the strappy shoes and the logos . . . who are you? One can make an insinuation about that based on the previously-worn urban regalia, but I’ll forget about that for now.

What do you value?

What do you want?

What are you afraid of?

People hiding behind money and name brands value the image they give to the world. That is rested on the notion that people immediately judge you before they know you. Yeah, it’s annoying, but let them judge. Prove them wrong as they go deeper and deeper under the layers of your personality. Don’t let your shoes say it for you. Because they can’t.

These people want respect and honor. They want people to want to be them. But do they want to be themselves?

I don’t want to seem judgmental. If your style is namebrand, more power to you! There’s a reason there’s a whole fashion industry. As a creative, I cannot and will not deny this form of creativity . . . and I gladly partake in ways my wallet allows.

But after I took my brother and sister through Rodeo Drive, they too told me they saw hollowness in these peoples’ eyes. Sometimes, you couldn’t even see eyes at all; these urban celebs love their sunglasses.

As you walk down the streets, you feel it too. The hollowness. It’s like we’re all in middle school again, comparing whose mother packed them the coolest lunch. You got a brownie? All I got was a rice cake? Immediately our self worth plummets.

I don’t care what you own. I don’t care how many pairs of this or that you own. Because those are things you could lose at any second. I want to know, if you saw a dog trapped in a car, would you stop to help save it? I want to know, when no one’s looking, do you still do the right thing? I want to know what you value, and how you live that out.

Because all money can buy is a facade. And not a very good one at that.