Filed under: Fashion
With titles like “Investing” and today’s “Retirement,” you might think I am a financial planner as opposed to an event planner. Rest assured, I have not changed professions, but am only preparing for a new season.
We invest for a secure and happy retirement right? Well keeping with my cost per wear analysis, we can invest in the new and retire the tried and true (didn’t intentionally mean to rhyme that, but now that I did, I kinda think I just created a new motto to shop by).
For example, I just retrieved an old pair of boots from my cobbler. He laughs everytime I bring in these particular ones or their fraternal twin. That actually is an entirely different post – when you find something you love, buy in multiples. In this case it is a pair of gray suede Prada boots that I bought at LouisBoston in 2003. I loved them so much, I also scooped them up in black. But the gray are my favorites and I have worn them all season long for five years now.
I bought them for a celebrity hockey game I was producing for the first time in Boston that promised a crowd of 15,000+. Therefore, I needed a killer outfit that was both practical and stylish (more stress on the latter of course). Maria and Louis did not disappoint and this particular outfit goes down in my personal event classics. Luckily, I am reminded of it everyday by a super cool photo a publicist framed and then sent me after the event. There I am standing between Michael J. Fox and Kiwi in Neil Barrett black cargos , a gray cashmere Tuleh halter sweater (that I still sport with jeans – it’s that good), vintage crystal drop earrings (which I took off about half way through – not sure if the ice or the clip on earrings were numbing me, but they didn’t work for an all day escapade) and the gray suede lace up stilts. They looked like stilts to me at the time as the 4 stacked inches were a wee bit scary to run around the bowels of the FleetCenter.
Let me tell you Miuccia Prada makes one comfy pair of stilts. I ran in them all day that day and then almost regularly each fall and winter since, which explains the familiar visits to the cobbler.
The time I picked them up and they didn’t look the same to me. Sure the heels were repaired and buffed, and the laces replaced, but something was off. My cobbler had sprayed them with a clear type of gloss to make them appear new again. His intentions were right, but the results just wrong. Imagine cosmetic surgery for shoes. I got the point. Sometimes too much of a good thing is just not good.
They brought me five years of height, happiness, style and confidence. Cost per wear, they do not owe me a cent. They returned the favor in spades and I am happy to report come the first spring day, they will be in retirement.
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Daily Cookie 
I thoroughly enjoy your daily blogs..I always miss when you do not write… AND I could not agree more with your theory of retirement..I do this very occasionally to pocketbooks..because we all know I labor over decesions…I feel like I marry my possessions…It is very hard for me to part with people or things…AJ
Comment by Auntie Jubes March 11, 2008 @ 6:37 pmYou mean your VERY GOOD FRIEND Maria!
Comment by maria March 11, 2008 @ 8:37 pmSo easy to style someone as gorgeous as you!
xxooM
I have a closet full of favorites, save things forever. Never throw anything of value away. Husband calls me a pack rat. He is right, however
Comment by cm March 12, 2008 @ 12:53 pmI usually use them soon or later. The fun is in
having them. Am also grateful for hand me down from daughter. Never, never throw those away.
I once had an editor who told me that if she had two cents to rub together that she would buy shoes. Assuming that your precious Miuccia Prada boots costs $500 – and they probably cost quite a bit more, and assuming you are about 25 years old – at least that is how old you look, and assuming that you had put that second purchase of “must-have” boots in a true retirement savings account at 5% over forty years, you would have accumulated $3,250 at retirement. Smart idea using a cobbler but not much of a retirement plan buying two pairs.
Just a thought from a concerned passer-by who does not live in New York.
Comment by Paul Petillo March 12, 2008 @ 2:48 pmFirst of all thank you for saying I look 25! Made my day! And second please do not use my blog as a way to advertise your services. Although I appreciate your reading and commenting, that it is not the intent of my posts.
Comment by cookieaday March 12, 2008 @ 3:07 pm