Ever wonder what your stilettos or sneakers say about your personality? Here, three female post readers agree to have their shoe collections photographed and dissected by a panel of male judges in order to find out.
Laura Firstenberg
Age: 27
Occupation: Independent art curator/critic, harvard University Ph.D candidate.
Shoe Style: Describes her style as “quirky.” Has a penchant for pink and Prada for work and socializing, Pumas for kickboxing sessions.
Sandra Ro
Age: 25
Occupation: Works in equity derivatives at a major New York City bank.
Shoe Style: “Conservative” and “kind of preppy” tastes in clothes and shoes. Tends to wear “a lot of heels” to work, and hiking boots on camping weekends out of town.
Karina Vaysburd
Age: 24
Occupation: Freelance magazine writer.
Shoe Style: Self professed “shoe fanatic” with “eclectic, but not super-trendy tastes.” Prefers high heels and loves sexy open-toed shoes.
Degen Pener, 33
Journalist and author, “The Swing Book”
Sandra: These are pretty sensible shoes, so I’d say she dresses casually and not for a particularly glamorous job, though she does dress for the office.She works in a smart job, like book publishing or Web design.
She’s not about stilettos, which says she’s smart and not willing to put herself though pain for fashion. She doesn’t seem to be much for going out, either. What she is about is going camping or hiking (she has two pairs of hiking boots), or going sailing in her little Topsiders. I’ll bet she like to get away on the weekends, like to a lake in Connecticut or the Adirondacks.
Lauri:
Nice shoes! Nice shoes! I get a little bit of a retro feel with her, very ”40s. She’s probably got a vintage thing going on. She knows what she likes, because these shoes all have a similar shape that she must know works for her. Also, she’s not shy: You can’t be to wear these red and pink Pradas! This owman is the most glamorous person at her job, which is maybe at a magazine or in advertising. I don’t think she’s in a job where she has to wear the best shoes all the time. She buys shoes because she likes shoes.
Karina:
I love this girl! She looks like she has fun with it, these are great! There’s a lot of variety here, so I’d say she’s kind of moody.
This is a girl you’re going to invite to go to the best party that week.
She dresses sexy and is kind of flirtatious, swings her hair around a bit, and smiles and laughs a lot – she’s an extrovert.
She goes out at night, – these shoes are not about daytime, though maybe she wears them to work too .
In fact, she might work in fashion;, These shoes don’t say “office” to me and netither do the shoes you see worn in fashion magazine offices.
Mike Grant, 28
Investco, money management firm
Sandra:
She’s into the outdoors, and has two pair of workout shoes, which say she’s serious about keeping in shape.
This woman is fairly outgoing,as well as slightly hippy-ish (this, I get from the hiking boots). She probably considered herself a hippy in college. Now, though, she lives in a post-war apartment on the Upper East Side, shaves her legs and armpits … She’s neat, maybe even on the anal-retentive side, but not severely so.
She might work in advertising or PR.
Lauri:
She’s a bit of a turnoff. For one thing, she’s way into pink – too into pink. This is a girl who is still wears her high school prom dress – and there’s also the potential that she still wears leg warmers.
She has workout shoes, but I can’t even imagine someone wearing these things (pink and blue Pumas) to the gym. There are a couple of pairs here that could be worn to work – a few that aren’t in tragic condition. But looking at them, I have no idea what she does. She’s certainly not in a particularly professional job. Maybe she’s a librarian.
But for all I know, she could be homeless.
Karina:
If she’s showing this much flesh on her feet with these sandals and open-toes shoes, she probably shows a fair amount of flesh elsewhere – and I’ll bet she has some decent flesh to show. I’m guessing she’s easy on the eyes.
I didn’t see any exercise shoes or causal shoes in here, but I don’t see her going to the park all the time anyway: She’s a party girl who goes out four nights of the week.