Really. Taylor Swift wears some clunky, cheapo, outfit-tainting, all-around awful-looking shoes!
To back track, last month the good folks at People pointed out her trending preference for the lace-up oxford variety, deftly noting “she literally looks like she’s from the 1800s.” Given her New England residency and thirst to join the Kennedy clan we would have said the Mayflower, but fair enough.
The point is that the unsightly situation has continued well into this month, even expanded to include pumps and various kitten styles. Swift’s arsenal of cringe-worthy kicks has grown so large it threatens to hold out through summer. The ugly may even reach September, and we refuse to stand by and watch her ruin a fall boot.
Now, priggish shapes, bad stitching and leathers of questionable quality are one thing, but the problem is exacerbated by Swift’s long legs and the unflattering location at which these ankle-grazing bricks curtail them (Note: “Booties” at this length are the Melissa Joan Harts of footwear — dated, nettlesome and marketed as hot, yet are thoroughly, hopelessly, basic. Don’t you hang out with models, Taylor? Don’t you have millions of dollars?
We’re not at all saying good shoes are exclusively expensive shoes, but when you’re toting a $2,295 Dolce & Gabbana bag and your feet look bargain-basement discount, the aesthetic contradiction is troubling. If she’s consciously mixing high and low, it comes off as misguided. If she genuinely likes these clunkers, it simply is uncouth.
True, money can’t buy taste, but it’s time Swift confronted the fact that these confounded boot/oxford/pump hybrids are killing her flow. They try — and fail — to be cute, and attempt to outperform ad nauseam. Then again, that rightly describes Swift herself. So as long as the shoes fit, by all means, wear them.