If you were to ask what's on my mind when I get a faraway dreamy look in my eyes, the answer wouldn't be love and it wouldn't be sunny beaches. It'd be shoes. I daydream about specific styles and colors and shapes and looks. And the shoes I dream about always have two attributes - they are stylish and they are comfortable.
Because shoes that are just comfortable are called slippers. And shoes that are just stylish are called painful.
Shoes that are both are called heaven.
But what if there were another criteria to include in shoe dreaming? What if the shoes were eco-friendly too? Well, fan me with palm fronds because I'm swooning now. This is love, this is sunny beaches, this is flat bellies and chocolate chip cookies all rolled into one!
I found such a pair this weekend from an eco-friendly boutique called EcoCitizen in the fashionable Russian Hill district of San Francisco. The shoes are "Vivienne Westwood Melissa," a partnership between the famed British designer and the green-centric Brazilian shoemaker.
The Mary Jane heels are made from a recyclable and non-toxic type of plastic. In addition, Melissa is known for fair trade practices and for zero waste in production. Because the shoes are plastic you can just plunk them with the other plastic tubs and containers in the recycling bin when you grow tired of them. (Sorry, shoes, but it happens! I mean, I love you madly now, but you'll fall out of favor when I lay eyes on the next pair of fabulous heels I fantasize about, like those delicious Olsen Haus shoes made of recycled TVs that I'll be lining up for in May at the EcoCitizen trunk show.)
For now though, I adore these Mary Janes for many reasons. They are cute and they are comfortable. Your feet breathe and inhale when they're on, like you're taking a yoga class. The plastic actually bends and molds to your foot.
Plus, eco-friendly shoes have another perk. They serve as a conversation piece.
Which brings me to my final point. Because of my new Melissas, I have decided to revise my shoe credo: shoes should be stylish, comfortable, and eco-friendly. Because when they are eco-friendly then by extension they become a conversation piece too. After all, you never know when you might run into Arianna Huffington while wearing those fab green shoes and she'll ask you to blog about shoes for her site!
I recommend wearing the plastic Melissa Mary Janes with dark jeans and cuffing the jeans once or twice to best show off the conversation piece. I mean, the shoes!