Its Graduation Time!

After my final presentation today, I found out that I had one more blog due today. However, since I had already wrapped up my Indian Sandals blog, I decided well today, let me share my thoughts and excitement on Graduation!

  Class of 2016 !! Congratulations, you made it! I am sure it was not an easy road, wishing you Good Luck for the upcoming adventures !

As part of the 2016 graduating class, I proudly followed the traditions set by the Santa Clara University Alumni is pinning a $1 note with your name on the ceiling of a local bar called - The Hut - across the street from Lucas Hall - Leavey School of Business at Santa Clara University. 

I found it hard to behold my excitement, given that I was in school for 5 long years, taking it slow and easy, working full time and growing my family. My proud parents joke that I earned 3.5 degrees - an MBA from SCU, Certificate of Motherhood for Child 01 - my older son who is now 3, Certificate of Motherhood for Child 02 - my 7-month old girl and finally 0.5 degree of my husband who also earned his MBA while I was at school!

Now that I would get a few hours of each day back into my life, I plan to spend the time with my family, focus my energy back into Tennis and swimming. I would like to thank my audience, for reading my posts and giving me good feedback for improvement! End this note with a picture of my shoe for graduation ceremony.

Take Care of Your Shoes

Through the last few weeks, I have shared my thoughts and opinions on what are the different style of Indian Sandals, what kind of dresses do they match up with, Summer Shoes & Sandals and ofcourse accessories!  

As I am getting close to concluding this blog series, I would like to end with some tips on taking good care of your Indian Sandals. 



You will not disagree with the fact that cracked and dusty shoes look extremely shabby. You'd rather just throw them away than have them in your home. My mom was very particular of throwing away old, dirty, cracked and rugged shoes in the fear of the house absorbing negative vibes from these shoes 


Taking care of our feet will start from taking care of your shoes. Wash your feet before you wear your fancy pair of sandals. If you were out gardening in the backyard, more chances of your feet being dusty and you don't want to step in those beautiful satin sandals with such dirty feet.



Be careful of where you are walking. Avoid walking in those fancy shoes outside on a rainy day or carry an extra pair of shoes, so that your shoes look fresh as you enter the party. 

Cleaning your shoes: If you had to be outside in those shoes, you might want to consider cleaning the dust off your shoes before store them. Cleaning as be as simple as rubbing the dust off with a clean dry cloth. Stains can be removed using warm water. Some folks are successful in cleaning their shoes using simple household products like vinegar and baking soda. Life of shoes are directly related with keeping them. If you make cleaning shoes part of your routine, then you will save time when you need to wear them next.

Organize and store your shoes. You should respect your feet and shoes as well. I cannot stress enough of this as I have been guilty of storing my shoes away on top of each other. 


As my collection of shoes increased over the years, I noticed that the shoes that landed at the bottom, were getting cracked and out of shape due to increased pressure and weight from the top ones. There are multiple ways to organize your shoes on shoe racks, or stack them neatly in shoe boxes or can even get creative using shoe hangars.

In recent years, shoes specially the branded ones, have become a relatively bigger investment like accessories or jewelry, hence its worth the time to clean them and increase their life to have a better return on this investment.

Accessories, Accessories & Accessories

As I enter the closet each morning, to decide what is my dress for the day, my mind races through not only what shoes to wear to match up my dress but what are my various accessories options as well. I am sure there are many women like me who want to better coordinate their dressing style but don’t have the time to do so. Each woman has a different personality and often how they dress reflects their personality or their mood for the day.

     Hence accessories are a wonderful option to change your dressing style. Some       women spend a lot of time shopping and getting ready in the morning to make surethey are perfectly coordinated. It makes sense to do so if you are going for a ceremony or a wedding, but harder to do so when you are a working woman and have responsibilities of a household along with children. Accessories such as purses or belts or scarfs or jewelry or watches to match your dress or shoes shows your creative side. But one should be careful on how coordinated do you want to look.

Sharing a range of coordination pics from extremely matching to coordinating only some of your accessories such as your purse or shoes or jewelry. Wearing too coordinated accessories does not necessarily make you look elegant. Infact you land up investing a lot of money in these accessories, with barely utilizing them.

One does not always need to wear all the accessories with each dress, you can wear different accessories with the same dress on different occasions. Hence having some accessories that will match up with different dresses often give you the most bank for the buck!

 

Men can also coordinate their dressing styles with accessories such as belts and shoes.

I will log off with another accessory tip for your Indian Shoes – Indian purses. Most Indian sandals look

 very coordinated if you are carrying an ethnic purse with some designs on them. Next week will chat more on dressing for various occasions!  

 

Summer Footwear Continued

More Summer Shoes....lets keep going!

Last week, I shared my thoughts regarding summer shoes, sandals and the kind of Indian dresses that they would suit. This week I want to continue sharing some more thoughts on summer shoes that get along with western outfits!

Gladiators – are you serious! Well yes – I am …Another footwear that looks super fancy – Now this one will definitely not go with any Indian dress – but will look perfect with a short skirt. These Gladiators look super sexy with a mini-skirt. If you want to wear gladiators, you need to show them off!

Summer also brings to mind outdoor activities – like hiking, trekking, cycling, etc. Though there are not indian outdoor footwear, comfortable sporty footwear are definitely increasing in sales. They are perfect for day long or weekend trips in the outdoors – low maintenance and super easy to carry; especially on family trips with children. Atleast they look more feminine than Crocs.

I have shared so much about different kind of summer footwear - for the young, for the show-off women, for parties, casual get togethers, pool parties, beaches, outdoor activities, etc. I also want to share some summer sandals for the older folks - even they want to show off their well pedicured nails! Check out these comfortable and well secured sandals for the older women!

I am signing off this blog for the week, with a very elegant accessory tip! Anklets – if you haven’t tried them yet, summer is the time, and I can bet you will get atleast a couple compliments in your next get together!

Show off your Summer Shoes!

Is it 70 outside? Is summer kicking in? I can’t believe it – After that long rainy spell – is the sun finally out? Oh Yess!! Its beautiful, I can soak in the sun almost all day and not get too warm. Now its time to wear some sleeveless tops, summer dresses and Bikinis ofcourse!

May be its time for me to get a manicure, I need to show off my feet in those beautiful sandals that I purchased during spring.

Summer brings in vibrant colors in mind. It brings to mind cool cotton clothes! And definitely beaches and mangoes too J

Summer is also the time to wear skirts, shorts, kapris, long summer cotton dresses, and ofcourse sandals to match those! Usually summer time is to wear flats, 1-2” heels at the most. Thong-styled, or toe-ring are the most popular Indian Sandals. I often wear these summer sandals to work, as they give a very cool summer look!

 Another very popular of Indian footwear is the ‘juti’ – ballerina type, cut low on the sides, very similar to ballet slippers. Very north Indian cultural footwear with beautiful embroidery patterns. These jutis generally compliment well with Indian dresses like the kurtis or salwar kameez and even churidaar! Would not go well with western outfits like shorts or skirts. 
I feel like I can go on and on, with the different styles of footwear for summer! Will continue on this topic more next week. I am signing off this blog for the week, with a suggestion – get a manicure and you will not only enjoy wearing summer footwear but will also feel like showing them off!

Love for High Heels - is it Worth it ?

Who does not like high heels? Who does not like the sexy look upon wearing high heels? Be it pencil heels or wedges. Heels or wedges look very classy, give the formal look even if you are wearing casual clothes.

High heels re definitely top and front of mind when women are selecting shoes. The only debate is if their feet would feel comfortable in them. Imagine you wearing high heels in like the pic below.   
                                  

You definitely don’t want to be wobbly in those heels, neither do you want pains in the foot or ankles or as a matter of fact in your back either.




Podiatrists suggest that high heels can use an inclination of the body, reducing the perpendicular angle to a much smaller angle depending on the height of the heel. It not only causes foot and ankle problems, but also disturbs the alignment of their spine/back with their chest, abdomen and butt. 


 Hence the recommendation to wear comfortable shoes. There is no harm in wearing high heels provided it is for a relatively shorter duration and does not cause too much pain. Secondly try to relax and pamper those feet. One should also try to walk on grass, preferably barefoot. 

Indian Sandals - Western Outfits & Accessories

Indian Sandals obviously look good with Indian dresses, but can I wear these sandals with my Jeans
 or Skirts? A though that always crosses my mind as I am shopping for my indian Sandals or Shoes

Ofcourse Yes!! Yes, Yes!! Indian Sandals look gorgeous with Jeans or Skirts or even some leggings/Yoga Pants. They give a very nice casual look, perfect for a weekend casual get together with family or close friends or even an light shopping trip. Depending on what kind of Indian Sandals you are wearing, you can give a formal look or carry on the light vibrant personality

     

                                                          
 Check out some of the pics, not only do these Indian Sandals look good with Jeans they also add a lot of color to kapris and even skirts or dresses – a perfect outfit for the summer! Bright colored sandals with light-colored blouse and jeans or skirts.  

Women often want to make a fashion statement specially during the summer with solid and bright colors. And if you match your outfit to these colorful shoes, you have definitely caught the eyes of not only other women but men as well.


So I have spoken enough about Indian Sandals – how you can match them with Indian as well as Western outfits. But what about accessories? They have become an integral part of how women want to dress up or what kind of personality they want to show. 


Check some of the beautiful accessories that you can match your summer outfits and sandals! One of the most popular accessory items for the summer are bracelets or bangles as we call them in India. Women can go very fancy with their summer accessories with a bunch of mix-and-match jewelry selection too.

Very popular are also finger rings spicing up the look on those manicured fingers. Indian women are known to dress up for every occasion. Also giving some tips to change your look with ways to dress your hair or leave it open with hair accessories such as the forhead tikka (pics  below) 

Dress Types for Indian Sandals!

Women and their dressing patters!! Women love to dress up - men love too, but not in the same manner that women do. On an average a woman can spend atleast 30 to 45 min dressing up even if they just need to run an errand. 

 

Women can dress up differently for different activities or events; casual get togethers, to go to the office, for a party, or for shopping or for a wedding (my God! - they take forever to dress up) 

As we head to the dressing closet, our mind starts racing....typical questions that we start thinking through:

What do I wear today? 

What mood am I in?

Where am I going?

What did I wear last time?

What kind of shoes do I have to match this dress?

Shoes. Women love shoes, makeup and dresses. But in my opinion they get characterized and judged based on what brand of shoes they are wearing and what brand accessories they are carrying. Everyone loves a pair of shoes that makes her look nice.

My passion – Indian sandals. There is a huge variety of dresses that you can really compliment your Indian sandals. Depending on the type of occasion, you have a lot of options of Indian attire to match with the shoes that you are in the mood of. For eg: sarees look very elegant for any formal occasion such as a wedding or a festival. Sarees look even better some high heeled sandals or wedges having golden/silver or multicolor work on them.

Casual salwar kameez or churidaar which are awesome for a get together with family or friends, look perfect with some flats or 1-2 inch heeled sandals. They not only look super elegant but also feel very comfortable.

You would be surprised too, if you decide to match western outfits with Indian designed shoes, which is something we will blog more about next week. No matter, how uncomfortable shoes can be, women can really really fake the uncomfortable feeling and dress up with that shoe only for the sake of creating the perfect impression and brand image that they truly want.

Gone are the days when you could find shoes for less than $20, today people are very brand conscious, very fashion oriented, they want to carry shoes for every occasion, of various styles, color and design that will match their outfit or accessories. 

Images 3,4,5 captured from IndianFashion on Pinterest 

Image 6 - captured from getty images of a celebrity dressed in Indian Outfit with beautiful Indian designed sandals