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!