Every Clog Has Its Day

Halloween Week: Saturday Night Sandals

It's finally here. That one night of the year when you can throw caution to the wind and sashay out into the world wearing whatever fashion convention defying pair of clogs you want. Always fancied a bit of stiletto but your conservative wardrobe just wouldn't allow it? Been in love with a pair of shoes that simply don't go with your age? This is the holiday for you! Whether you've secretly always wanted to dress like Cher or merely want to break out of your usual sartorial rut, give yourself permission to color outside the lines tonight and have a ball.

Here's a pair of wooden platform sandals I picked up from the Pleaser line many, many years back. (At least, I think they were from Pleaser. A quick check of the company web site reveals only platforms with a molded plastic sole.) The price was nice, but in the many Halloweens that have come and gone, I've always found something else I wanted to wear instead. So there they sat in the bottom of a box in my closet. Once again thank Goddess for eBay. At least their departure could make possible the arrival of another entrancing pair. Hopefully one that I'd actually get around to using!

I shouldn't complain. This pair actually did make it out of the closet on one occasion: to grace the front of a Halloween card I put together once upon a time. And I think they made me just as happy there on paper as they would have on my feet. May this Halloween bring as much pleasure to your world as well.

(Greeting card courtesy of Shoe Fly Pie ©2004)

Halloween Week: Clog #6-1/2

Okay. You might be feeling a little shortchanged by the previous post. I mean, they may be called clogs, but even an adventurous shoe fan like myself would have to admit they're really not what you'd consider "practical". So allow me to include another pair of wooden shoes that are scary in their own way. They're the perfect accessory to your Swedish Michael Jackson costume this Halloween.

All you need now to make your outfit complete is a pair of white socks and a sequined glove.  You can moonwalk, can't you?

Halloween Week: Clog #6--Chestnut Crushers

A truly scary pair of clogs.

That's right. This is a pair of clogs.

 

A pair of French chestnut crushing clogs, to be exact. Used in the 19th century, these shoes were worn by farmers to trample on chestnuts and acorns to separate the nutmeats from the shells so it could be ground into flour. Though they look totally fierce, I have to say I find the prospect of chestnut flour bread much more appealing than the thought of grapes being turned into wine after being trodden on repeatedly by heavily breathing, sweaty farm workers in bare feet.

Photos courtesy of the exhaustive archives of Canada's Bata Shoe Museum and their website All About Shoes. Definitely worth a spin. Especially to revel in the 3D images they provide of their collection.

They make me think of that Kirsty McColl song "In These Shoes?" Especially the line where she replies to the man who asks her to walk on him in her high heels, "I doubt you'd survive."

Halloween Week: Clog #5--"Frankenclogs"

"It's alive! It's alive!" may be ranked #49 in the American Film Institute's list of the top 100 movie quotations in American cinema coming as it does from the 1931 horror classic Frankenstein, but I prefer to open this post with another line usually credited to that very film although I can find no evidence on the internet that it was ever spoken in that movie's dialogue at all. (Demanding readers can rest assured that it was delivered in the 1987 Michael J. Fox vehicle Teen Wolf Too which will suffice for the purposes of this week's Halloween theme.) I'm referring, of course, to the oft repeated exclamation,  

"I've created a monster!"

Indeed, I think I do know how Dr. Frankenstein felt.

A couple years back I got into a crafty mood and started trying my hand at making the kind of clogs and sandals I wanted to wear from bits and pieces of other clogs and sandals. With a little care it's not hard to separate the unwanted upper from an interesting wood base and attach an similarly painstakingly removed upper from a another pair. I started out making modifications to a couple different platform sandals (which have since been worn down and disposed of I used them so much), but it wasn't that long ago that I first took a shot at creating a pair of clogs. That debut pair was such a success that I'm sure I'll show it off in some future post. As was the follow up pair. And the pair after that. But the pair I'm presenting today is result of a union between an unknown brand of platform clog (that was two sizes too small for my feet) and a particularly unexceptional looking platform sandal.  

Exhibit A

I was prowling eBay at the time looking for shoes just like these. Something with an interesting leather upper that could easily be dismantled and nailed onto another base. In this chunky, funky pair, I saw exactly what I wanted. But in the wrong size. Like any good shoe addict, I bought them anyway.

In retrospect, a few comments are in order concerning the design of this pair (which I think were made by Candies, though there are no identifying marks on the shoes whatsoever--feel free to correct me if I'm wrong). First off, what's with the silver flower buckle when the rest of the shoe is made of such roughly stitched together leather? Second, as I said, this pair was two sizes too small for me. Maybe three. So how is it I was able to nail the upper onto another wooden sole and still make a clog that feels a bit too roomy? I can't imagine how loosely it must have fit the original owner.

Exhibit B

The year before I had noticed this chunky sandal from Colin Stuart, the house brand for Victoria's Secret. The colors didn't do anything for me, though the sturdy block of wood they were created out of did. So when a pair showed up in an online auction in my size, I typed in my bid and started making plans.

Since most uppers on clogs and wooden sandals are glued as well as tacked (or stapled) into place, it does require a bit of care to get the leather separated from the sole without doing excessive damage to either. The black clogs were easy to disassemble. I didn't intend to reuse the nail heads so I wasn't too disappointed when most of them just popped off and I had to tug out the rest of the nail shaft with a pair of pliers. The staples hidden underneath came out without a lot of drama when I pried them loose with a screwdriver.

The Colin Stuart pair was a different story. I had to work carefully as I used a screwdriver against both the glue and the tacks to remove the leather cross straps without damaging the wooden base. Nothing mars a reconstructed pair of shoes like a whole bunch of scuff marks from your tools. But once I had my leather and my wood ready to go, I was able to put the final pair together in the course of one spring afternoon. (And, oh, yeah. I got rid of the goofy flower shaped buckle.) You can see the results below. I have to say, they do look pretty killer with the pair of extremely wide leg bell bottoms I bought just so I had something to wear them with.

Chunky platform. Leather stitches. All in black. I've created a monster. Behold...my Frankenclogs!