I am a monster.

I don’t know how it happened. It seemly merely yesterday that I was an average carefree youth content with her 5 pairs of shoes, which spanned the necessities of a temperate climate: 1 for the spring-fall & school season, 1 pair of sandals, 1 pair of shoes, 1 pair of running around shoes, one pair of extras, because I liked living in luxury like that.

Skip forward 10-15 years and what do you get? A shoe monster, that’s what. With 67 pairs of shoes in her overflowing closet. That’s right: 67. The inventory was made out of necessity, since I had started to lose track of what I had and what I needed. (What I needed–ha! Like everyone needs a pair of green and purple floral print skimmers with perforated dark green leather trim and tassels and a pointy toe. A must have indeed!). But really, when I bought these shoes I imagined all sorts of occasions they would be appropriate for. Except for the aforementioned skimmers. They were just pretty and bright and cheerful and easy on the eyes and 80% of.

But really, where does one stop? How many shoes is enough? (Apparently, the sky’s the limit in my case. Why stop at one pair of orange flats, when these beautiful Marc Jacobs are clearly one of a kind?)

So, how many shoes do you have in your closet? What are you ‘bare necessities’?

 PS: In case you wonder, here’s an inventory of mine, arranged alphabetically by brand:

Brands  No. of Pairs   Description

1803                    1              brown suede slides

Aerosoles              2              lime green wedge slides

                                          metallic silver and purple sneakers

Anne Klein             1            midnight blue career pumps

Aquatalia               2            croc-print aqua slides

                                          white patent boots

Arche                    1             ruby nubuck flats

Born                      3            green nubuck oxfords

                                          black knee-high faux-lace-up boots

                                          brown and tan Mary Jane

Blay                      1             distressed metallic blue+silver floral T-strap flat

Bruno Magli            1              black two-tone low wedges

Casadei                  3             bow black floral velvet loafers

                                           burgundy kitten heel tweed pumps

                                           white and red patent kitten heel slides

Claudia Ciuti         1                studded brown suede wedge boots

C. Louboutin         1                purple suede flats

Coach                     2            black patent buckle loafers

                                           black suede ankle boots

Cole Haan              2             orange metallic and velvet loafers

                                           blue and silver metallic and mesh skimmers

Delman                   1            kiwi green suede and patent ballerinas

Donald Pliner        3               black mesh slides

                                           lime green suede loafers

                                           animal print pony hair ‘Ursula’ loafers

Dries van Noten   1              grey/blue distressed leather Mary Jane high heels

Espace                   5              blue nubuck sandals

                                                white and bronze slides

                                                red leather mary-janes

                                                red suede wedge sandals

                                                teal patent boots

Franco Sarto         1              green thongs

Etro                         1           green floral velvet skimmers

Ferragamo             1              brown croc-print patent flats

Gabor                     1            perforated pink suede Mary Jane

Geox                       1             tan mules

Goffredo Fantini   1              Materia Prima red bandana denim wedges

Hegos                    1              red and white dotted suede flats

Hollywould           1              coral flats with white leather trim and tassels

Icon                        2              ‘Illumination’ flats

                                                ‘ Carcel Street’ sneakers

Kate Spade            1              black and rainbow stripes Mary Jane mules

Kenneth Cole        2              orange flats with black flower print

                                                ‘Coconut grove’ bronze thong

Kowalski                1              distressed leather vintage print sneakers

La Canadienne      1              knee-high black boots

Marc Jacobs         2              purple suede tall wedge boots

                                                orange velvet flats with burgundy patent toe

Mephisto               1              red ‘Gail’ Mary Jane

Merell                     1              brown slip-ons

MiuMiu                 1              brown (tobacco) embellished suede flats

Nike                        1              light blue sneakers

Paul Green             1              tan slide

Pearl Izumi             1              turquoise sneakers

Roger Vivier          1              mauve D’Orsay suede flats

Robert Clergerie   4              green beaded slides

                                                gold studded suede slides

                                                wine high heel loafers

                                                black suede pumps

Sperry Top-Sider  2              blue nubuck slides

                                                green nubuck loafers

Taryn Rose           4              brown ankle boots

                                           burgundy patent mules

                                           black T-strap high heel pumps

                                           pink wedge loafers

Timberland            1              tan boots

???                          1           black rubber boots