Shoe blog

Would You Wear Furry Shoes?

Ahhh yes, we all remember the scene in Sex and the City (the finely tuned TV show, NOT the less-than-stellar film) where Carrie tries to improve her sex life with that guy from Office Space by wearing furry shoes. Or more specifically, boudoir slippers with pom-poms that resemble recent escapees from Victoria’s Secret but which probably cost about a bajillion dollars.

That scene nauseated me a little bit.

Carrie expressed some conflicted emotions about wearing furry shoes. So the question is: Would you, the fashion-forward, strong-willed woman that you are, actually wear furry shoes? There are certainly a wide variety of them available.

Let’s discuss. In pictures, of course.

Furry house slippers are no new thing. Almost everyone has a pair. But what if they crossbred with a heel? I found these pricey Bettye Mullers at Gabay’s (an amazing New York secret shoe heaven) a few weeks ago. They are furry inside, similar to the things I curl up on my couch in to survive winter storms, but they are heeled! And bejeweled! On the Pro side, there is something very French Royal Court about these. For me they evoke Marie Antoinette much more strongly than the Louboutin ones that we recently discussed. For one thing, the heel height is in keeping with the era, also the decoration around the toe box is typical of court shoes. Besides, fur-lined shoes seem like the perfect thing to weather a winter in a stone castle with no central heating.

If the French Court isn’t your thing, how about putting a furry English Rose garden on your feet? The fur flowers on the outside of these are kind of strange, but they certainly bring a new light to our be-furred shoe conversation. These are the same brand as the previous set. What do you think? Do they have interesting texture or do they look like they’re molting?

Oddly enough, from my view the two pairs we already covered are the more practical of our selections today. I found these at Loehmann’s. For a cool $299 (marked down from $955), you can get the boudoir-esque, pom-pom bedecked variety that so aided Carrie in her nighttime pursuits. These are grey, while hers were pink but the whole sexy evening mule thing is the same. Do you think these are sexy?

For some real history and more research, I went to see the appropriately title “Seduction” exhibition at the Fashion Institute of Technology. I browsed through the seductively draped Halston gown, the John Galliano leather dress, and some and a ’58 Balenciaga, I came across the perfect addition to this post: these white silk Manolo Blahnik mules with burgundy ostrich feathers from 1998. There’s some real history for ya. Maybe not a long history, but history nonetheless.

I guess we can pretty safely say that furry shoes are a symbol of sensuality, or at least sexualty to many people. But sometimes accepted symbols start to lose thir meaning so I am very interested in what you guys think. In an interesting twist, I found that the quintessential movie moment to define the furry shoe question came not from Sex and the City, but from a much less likely place: My Big Fat Greek Wedding. In explanation:

“Give me a [shoe], any [shoe], and I tell you how that [shoe] is come from Greek!

(Members of the Greek infantry standing guard at the Monument of the Unknown Soldier in Athens.)

“There you go!”