Shopping in Portland: Johnny Sole

During my trip to Portland over the weekend, I was involved in conference activities all day Saturday (while Cheapy checked out the awesome city). Since we were leaving Monday morning, that gave us only Friday afternoon and Sunday for exploring and shopping. The first store Cheapy and I happened upon after hopping off the train on Friday was Johnny Sole. This is an independent retailer open since 1993, two floors, shoes on the bottom, clothing on the top. The proprietor, who has a great eye for footwear, waited on us, and she was fantastic. I didn't venture upstairs to peruse the clothing--it was shoe time. Check out these pix.


I got two pairs of shoes and Cheapy got one. I ended up wearing this pair of Jeffery Campbell t-straps I bought during about 16 hours of conferencing on Saturday and they were super comfortable. Here they are in the mustard combo which is what I have, as well as in a side view in a brown combo so you can see how cute the heels are.


The only place I could find these online is an indie shoe shop in Chicago called Lori's shoes (whose site I plan to explore further).

The t-straps were full price, but I also checked out the sale room.


There I found a pair of Nana mini-wedges for super cheap, even cheaper than they currently are on 6pm.com.


I also tried on these Tsubo pumps. Johnny Sole had them in black, cream, and this great olive green color which I wanted, but was sold out in my size. I kept thinking about the shoes after I left the store, so when we got back to our hotel I did a little googling and found them on Amazon in brown on sale for $25.99, down from the original price of $134.99 (which is what they were selling for at Johnny Sole). I couldn't pass them up. Oh what a great day for shoes, fellow shoppers! (Alas, I have no idea how I'm going to fit these all in my shoe shelf. Which, I suppose, is not a bad problem to have.)

Purchased the Boots from 6pm.com...Finally

I'm happy to report that I solved my e-tailing checkout dilemma on 6pm.com and was able to give myself some boot love on this Valentine's Day.

The 6pm customer service people responded to my email about my proceed-to-checkout problems with the Jeffrey Campbell ankle boots approximately 26 hours after I sent it. I had to empty my shopping cart, log out, redo my account info, and start over. Annoying. But I'll take a little annoying for 49% off. (Original price--$146.95; sale price--$74.75; $6.95 flat fee shipping.)

I gotta tell you I'm fairly certain Cheapy is going to hate these boots. But I love the scrunchy '80s thing going on here, and they are the best shade of gray. (And I promise never to wear them with leggings and a Pat Benatar haircut.)

Great Prices at Shoefly, Trouble with 6pm.com

I've been trying to buy a pair of Jeffrey Campbell ankle boots from 6pm.com all day, and the site won't let me check out. I called the phone number listed on the site and simply got a recording saying to email them. (You are certainly no Zappos, 6pm.com.) I sent a message this afternoon and have yet to hear back. (Note that 6pm.com is the only place online I could find these particular boots in the size and color I want and that they are super on sale.) I'll post later on how this situations turns out, fellow shoppers.

In the meantime, I found another pair of Jeffrey Campbell boots. Or maybe they are shoes. They are sort of a book-shoe hybrid. And talk about super on sale! Shoefly.com is having a site-wide extra 40% off event (the discount is calculated when the item hits your shopping cart), so I bought these in the black suede: original price--$95; sale price--$39.60. If you choose to take advantage of this sale note that Shoefly charges for shipping and all sales are final for sale items. Let's they hope they fit!


An update to my last post: I decided to return the green kimono top I bought from Anthropologie that I mentioned below. It is indeed a bad green and it's bordering on costumey. I didn't work no matter what I tried on with it.

The Perfect Boot I Cannot Have

It seems the item-out-of-my-grasp will be a recurring theme here at Material Girl HQ. Here's my latest shopping trial: I've found what just may be the perfect boot, one I've been on the lookout for for ages, trolling Zappos and Amazon, cruising any shoe department I happen by. I speak of a grey boot. One with a walkable heel. A lovely neutral that can go from season to season and match anything. If you ask me, grey should me the new black in footwear. The ubiquitous black boot is so dull. Don't get me wrong--it has it's time and place and every woman should have a black boot in both knee-high and ankle in her closet. But wouldn't it be nice to have a beautiful grey boot to wear with, say, a black dress, thus getting away from the black-from-head-to-toe without being too bold (with, say, a red boot).

But, alas, grey boots are hard to come buy. I've had my eye on two pairs I've found on Zappos. (They are currently sitting in my shopping cart). One, by Jessica Bennett, is a suede, not-quite- knee-high boot with a black wedge heel (currently selling for $129.02). I'm just not wild about suede. And I don't think I could wear grey suede in the spring. I like them but I don't love them.

The other pair is a ruched Jeffrey Campbell ankle boot (currently selling for $146.95). I love them and my husband hates them (not that his opinion matters all that much, but he does pay the AmEx bill). Plus an ankle boot with a skirt, I fear, would make me look shorter. And they are a bit '80s.

Then one happy Saturday the Anthropologie catalog arrived in my mail slot. And there it was: arguably the perfect grey boot. I love the distressed brown-grey leather, the stacked heel (not too high), the lacing up the back, the shape of the toe. I'm in love. My two issues: My discretionary fund is not currently able to support a boot purchase of $278 plus tax and shipping; and they are on backorder until early October.

[Material Girl sighs...]

This is a sad sad development in my shopping life. At least four times now I've been ready to take the plunge, halfway through the check out procedure. After all, they don't charge your credit card until they are ready to ship the product--I could always cancel the order between now and October. What if I don't order them now and I they sell out in 8.5? Fellow shoppers, what would you do?