welcome to elaney!

Perhaps it’s the “royal we” sensibility that we’ve all come to know and love around here that makes us empathize the the solidarity of the gladiator…sandal. Sign of a good trend?  Grows on you year over year (think skinny jeans).  We are still loving the gladiators!  What about you?  Are you in?  Or are you with Varina, ”Goodbye, my love, my life. Goodbye, good-bye!!”

Steve Madden – DV by Dolce Vita – Target
Target – Bumper – Bumper
Urban Outfitters – Bumper – Airwalk

We all know the best way to pull a robust wardrobe together is to get a few “statement pieces” (thank you Tim Gunn) and accessorize around them.  If you invest in some classics and mix in trendy budget finds, no one will be the wiser.  Lately we’ve “stumbled” upon some cute footwear from Target that you’d never suspect.  Cute short wedges (seriously, why is a short wedge so hard to find) and some cute “suede” (fuede?) boots. 

Suede Boot (seriously how cute is the gray?):

If you love animal print, and you love low boots, would you, could you, should you?

The great thing about being a girl is that there are parts of the body that are beautiful on every woman.  Every woman has beautiful shoulders and every woman (save cankles victims) has beautiful ankles.  Show off your ankles with sandals that attract attention to them.  Check out these shoes from Kate Spade, on sale at Zappos.

We at elaney have a love hate relationship with all things Tory Burch.  Tory B just seems so obvious.  Everyone has the flats; everyone recognizes the logo, but at the same time, you kind of like the flats.  And you sort of want to sport the logo.  It’s like a rich man’s Miley Cyrus.  You don’t want to like it, but you kind of do.  So after a rather public and controversial stance on the flats, we feel that there is no going back there.  But Neiman M has all the bags 50% off.  Is it time for a truce?!  What do you think – TB bags:  bag it or bag it up?

Reader mb wants to know, “elaney, is it time to put up the tall black boots?  Even though it’s cold in DC, May seems late for these decidedly winter shoes.  What do you think?”  Well, mb after a heated staff meeting, we’ve determined that May is in fact too late for tall, black boots.  Sorry Northern readers – time to give in to the seasons you learned in kindergarten.  Even if it doesn’t look like May or feel like May, it’s still May.  It’s a no go.  go.  However, if you really can’t live without boots, try to open-toed!  They might be awful, but they’re fun!  Check out these. 

Reader EmEmLi wants to know, “elaney, what do you think about the gladiator sandal?”  Well, perhaps its our penchant for a little chunky gold jewelry (you can take a girl out of South Georgia, but you can’t take the South Georgia out of the girl), but we love some clunky, hardware infused gladiator sandals.  Check out these great ones from Tahari!  And for many, many more – check out this selection at PiperLime.com.  So, what exactly do we think about gladiators, EmEmLi?  We say, “When it comes to gladiator sandals, ‘I am Spartacus!’”