Black velvet (if you please)

If there is one thing nicer than a long lunch with an old friend, it is a long lunch with an old friend combined with some serious shoe shopping. Last time Sadia and I had done any proper shopping together was in Berlin, where she totally failed to stop me maxing my credit card on a pair of Armani pony skin mules (read all about it here). That was ages ago. This time round we were having lunch at
Le Gavroche, which has a three-month waiting list. Sadia, being an exceptionally organised gal, had booked our table even before I’d booked my flight to London for Christmas. Lunch was worth the three-month wait. They pretty much had to kick us out late afternoon.With our waistlines expanded and our wallets shrunk we meandered up to the Selfridges Shoe Galleries.

Now, I have to say that I don’t think the sales in London this month were all that. So far, the best thing I’d scored was a bath mat (it’s a great bath mat, but still). So I wasn’t holding out major hopes as we trailed around tables groaning under the weight of unwanted Kurt Geiger purple suede wedge sandals and un-discounted Christian Louboutin everything. Until – that moment. When I spotted – them.

All shoe lovers know that moment, when you first catch sight of Them across a loud department store or hushed boutique. The moment when your gaze falls on a pair of shoes that call your name, that say, “You’re the one that I’ve been waiting for. Take me. Now.”

My latest crush is a pair of Alexander Wang “Hannah” black velvet loafer boots.  They have a 6-inch heel and a stretch-velvet “shaft” (I’m not making it up – that’s what it says on the website). They look like something a particularly cool 1970s babysitter would wear. They cost six hundred and fif – whoa! Even Sadia couldn’t make me spend that much in the sales. These were reduced. Way reduced. Cheaper than lunch at Le Gavroche. And very, very tasty.