Cap Toe Heels will give those classic outfits such as skirt suits and wool trousers with a cashmere turtleneck sweater a retro forties feeling. 

They are available this season in a wide variety of patterns, styles and fabrics: prints, plaids, suedes and patent leather.  The styles available range from Mary Janes and slingbacks to boots and even peep toes.  For that very put-together look, the color of the toe cap should pick up on the hue of the outfit that you wear. 

This beautiful Italian-made bootie has a suede, patent and spazzolato leather upper and leather sole.  The heel is 4” with a front platform of approximately 1/2”.

Click here to learn more about these cap toe booties from Endless.com. 

Finding great shoes when your feet are wide can require a little extra patience.  Here are a few ideas that will make it a little easier. 

Here are a few quick tips…

While it is a great outing to shop at a shoe store, I have found that for the best variety, I look to an online vendor with free shipping and free returns. 

Be ready to order several pairs and return the ones that do not have the perfect fit. 

Try shoes on in the late afternoon or evening when your feet are the largest. 

Try on both shoes and walk around in them for a few minutes, be careful to not scuff the shoes.  If they are tight to the point of being uncomfortable, then put them aside and send them back.

Try them on as you would wear them.  Put on the outfit, the hose or tights (or not) just as if you were wearing them out.  Do they look great?  feel great? If not, send them back! 

When you find a shoe that fits well, buy more than one pair.  Alternate wearings so that the shoes will last much longer.  Shoes, like any textile need to breathe between wearings.  Find multiple colors. 

Be prepared to buy a smaller number of higher quality shoes.  An inexpensive shoe that might look dainty as a 5 Narrow will probably look and feel quite different in your  size. 

When you are looking to branch out, look first to the same brand to see what other offerings they have.  A brand that I find very wearable for my clients with wide feet are Sofft.  Sofft offers a decent variety that is a real step up from “The Practical Shoe.”  This particular pair is the perfect sweetheart-throat Mary Jane with a gored copper buckle. It is available in Mahogany Leather, Black Leather, and Black Suede.  And they are at a price point which is a great value for the quality workmanship. 

I enjoy shopping at Shoebuy.  They are a great vendor that you will be seeing much more from on my shopping site.  They offer unmatched customer service, real-time inventory with over 600,000 products, free shipping, free returns, and our 110% pricing guarantee.  Click here to check out their site. 

Click here to learn more about this shoe.

Article:  Shoe Illusions and Delusions

Now that the weather is turning just a little cooler, I am starting to go through my clothes to make room at the front of my closet for my favorite sweaters, jackets and boots.  Here are a few quick tips that will save you time and effort by making your closet an easy place to maneuver. 

First of all, I go through all of my fall/winter clothes.  I look at each piece and put it in a pile.  First are the keepers–the clothes that I wear all of the time.  These are clothes I know I will wear this season.  They are ready to wear.  Second are the menders.  Before I hang clothes in my closet, I check for stains, missing buttons, seams, hems, etc. Anything that is not in perfectly wearable condition, I put in a pile.  If something is beyond repair, I put it in the discard pile.  If clothes no longer fit or suit my style but are otherwise in excellent condition, I put them in a pile to be donated to Career Closet.

It is amazing how many clothes are weeded out and how much room I now have.  Now I go through my Spring/Summer clothes.  I make sure that everything is clean before storing it away.  I don’t do alteration work on these clothes now and they can’t be donated so I just store them in a clean and climate controlled closet until next season.  

I remove all of the clothes to be donated/cared for/disposed of from my closet.  Now that I have lots of space to work in my closet.  I hang everything up or fold it neatly and put all of my pants together by color, then skirts, then tops, then jackets, then dresses.  Now I bring in my accessories (scarves, belts, handbags, shoes) and it becomes very apparent where the holes are.  I make a list of the what is missing.  Finally, I go through lingerie drawers and make sure that they are neat, orderly and stocked with the necessities.  Those in bad shape are discarded.  After the lingerie, I check the jewelry drawers.  I check my jewelry, take watches in for new batteries, and have rings checked and cleaned.  And finally, I check my makeup and cosmetics.  My winter cosmetics and color is somewhat different from summer so its time to make room! 

It may seem to take a lot of time but it is time well spent.  I know what clothes I have and how they work together.  Everything is neat and ready to wear.  And purchases make sense.  In times like these, there is no room for duplication because you don’t know what is in your closet. 

As many of you who follow this blog know, my mother got married yesterday.  Beautiful wedding, beautiful reception.  What was not so great was the glass of red wine flying through the air and landing on my silk dress.  Someone suggested “club soda” and “white wine”  Great ideas except that the dress is silk so I did not want to introduce any more liquid.  My dear friend, Susan grabbed a white napkin and started blotting it up.  As it was a warm day, the stain dried quickly.  As soon as I got home, I took the dress off and took it directly to my dry cleaner.  As soon as they saw the spot, the cleaner started pre-treating the spot. 

Notice the over-use of the word “soon.”  When it comes to a stain on a beautiful piece of fabric, time is of the essence.  Get the stained piece to the cleaners as soon as possible.  Do not wait a day or two so that the stain has time to set.

The most important “quick tips”  are to blot the spill.  Do not rub it in.    And only use a reputable cleaner.  Trust me, all dry cleaners are not the same!  And do it now!

 Click here to learn more about fabric care. 

Click here to view the Doncaster Fabric care site. 

“Give someone a fish and you feed HER for a day;  Teach someone to fish and you feed HER for a lifetime.”

Last night, I had the opportunity to attend an event for the Women’s Initiative.  I am aware of many great non-profits, but the Women’s Initiative is one that I rank as outstanding. 

The Women’s Initiative is an organization that helps low income women break the cycle of poverty by providing development training and financial backing to start their own businesses.  In twenty years, some 11,000 businesses have been created.  These women are overcoming obstacles such as poverty, language, disabilities and single parenthood to turn their lives around through sparking their entrepreneurial spirit.  But it doesn’t stop there.  Women who are empowered return that power by giving back to their communites by employing and mentoring others and working toward the vitalization of their neighborhoods. 

Among the attendees at last night’s Women’s Initiative event were graduates of the program.  One woman who I spoke to had started a fashion business.  She had negotiated with vendors to complete her line.  She had financial backing obtained through a business plan.  Her dream is to grow her business so that she can bring on even more women to sell her clothes.  Her top priority is to make it affordable for them to invest in their own futures.  She had learned to dream and make it come true. Now she wants to share that dream with others.    

California’s First Lady, Maria Shriver had this to say about the Women’s Initiative at the 2007 Governor and First Lady’s Women’s Conference:  “California’s full economic potential will only be met when all women are supported in their efforts to contribute to the entrepreneurial spirit of California.  WE Invest supports and encourages women and their families in this endeavor –putting money in their pockets, hope in their hearts and a future in their hands.”

Visit the Women’s Initiative Website to learn more.