A little personality in her shoe might help a bride put her best foot forward

By: Samantha Critchell, The Associated Press

 

NEW YORK, N.Y. - No offence to Cinderella, but she sort of had it backwards. The shoe should be at the end of the to-do list for a wedding fairy tale.
After the engagement, first consider the venue, then the dress — then the shoes and other accessories, experts say. Collectively, they should have a complementary vibe.
"It's all a picture that comes together," says gown designer Reem Acra.
No flip-flops for a formal setting and dress, and satin pumps would be silly on the beach.
Tanya Dukes, accessories editor at Brides magazine, suggests these practical questions:
—How high for the heel? Think of the proportions of the dress, how tall you'll stand and if you are used to wearing heels at all, she says.
—Is the wedding outside? A lawn wedding, for example, could be trouble for a spiky heel. A wedge would fare better.
—How formal is the occasion? Fabric matters here. "Satin is the traditional choice, and it's a safe bet," Dukes says.
And then there's deciding whether you ever want to wear the shoes again.
"Most women don't wear their bridal shoes again not because they're not wearable, but because they're a memento," says footwear designer Stuart Weitzman, who got his start in business in bridal more than 25 years ago. "I make every bridal shoe in dyeable satin, so you could wear them again, but you'd lose the memento, and then you'd wear those dyed shoes once and ruin those 'bridal shoes.' Most women never throw them out."
Weitzman says his success in this market is due partly to an observation by Judith Leiber, founder of the famous beaded bag collection, who noted an "ugly bluish tone" to most wedding shoes. He created a pair out of Swiss lace, won a design award for them and the rest is history.
He sees as much variety in wedding-shoe styles as he does on the street: Women want sandals, stilettos, platforms and lace booties, but the traditional pump is the most popular.
Shoes often spend most of the big day covered by the gown's hemline, but they can be a glimpse of the bride's personality. The moment the shoes will probably get the most attention is right before she kicks them off to dance, says Acra with a laugh.
Crafting a head-to-toe mood is a delicate balancing act between modernity and timelessness, she explains. Now, the shoe? That's a place to have a little fun.
"If I have a bride in the showroom, I might say, 'Why not an orange shoe?'" Acra says. "It's fun to have something different. I love playing with shoes. I really prefer colored shoes or something with bling or fun."
Metallics are a good middle-of-the-road option, as is blush pink, and even black is doable, especially if you add a black ribbon sash around the waist of the dress.
"I do think more out-of-the-box choices will be revisited and worn again," says Brides' Dukes. "Maybe something with a lot of colour, you're more likely to wear that again, like a red shoe, or cowboy boots or sneakers."
She adds, however: "If you want the memento, your Cinderella slipper, and you want to keep them pristine, then white is a valid choice."
There is more variety now than ever in gown silhouettes — including shorter cocktail dresses, asymmetrical high-low hemlines, slim columns and mermaid shapes, in addition to the ballskirt — and that does mean almost endless choices in footwear.
Bring multiple pairs of shoes to gown fittings to explore the options, recommends Acra, who chooses the overall look for models in her bridal runway shows and personally consults with some private clients.
The most important thing, as with all decisions on the bride's look, is that she is happy and comfortable in it, Acra says. "When you're walking down the aisle, really no one will be looking at your shoe. But you'll remember what you were wearing, and if it was bright red, when you talk to your children 20 years later, you can say, 'I was ahead of my time.'"

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As the Chinese so wisely say: Don't tie your shoelaces in a melon field

My father, Claud Cockburn, invented a game in which participants made up national sayings that had to be completely meaningless but sound appropriate to their purported country of origin.

An example could be the traditional Norwegian saying, "the tree is taller than the highest wave" or, as they say in India, "all is not nothingness, nor the nothingness all".
The idea for the game came to him on the top of a bus in London which was crawling along in a traffic jam. He overheard a passenger in the seat in front of him complain to a friend about their slow pace, whereupon the friend gave a resigned shrug of the shoulders and replied, "speed is what you make it". The meaninglessness of the words impressed my father along with a sense that the mustn't-grumble-but-endure tone of the speaker was peculiarly British.
The sayings should appear at least vaguely meaningful at first sight. For instance, there is the French proverb "il y a des gants sans les mains dedans – some gloves have no hands in them". Plausible proverbs devoid of meaning are not necessarily easy to manufacture. At first, the traditional Scandinavian saying, "the pine is tall, but does not reach the sky" looks like a winner, but it contains the trite idea that the large or successful have their limitations. A similar objection might rule out the nostrum of Norfolk country folk, in fact invented by my wife, which holds that "burrowing badgers catch no butterflies".
National sayings may be dull from overuse or were shallow stuff in the first place. As a foreign correspondent, I used occasionally to buy books of local proverbs, hoping that I could use one in an article to illustrate some news event in the country where I was reporting. Inclusion of an obscure but exotic local nostrum in my copy was much better than a quote from a diplomat and would hopefully give the reader the impression that I had my finger on the pulse of indigenous culture and tradition. I did this in Haiti in the early 1990s and again in Afghanistan 10 years later. My idea never really worked out because people in lots of countries seem to have made the same true but banal observations about life. Friends in Beirut used to tell me political jokes with tears of laughter running down their faces, but then had to give me a tutorial on who-was-who in Lebanese politics before I could even pretend to laugh at the right moments.
Sayings by individuals are generally more interesting than national proverbs, but the appetite for these soon cloys. Those most frequently quoted in dictionaries of quotations come across as self-important, patronising and with a firm grip on the obvious. Often they sound plain wrong or are speaking for effect, as with Gertrude Stein declaring that "in the United States there is more space where nobody is than where anybody is. That is what makes America what it is". This has a contrived midnight-oil feel to it as does Stein's overused remark, speaking of Oakland, California, that "there is no there there". The quote used to be especially favoured by foreign writers and journalists making snide remarks about the supposed lack of character of American heartlands.
Jokes can be more telling about national character and beliefs than proverbs, though really good ones that don't sound dated are rare. For instance, there is an Israeli joke used to describe a succession of senior Israeli military officers in recent decades which simply says, "he was so stupid that even the other generals noticed". This tells one more about what many well-informed Israelis privately think of their military commanders than a dozen carefully written analyses of the Israeli army.
The British sometimes claim that their humour is too subtle and ironic to appeal to those from different cultures. An example often cited is the famous Punch cartoon of the 1930s showing two hippos in a tropical pool, one saying to the other, "I keep thinking it's Tuesday". When I was about eight years old I was given a 20-volume collection of old Punch cartoons that dated from the beginning of the First World War until the end of the 1930s and which I found very unfunny. I can remember only one cartoon that seems genuinely amusing in retrospect. It shows a parliamentary candidate on a platform addressing a political meeting with the Union flag behind him. In contrast to contemporary cartoons, there are several lines of dialogue underneath. So far as I recall, they read: "Voice from audience: 'Can the candidate explain why the Union Jack behind him is upside-down?' Candidate (glancing round): 'I can only suppose that the person who put it there was so lacking in common patriotism that he did not know the correct position of our national emblem.' Voice from audience: 'Well, it isn't upside-down.' "
Proverbs and memorable remarks inevitably degrade into clichés through overuse. Famous quotes, such as the denunciation of Roman imperialism put into the mouth of a British resistance leader by Tacitus – "they make a desert and they call it peace" – has echoed down the centuries but loses impact through overfamiliarity.
Collections of quotations tend to draw on a limited pool of predictable contributors. By way of contrast, what is striking about the recently published Quips & Quotes: A Journalist's Commonplace Book by my friend Richard Ingrams is its freshness, scepticism and depth. Put together haphazardly by the author over the last half-century, it is a mix of quotes from people long forgotten and others still famous. Their sayings bubble with originality. Lenin quotes are fairly common but I never knew he had said that "the best government has only to be in power long enough for everybody to wish to remove it". The statement is simple enough but worth bearing in mind as an explanation for every revolution in history down to the Arab Spring uprisings last year. There is the same sort of compelling simplicity in the words of William Cobbett, the great radical journalist, who wrote that "it is the chief business of a government to take care that one part of the people does not cause the other part to lead miserable lives".
Not many people remember Sefton Delmer, the chief foreign correspondent of the Daily Express in the 1950s, but he once said: "I can only think clearly in a five-star hotel." He is quoted as saying on another occasion that "in real life, the women pursue the men. It is only in Somerset Maugham that the men pursue the women". I particularly like the remark of Peter Cook: "Cricket is nothing if it is not one man pitted against a fish."
Few real proverbs are as interesting as these. But my father discovered two, both Chinese, that are equal in appeal and which I have never seen quoted elsewhere. One says: "Do not tie your shoelace in a melon field or adjust your hat under a plum tree if you want to avoid suspicion." The other competes with Peter Cook's in its cryptic allure: "Of nine bald men, eight are deceitful and the ninth is dumb."

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18 Different Ways To Tie Shoelaces

Shoelace Knots

Want to learn how to tie shoelaces? Whether you're after shoelace tying speed, simplicity, security or style, here's eighteen different shoelace knots to choose from, including several that I've created. Grab some shoelaces or a piece of rope, get comfortable and give them a try! 18 Different Ways To Tie Shoelaces My diagrams are all drawn as though looking down at your own shoes while tying, and are colour-coded to make it easier to follow where the lace runs. The lace end that starts on the left side is Blue and the end that starts on the right side is Yellow. For colour-blind visitors, Blue=Dark=Left, Yellow=Light=Right. REGULAR SHOELACE KNOTS: Standard Shoelace Knot Of all the shoelace tying techniques shown to me by others, this is by far the most common: Make a loop with one end, wrap the other end around it and pull a loop through the "hole" in the middle. Two Loop Shoelace Knot Commonly referred to as a "Bunny Ears" shoelace knot (due to its two loops): Make a loop with both ends, then simply tie a knot with them. It's often tied incorrectly, resulting in an un-balanced Granny Knot. Ian Knot = Ian's Fast Shoelace Knot - Recommended! I tie my shoelaces with an "Ian Knot", the World's Fastest Shoelace Knot: Make a loop with both ends and simultaneously pull them through each other to form an almost instant knot. It's a truly revolutionary way to tie your shoelaces! SECURE SHOELACE KNOTS: Ian's Secure Shoelace Knot - Recommended! This knot combines the best features of numerous secure shoelace knots, with particular emphasis on symmetry: Cross two loops and pass them both through the "hole" in the middle. Great for serious sports or for securing slippery laces. Surgeon's Shoelace Knot This is the most common secure shoelace knot: Make a Standard Shoelace Knot, but before pulling tight, run the loop around and through the middle for a second time. Turquoise Turtle Shoelace Knot Another less common secure shoelace knot: Make a Two Loop Shoelace Knot ("Bunny Ears"), but before pulling tight, pass the loop and adjacent loose end through the middle for a second time. Better Bow Shoelace Knot Another secure knot variation, again based on looping around more than once: Begin as for a Standard Shoelace Knot, only loop around twice before pulling through the loops thus made. FreedomKnot Shoelace Knot This is yet another of the secure knots on which my own Ian's Secure Shoelace Knot is based: Make an "O" and pass a loop through it from both the front and the back. Double Shoelace Knot A crude method of making a knot "permanent" or for consuming excess lace to keep the ends from dragging: Tie a Standard Shoelace Knot, then tie an overhand knot with the finished loops. Unfortunately, it's also very tricky to un-tie. Double Ian Shoelace Knot By hanging onto the loops and repeating the Ian Knot technique, the result is the more secure Double Ian Shoelace Knot. This is also handy for consuming excess lace to keep the ends from dragging. Mega Ian Shoelace Knot This is a more secure variation of my Ian Knot: Make a double-loop with both ends and simultaneously pull them through each other. The result is super-secure, though nowhere near as fast as the regular Ian Knot. Crossed Ian Shoelace Knot This knot is a curiosity that often results from tying the Ian Knot incorrectly. Twisting the starting loops in the wrong direction results in a knot with the ends crossed within the knot. It seems more secure, but can easily fall apart. Two Stage Shoelace Knot This knot is made in two distinct stages: Make and secure one loop, then make and secure the other loop. The result is slightly more secure because it's less likely for both stages to come undone. Loop the Loop Shoelace Knot Also known as the "Klets Knot", this method makes any regular shoelace knot more secure: Tie a Standard Shoelace Knot (or even an Ian Knot), then feed one loop through the other loop and pull it tight like a noose. SPECIAL PURPOSE SHOELACE KNOTS: Halloween Shoelace Knot - Just for fun! A decorative knot that makes the perfect finishing touch for a Halloween outfit or for other "creepy" occasions: Tie your shoelaces with these miniature "Hangman's Nooses". Boat Shoe Knot Often used on boat shoes (deck shoes) or moccasins with leather laces, the "Heaving Line Knot" creates decorative coils instead of knots: Each end is simply coiled around itself until all remaining lace is consumed. One Handed Shoelace Knot Here's the ideal way to tie shoelaces with one hand: Lace the shoe with the bottom end permanently tied off, then secure the top end with a simple loop knot. Reef Knot The Reef Knot is basically a Standard Shoelace Knot minus the loops. This is useful when the ends are not long enough to tie a regular bow, such as when a shoelace has broken and there is no ready replacement.

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