I bought these boots on etsy with a bit of money sent to me by my grandmother for the holidays. I suspect they are new old stock from the late 80s, as their thin crepe soles show no wear whatsoever. They are really slim, which is great: for once, it'll be a good thing when the leather stretches/relaxes a bit.... but I thought they could use a few minor changes...
I had a shoe repair man take the back seam in a little (easy to do, since they are exposed, and there's no lining) so they would fit my ankles and not flop around.
I polished them with cordovan shoe polish - a rich purply brown, that I knew would get into the leather's texture.
I replaced the original laces (one was torn, anyway!) with the last bit of leather thong I had leftover from an old Halloween costume.
After:
ta-da! better, no? 
3 comments:
so much better! they look beautiful!
Hooray -- we didn't know you had a blog! Thanks for the comment on ours. All three of us love your style and think you are doing more than your fair share to challenge academic fashion norms in fabulous, pattern-mixing ways. And, apparently, by transforming old boots into something lovely.
ah, thanks! I confess, I really love these because I can wear a long empire dress with them and pretend that I'm Lizzy Bennett for the day. (sigh)
I think maybe I will finally break them out tomorrow! I've been wanting to stretch them out a bit more first, but I don't have to walk a LOT tomorrow, so maybe I'll just DO IT.
A friend of mine got me one of those "classic Mickey" tees at Disneyworld (I confess; I've wanted one since I was a teenager!) that I'm itching to wear; I wonder if they can be paired together without appearing cartoonish?
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