Francie Lanoo's Ideal Shoe: The Ongoing Pursuit

As mentioned in my first blog, just like Francie Lanoo in IF NOT 4 U and Some Shoes, I’m actively hunting for my ideal shoe—one that best reflects me as a person, one that relays without words a great story about me. I haven’t yet fully defined it, but when I do, I’m pretty sure most of its characteristics will overlap with Francie Lanoo’s (except for the color because I’m very partial to the very versatile, endlessly chic, and understated hue of black).

I did a massive amount of shoe-browsing while I was writing IF NOT 4 U and Some Shoes: meandering through shoe boutiques, flipping through fashion magazines, scouring the Internet, glancing at other women’s footwear choices. In my head I already knew what Francie’s ideal shoe looked like, but I was curious to know if a tangible equivalent actually existed out there (again, just as Francie does in the book).

It wasn’t until many months after I’d completed the writing of IF NOT 4 U and Some Shoes (January 2015, to be specific) that I purchased an InStyle magazine and, low and behold, happened upon a shoe that came very near to matching the one I’d written about. It’s called the Guilietta Loretta (picture shown below), and it’s amazing/awesome/fabulous. The only aspect about it that differs from the shoe described in the book is the color; Francie’s is (spoiler alert) fuchsia, and the Loretta’s comes in lavender, orange or yellow.

Because the Guilietta Loretta came so close to turning fiction into reality, I felt an overwhelming need to own a pair. And so I started searching, and searching, and searching. Sadly though, by August 2015, I was still empty handed.

Unwilling to give up, I decided to email the Giulietta’s sales office in New York to request a direct purchase. A few days later, a gracious sales representative named Dajana responded with news: the shoe was sold out, everywhere on the planet. Evidently I'd failed to heed Francie Lanoo’s advice featured on the last page of IF NOT 4 U and Some Shoes.  Which is really sad because I wrote that advice!

Moving forward, I guess my only hope in finding the Guilietta Loretta is via a re-seller, like Ebay. Speaking of: does anyone out there have a pair that they’d be willing to part with? Pretty please!?? In size US-7, any color??

On a related note, out of curiosity, has anyone out there come across another shoe style that they think matches the descriptors for Francie Lanoo’s ideal shoe? If so, I would love to hear about it. Especially if the referenced shoe is purchasable :).