I think the shoes your considering are very good looking! The black Clarks are in interesting take on a sling-backed pump. The bronze ones are really beautiful and I like both metallic versions of the flats.

I sure hope your poor feet heal quickly. I wore some slight heels yesterday, giving myself a pep talk that surely an inch and a half wouldn't kill me. After about 20 minutes in the house, I had to take them off. The pain began to radiate up my legs, and I think I must walk funny when I wear heels, trying to keep them on (these were heavy espadrille wedges). Anyway, I'm not sure how much was the shoes and how much was the intense heat that has suddenly descended upon us, but my legs and back continued to hurt for the rest of the day, and this morning I felt like I'd been hit by a truck.

I don't know about you, but when my feet hurt, everything else starts to hurt too, even my head. I hope you find some good shoes soon and get some rest for your poor tootsies!

Ladies, you are all wonderful!

Jenava, thanks for ther reassurance and the great example of wearability for Birkies! I don't think resoling is an option offered to us in India, but hey, if they hold out for 5 years, they've already done their job I figure!

Helen, my big issue with leather or cork only is both turn into mould beds during the monsoons. My few all-leather shoes have to be packed with pillows of silica gel and inspected regularly and even then get fungus-y in the monsoon season (happened to my suede Hush Pup wedges!! But they are still holding up, not too badly), when the 100% humidity lasts for literally months together. Well, at least along the coastal parts of the country. So a few pleaters, rubbers or similar become inevitable. In the capital city, where I am at the moment, leather does lots better because while it is hotter here, it is also much, much drier.

Zap, yes, great point about black's difficult aesthetics. Two counterpoints however: (1) Black shows dirt the very least of all, and trust me when I say that some of our best-laid roads (National Highway 1 comes to mind) would count only as dirt track in the US! (2) black has become my formal-wear bottleneck, since the mainstay of my business semi-formal/smart casual wardrobe is a black & white tweed microcheck skirt that positively fights with my brown mary janes unless married by a red&brown jacket, with black piping. In summer, the jacket is *out*, being quilted --- and I have to rack my brains to dress up jeans instead (don't, please, ask about shopping for pants! :-D). I can imagine red or grey or another bold dark colour of shoe working too --- but I suspect I'd need more than one to work with different colours of tops. My two LBDs are just that, black, and I have a black shirtdress as well. Also a few black tops around, so black shoes hopefully won't lack company. I do KNOW what you mean, though --- I'm leery of black for the most part, and have resisted buying new black shoes for years. But working around that hole is getting really wearisome.

Claire, you're so right! I have sore shoulders from walking funny this last week!

Wow! I didn't even know it was possible for shoes to fossilize to the point where they'd break like that. (I wonder why - did they possibly get moist or something?)

Your poor sore feet! I hope you're able to find some new options soon.

I quite like the black slingbacks (on me, slingbacks like that with a very wide rear strap work best, as they avoid rubbing against the sensitive back of my heel) and the bronze sandals are beautiful.

Kari, the shoe that broke was not one of the fossilized ones. Sorry about that confusing comment! This was just something that was several years old (bought 2007 I think?), though not worn all that often --- I was 'saving' it for when I was worthy of wearing it or something (I've really been trying hard to overcome the 'too good to wear' tendency the last few months).