Is shoe lust hereditary? - YouLookFab Forum

Or learned?

Yesterday I bought my eight-year-old daughter her back-to-school boots. Every year I get her one pair of boots, which she wears to death for the whole fall/winter/spring. My kids' feet seem to grow slowly, so my shoe-buying strategy has always been to buy higher quality but fewer pairs. This year I splurged and got really nice ones: short motorcyle-style boots in beautiful black leather with a couple of little buckles:

http://www.umishoes.com/shop/style/322254-013.html

They are so cute I'd wear them myself. I brought them home really hoping she would like them.

WELL. She is sitting watching morning cartoons this very moment with her new boots on. In her pajamas. She loves them! She put them on as soon as she opened the box yesterday afternoon and I had to pry them off her feet at bedtime. She has back-to-school clothes, too, but nothing has excited her interest more than these boots. It looks like she's going to be a shoe girl like her mom.

Does anyone else have kids who are showing an interest in footwear (or bags, or clothes), following in mom's footsteps?

13 years ago

Anonymous

I was that way about shoes when I was a child, and still am. My mother wasn't that way about shoes, but she did love to dress me up and sew clothing for me, so I think that's how I "inherited" an interest in fashion.

Isabel

Veteran

HYSTERICAL !! I just started a thread on shoe lust !! For me it has been a combination of both. We didn't have a lot of money growing up, so my mom made all of our clothes. All of them. And she was a fabulous seamstress. The ONE thing that they spent money on for us was shoes. Nice, leather shoes. ALWAYS.

I didn't inherit this....but then with YLF, the blacked out memories are now in the forefront !

jayne

Oh my gawd..yes! Both my girls are avid about dressing themselves and the one turning 14 its now shopping herself, no mom allowed. They are so much more conscious and aware than I ever was. I like to think it is because I tell them things I learn here. So dear Angie is already influencing the next generation

MsMary

Those are FAB! And how fun that your daughter is following in your shoe-loving footsteps!

I don't have a daughter, but my mom has always been a big shoe-lover, so I vote "yes!" on the "heritability of shoe-philia" question!

Linda

Active Member

Years ago, I took my daughter to the shoe store to buy shoes for her for preschool. She found a table of sale shoes and immediately fell in love with a gorgeous pair of Italian "booties" in black and purple leather with metallic purple embroidery. She called them ruby slippers. Luckily, they were on sale for 1/2 price so I bought them for her. She wore them to death. She's now 27 and is definitely a fashionista. But when she came to visit last weekend and I mentioned the shoes, she had no recollection of them.

Anyway, my daughter showed an interest in fashion at a very early age. All through the turbulent teens, we had a love of fashion and music as common ground. It was one (or two) thing we didn't fight about. I always let her choose her own clothing (within reason) and let her use fashion as a means of expression. My own mother and I fought constantly about clothing. (My mother really has no interest in fashion and had no patience for shopping or dressing.) I didn't want that to happen to my daughter and me. Now, one of our favorite things to do together is to go shopping. Many times we don't buy anything, but we have tons of fun.

You have a delightful journey ahead of you with your daughter! Have fun!

rachylou

LOL. My girl is 20 and out of the house. We have a shopping trip planned a whole month from now. We are going thrifting. We used to sit around and do things like re-fashion shirts and jeans.

Awesome boots, btw. I'd sleep in them

Coming back to say that my son has quite a collection of Cons in every color!

Transcona Shannon

I can remember the first pair of dress shoes my Mom bought me for church - they were black velvet Mary-Janes (no heel or course) with a small cream rosette where the strap attaches to the shoe. I loved those shoes and always felt so pretty in them - must be where it all started for me!

How cute that your daughter loved her boots - I'm sure the two of you will enjoy many years of shoe shopping together!

velvetychocolate

This whole thread makes me smile

Not sure if "shoe lust" is hereditary - I wasn't really like that growing up, but once I was able to buy my own clothes as a teen, in came the cream leather white booties, the 'on-trend' flats and so forth. My Mom wasn't really ever "into" shoes though. In fact, I'd say her shoe-buying was always of the sensible, but still quietly elegant sort. Rockport plain flats, that sort of thing.

If anything, Mom has branched out ...I seem to recall a family reunion about a year and a half ago - we all met up in Palm Springs. I was wearing Converse as part of my casual 'road trip' outfit. Everyone else was in their "sensible" shoes. Lots of comments. Well, guess what? My Mom bought a pair of *orange* fashion sneakers when we met up in Vegas just this past June for a trade show.

So, I think it can work in reverse too?

Meanwhile, so cute about your daughter with her new and fab motorcycle boots!

Irene

My mom likes fashion but not shoes, especifically. However, I have some shoe-addict issues. I mean, I really have a problem lol At the subway/bus, I'll look at people's shoes. I can spot shoes from specific stores, or different random women with the exact same pair of shoes. More than once I've been aware of sharing the same metro with the same stranger on the way-to and way-back because of the shoes they were wearing. And even once I encountered one of my closests friends by coincidence on the street and noticed first her shoes (which I have too) and then, when I was checking the owner of my same pair, I actually saw her. I guess I have a shoe fetish, and it's been like that for as long as I can remember.

I used to argue with my mom at the age of 5 over ballet flats. Convos would go like these:

ME: Mom, I really want those shoes... Like Ariel's on Little Mermaid, you know? Or like Cinderella? (yes, I actually had a fixation with Disney's princesses shoes)
MOM: You can't wear them, you got slim feet, they slip off

To this date, I still cannot wear ballet flats comfortably because they do slip off. And my mother still reminds me of that every time she comes shoe shopping with me. I'm 24.

deb

I think it is heredity. In fact both my son and daughter have the shoe affliction and they blame me. lol

Suz

(website)

Such great boots! No wonder she loves them! Who wouldn't??

My daughter has zero interest in fashion. Then again, we are not biologically related, as she is adopted. Does this prove that nature trumps nurture? I don't know.

And who knows how she will turn out. She is 12 now. Things could change. Especially since I keep forcing her to take photos of me for my WIWs. She's developing quite the eye when it comes to me. However, for herself, it is baggy Ts and long shorts all the way.

Scarlet

That is sweet! If shoe lust is hereditary, it must be buried deep in my family tree because I am the odd man out.

Beth

Nature or nurture, huh? I have no idea, but I can tell you my mother, sister and I have *always* loved shoes!

Category