The other day I had my shoes polished. I actually brought these shoes to Mexico with the idea of having them polished (I had them here for six months last year and consistently forgot). You don't see shoe polishers around much in Canada, though I'm sure you can get it done somewhere, but here it's very common to see the little portable booths, and a man sitting on a wooden stool waiting for business. It takes about ten minutes and costs less than $2. He washes them with a soapy mixture, brushes them, and then adds the polish.
I contemplated my shoes while the man worked. I hardly wear these shoes any more. I had bought them in Barcelona in 2007 and, not having many alternatives, wore them all the time. Back then, people used to come up to me on the street and tell me how cute they were; once someone even took a picture of them. But fashion turns over so rapidly that no one says anything any more, and I got a bit sick of them.
However, I remember interviewing my grandfather earlier this year to preserve the family history, and while we were talking about his childhood I said, "you guys must have had so much less stuff..."
"You can't even believe it," he replied. "People these days have so much stuff... we never had any of that."
My grandfather certainly wasn't rich, but he wasn't terribly poor either. He just lived at a time when people took care of their belongings. If you bought a pair of shoes that cost you money, you looked after them, you had them cleaned or you cleaned them yourself, and you wore them until they wore out or didn't fit you any more. (For the rich, this was obviously not the case, but there weren't too many rich people in Canada in the 1930s).
As the man cleaned and polished, I felt a rekindling of pride in my old shoes. They looked so much better, they were starting to gleam. And I wondered why I'd felt they were inadequate for the last year and a half. There's something wrong with an industry that makes us buy, buy, buy all the time, that makes us feel out of the loop if we're wearing round-toed shoes in a pointy-toed year, or flats in a heels year. And there's something satisfying, at the end of the day, about owning something long enough to have a host of memories associated with it.
So here they are, looking well-loved again instead of just well-worn. What do you guys think about the consumerist culture and the need to always have something new? I know a lot of people buy vintage or thrifted items, and while that is of course more ecological, I don't think it addresses the main issues of consumption that affect us these days... I'd be interested to know what you think!
Now, me and my paypal account have a date with Etsy... I know I know! But the dress in question will go really well with these shoes!
