Wedding Shoes: Pulling a Reese

Do you remember the fiasco when Reese Witherspoon wore a white and silver “vintage” Chanel dress to the Golden Globes in 2006, only to find out that the dress Chanel gave her was actually only three years old (and had been worn by Kirsten Dunst  to Globes after-parties in 2003)?  Well, I still love Reece.  And I’m about to knowingly do the same thing.

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That’s right.  For our wedding, I’ll be rocking some customized “vintage” Manolo Blahnik’s.  Wheee!

I found my so-called vintage Manolos at one of my favorite websites: PreownedWeddingDresses.com.  It is not the only website of its kind, but this site offers brides and chance to sell wedding gowns and accessories after their weddings.  And the gowns on this site are spectacular… we’re talking Monique Lhuillier, Oscar de la Renta, Carolina Herrera, and a zillion other designers.  So when I started thinking about wedding shoes, this was a definite “must see.”

Of course, what I really wanted was a pair like this.

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Hmmmm, pay my student loans or buy Valentinos?  Booo stupid student loans, you always win!  CitiBank 1, Me 0…

So as I was saying, I spent a slew of time searching various websites, including PreownedWeddingDresses.com, and eventually came across a lovely pair of ivory “vintage” Manolo Blahniks in the style “Carolyne.”  I emailed the seller to inquire about them immediately because they were less than half the price of the shoes in stores and a classic Manolo style.  The seller wrote back and said that they were still available (!), in my size (!!) and that she’d never worn them (!!!), other than in her home to break them in.  I decided to take the leap and purchase these lovelies!  I then immediately got on ebay and found an equally awesome pair of authentic art deco shoe clips for a song, that I felt might work well with them.   I was so excited!

What my Manolos look like new.  Source.

Fast forward one week.  Shoe clips arrive and they are perfect, flawless, not missing a single rhinestone, all things vintage and glam!  Fast forward two weeks- my shoes arrive!  But wait– THEY WERE FILTHY.  Arghhhhh!

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Ok, “filthy” may be exaggerating, but they’d definitely been worn at someone’s wedding and you could tell.  I was pretty angry, but then again, I’d gotten real bargain so there wasn’t much I could do about it.  I kept looking for another pair of shoes while I tried to determine whether a solution existed to my filthy shoe problem.  I knew better than to try to clean satin shoes myself, but I did take a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser to them in the small hope it would work- it didn’t.  So next I took them to my dry cleaner who gave them a once-over, but the shoes still looked worn.  I simply couldn’t wear them as-is.

At this point, I did what any sensible girl would do, I gave up and felt sorry for myself.  Fortunately, I have a good friend L. who suggested that I try calling the Manolo Blahnik flagship here in NY to see if they offer repair service.  I gave it a try and learned that actually, Manolo sends all their shoes to this incredible place called the Leather Spa.  The Leather Spa is exactly what it sounds like, a fancy place where fancy people take their fancy shoes to be repaired.  Nestled in a small storefront on 55th Street, its the kind of place I would have thought I was too poor to go into, thanks CitiBank caters to only an ultra high class clientele (i.e., not me).  I decided, however, to give it a shot.  I took my Manolos there to be cleaned up (and I brought my shoe clips too, hoping they might be able to attach them somehow).  It set me back about $60, so I definitely wouldn’t recommend them for an inexpensive pair of shoes- but my oh my oh my, what a good job they did!

The shoes came back SPOTLESS, even on the soles, which were shockingly, totally like new.  They completely replaced the heel rubber, cleaned every inch, and attached my shoe clips seamlessly.  I was floored!  And thrilled!  I’m so glad I listened to L. and tried Leather Spa!  Now I’m debating whether I should take them back after the wedding to have them dyed black (or maybe a bold, crazy color like plum?)!  And what makes me feel really good is knowing that even with the extra expense of cleaning, these shoes ended up at about the same price as a pair of Stuart Weitzmans.  Manolo for the price of Stuart?  Yes, please!

And that’s the story of how I got my “vintage” and customized Manolos to wear for my wedding.  Reese lovers unite!

**As an aside, I now believe there are tiny magical shoe elves working at Leather Spa**