The Adventure of the Interview Shoes

November 11, 2006 1:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

The adventure began moments after the purchase of my new espresso brown pantsuit (I prefer the the word "pantsuit," as I find it lends the appropriate amount of humor to the situation). I decided on brown. The choice of the radical and non-traditional brown, instead of the conservative black or blue that I had been advised to purchase, is my own way of saying "take that, The Man, you will not oppress my spirit with your conformist demands - I violently rebel against you and all that you stand for with the revolutionary choice of my tasteful espresso brown pantsuit!" Fully satisfied with my personal victory over the evils of modern society, I proceeded downstairs to the Nordsroms shoe department.

Now, before I proceed with the Adventure, I must put you in my shoes, as it were. Imagine that you are a 6'1/2" young lady who is in possession of a sturdy pair of slightly mismatched feet that are both significantly larger than what is carried by most shoe stores. You have the unfortunate distinction of landing somewhere between size 11.5 and size 12, depending on which foot we are measuring. You have noted over the years that all of the really attractive, cute shoes that the other young ladies wear usually stop at size 10, and you had long ago resigned yourself, as a size 10.5-wearing 7th grader, to only purchase men's sneakers. You remember with a cringe the time when you were renting bowling shoes and the shoe rental guy laughed and exclaimed "are you going water skiing?!" Fast forward to today, when you are the proud new owner of a very professional espresso brown pantsuit, searching for a matching pair of enormous brown ladies dress shoes.

Imagine when, to your dismay, the only shoes the petite young sales girl brings you either have alligator skin stripes, garish gold buckles, 3 inch heels, or cost $400. I'm not kidding - the only non-hideous shoes that fit me cost $400. The nice young lady suggested that I might return my freedom-fighting espresso brown pantsuit in exchange for something that would match with black shoes (presumably something black).

Undaunted, I took my business to a different shoe emporium, only to find one single pair of size 11 shoes in the entire store. And they were black. And still too small. The next store brought no more luck. Fortunately, my wanderings through downtown Portland brought me to the large-footed lady's paradise: Nordstroms Rack. The same store I had spent hours in the day before looking for suits. And lo and behold, what was going on at the Rack, but that festival of light devoted to the freakishly tall, the Large Size Shoe Event. It was a sign from the heavens. And sure enough, I found and purchased one pair of professional-looking brown ladies dress shoes that happened to fit.

I call them my Colonial Gentleman Brigoons. They are ideally worn with white knee socks, blue knickerbockers, and a powdered wig. But, given the circumstances, my espresso brown interview pantsuit will have to suffice.

6 Comments

Tom said:

Nice! Could you photograph your shoes with a penny or something so we can appreciate their size?

November 12, 2006 6:40 PM

Alexia said:

Yay brown! I am in the midst of medical school interviews and I picked brown as well. At one interview, everyone, minus myself and one other, wore black. And instead of feeling uncomfortable that I was "the odd one out" I felt proud to not be one of them.
And also, how did you go through med school interviews without a suit?

November 17, 2006 7:29 PM

Ian Bullock said:

At my Nottingham interview we had a guy with dreadlocks and a dirty white T-shirt. (He didn't get an offer)

November 19, 2006 2:52 PM

fifi said:

I suppose boots would have been out of the question? I think they are more versatile than "dress shoes". I feel for you, I really do. There really ought to be no excuse in this day and age, for shops only catering for average-size people.

November 21, 2006 12:48 PM

Kimberly Butler said:

I am crying from laughing so hard... I have no idea how I came across your blog and I know that this entry is a bit dated, but I just went through nearly the exact same thing this afternoon and have to share!

I am also tall 6'0'' and so I don't expect anything to fit... I heard that Anne Taylor sells tall stuff online so I decided to start there... bad idea... my boyfriends first comment after I exited the dressing room in my first ever suit was something like "... um... couldn't you just wear a nice pair of slacks and a shirt?" it looked so horrible and shrunken that I nearly cried...

after a switch of shopping partners and a couple of other mistaken stores I also ended up at Nordstroms... and my second suit on was also chocolate brown or "espresso" as you so aptly put it :)

I was almost instantly sold... questioned the color for a second and then ran with it.

I then also proceeded to the shoe department... I think I found the same shoes you did (I wear an 11 :( ) with the giant pendant on the front... I looked and considered just pulling it off but wasn't brave enough to buy a 100 dollar pair of shoes just to deface them.

I'm still shoeless... but my interview isn't for 2 weeks so I should find something before then...

Thank you for your humor!

Kim

January 27, 2008 10:57 PM