Lucy Parker on Fashion Shoes - Confessions of a Footwear Fanatic

Lucy Parker is DUO’s very own expert on all aspects of the wonderful world of ladies boots. Lucy is a self confessed footwear fanatic, who for years has been an ardent fan of DUO’s perfectly fitting boots and shoes. From her footwear-filled home Lucy has agreed to regularly give us an insider view on a life stuffed to the brim with family, work, friends… and footwear!

Shopping for fashionable school shoes... will I survive?
 

So I’m back from France and fully rested... aaah bliss. The weather on holiday was amazing, so hot that I spent the entire time padding around in bare feet. Sadly the exchange rate is so bad at the moment we avoided eating out and painting the town red – not so many opportunities to show off my beautiful designer shoes.

Everything in the garden has shot up while we were away. Plenty of sunshine and the odd splash of rain have done wonders for my veg patch. Unfortunately the children also appear to be growing at a rate of knots at the moment, and so do their feet, which means the dreaded bi-annual ‘school shoes vs. fashion shoes battle’ has once again commenced.

Ellie, who is just turning 12, is at that difficult age where my footwear choices are no longer acceptable. We trawl around every shoe shop in town in search of the perfect compromise: school shoes which fit her well and satisfy my parental demands, but which are also fashion shoes, to be ‘cool’ and draw admiring gasps from her classmates when unveiled in the classroom. Ellie has inherited my passion for fashion shoes, and has more pairs of party shoes than I sensibly like to admit for a child of her age.

Despite the tough brief, I’m always up for a spot of shoe shopping as you know (my husband made me promise I would resist the urge to buy for myself this time). So on Saturday we headed out in search of the perfect fashion shoes/school shoes for my scarily style-aware daughter. We parked up in town and I was promptly dragged into all her favourite fashion shoe stores. This season’s offerings are eye-poppingly gorgeous – I am absolutely loving all those pillar box reds and florals, plus those vibrant retro shades that were bombarding us from the shelves. It took all my self-control and willpower not to indulge in some serious personal retail therapy before we’d worked half way up the high street.

After a fruitless search in a succession of hectic, noisy stores we grabbed a quick skinny latte and fell through the welcoming doors of Duo. Friendly staff instantly whisked us to a soft sofa and for the first time that morning I took the weight off my feet and really started to enjoy myself. Duo is my style of shoe shop and has never let me down in a shoe crisis.

Ellie’s quest for the perfect fashion shoes is hampered by the eagle eyes of her draconian headmistress who can spot a cheeky kitten heel at a thousand paces. With navy, black or brown as the uniform standard our choice is somewhat limited. Thankfully Duo came up trumps (thanks girls!). Ellie would have gladly walked out with black suede Nicole from the width fit shoe range, and we fought long and hard over Leah in black leather. We finally settled on a really pretty flat style Ashley in patent black. Thank goodness the search was over.

Twenty minutes later we both left the store with broad smiles on our faces.  Ellie’s due to her school shoes/fashion shoes triumph.  Mine thanks to a pair of satin slingbacks in blue called Clementine which I simply could not resist. Ah well – every girl has to bend the rules once in a while!