On the Prowl

After my most recent trip to London, my friends and I had the pleasure of doing some leisurely shopping and happened to go into a Bertie Shoe store near Covent Garden. Having never heard of Bertie shoes, I was weary of really knowing whether I was buying quality or shabby shoes at quality prices. The shoes in there were nice and I tried on a couple of pairs but after doing the exchange rate, I could not justify purchasing shoes that I could probably get in the States for half of the asking price. So I mustered up the self-restraint and told myself that I did not travel all that way to buy shoes - and walked away. Walked away from two really cute looking pairs of shoes.

But now, in my 'not-so-busy' hours at work, I find myself surfing. Surfing for Christmas gifts, surfing for deals, surfing for shoes. I told myself that I really needed a pair of brown/tan shoes. While looking online, I decided to see if I could find the two strap mary-janes that seem to be the "it" shoe of Winter 2007 (reference picture - Miu Miu). I found a couple but they weren't quite the same. Two people at the wedding, a guest and a bridesmaid, happen to be wearing the black patent leather version and they both got it in two different places - one was at a British version of "Payless' because she said she paid something unreal, like 12 GBPs for hers and they were comfortable! The other gal bought hers in Japan for $100. I probably would've leaned toward the $100 but my comfort zone is definitely somewhere between $40-80 for a pair of these shoes.

So I've looked at Nine West, Steve Madden, Piper Lime - done general searches and I think I'm just going to have to suck it up and search for it as a 'side project' while I do my Christmas shopping at the mall.
I hope I find them - I really do like them...and I hope I find my brown shoes too. I seem to have an over saturation of black patent leather shoes right now in the closet - but then again, you can never have too many shoes, right?

I'm taking suggestions - if anyone knows where I can find a good pair of double/two-strap mary janes, I'm all ears!