The Perfect Fit
What your shoes say about you
by Meghan Cleary
"I wanted to buy something to celebrate," she said. "The sales people at Jimmy Choo were so sweet. I tried on these shoes in the store, and I looked at the price tag...it was $900. But I was already sold."
Only a true shoe lover would understand, and Cleary definitely qualifies. The 33-year-old Michigan native, now a resident of New York, owns 70 pairs of shoes, has written columns about shoes and is now touring to promote her first release, The Perfect Fit: What Your Shoes Say about You.
In case you've ever wondered, your shoes really do speak volumes. Cleary had always suspected as much; she knew she took on certain characteristics based on the shoes she was wearing.
While shopping a novel, her agent suggested she turn her interest in shoes into a book proposal. After several rounds of tweaking, Chronicle Books picked it up in 2003. Then the real work began.
"Writing the text is only one step," said Cleary, a 1989 graduate of Mercy High School in Farmington Hills. "There's illustrations - my book has a lot of illustrations - and the design."
Some of the book is based on Cleary's own passion for shoes, but she also interviewed countless women, took shoe-making classes and visited with shoe manufacturers. What she learned confirmed her theory that shoes can make women feel differently about themselves.
One aspect of her survey results stood out. "They all said they had this one pair of stiletto heels that, when they wore them, they felt they were rocking the house - even if they only wore them once a year," Cleary said. "That's the idea behind 'invoking your inner stiletto'."
Amazingly, there are women in New York who can wear stilettos and rush down the sidewalk, while carrying bags of groceries or even their children. Cleary said her shoe collection is split down the middle; ballet shoes for comfort, heels for style.
Remember that $900 pair of shoes? Mauve three-and-a-half-inch stiletto heels.
"Those shoes are my symbol," Cleary said. "I've only worn them four times. They sit on my dresser."
To learn more about Meghan Cleary and Perfect Fit, visit her website.