minirobot

(Olivia Morris paint-by-numbers boot as featured in Nylon Magazine, March 2003)

I have started a new category entitled, ‘the one(s) that got away’, in honour of those beautiful creations that I’ve let slip through my fingers over the years.

In this first installment, I recall the Olivia Morris DIY collection with the paint-by-numbers boot and sandal. This boot was featured in Nylon’s March 2003 issue - at which time, I probably marvelled a resolute, “COOL!” I lost a couple eBay auctions from Australia on the sandal version (one auction wasn’t even my size) sometime after seeing them in Nylon, and I have been searching for them in vain since. It is almost as if they have vanished without a trace, the few made probably stashed in the deep closets of a few lucky shoe-lovers, destined to be rarely worn but highly prized, and never would their owners consider getting rid of them - to my dismay.

I couldn’t even find an image on the internet of the hallowed DIY “blank canvas” boot she did from the same season. I thought to myself, “She should re-issue them,” but then came to the conclusion that some things should be kept in the past and quietly pined for, gaining a kind of folkloric status over time. These shoes certainly would be deserving of that.

Since then I have carried on, settling for a lesser but no less worthy object of affection: a pair of bronze t-bar flat sandals from her s/s 2005 collection (that I’ve worn to death and even had resoled already).

Ah, love, in its many incarnations, invariably contains an element of tragedy, doesn’t it?