Tales From The Swap Party

So the gals got together this weekend for our quarterly swap party.

If you haven't done this, it's a great way to purge and then, ahem, refill your closet. More than that, it's a fun excuse to hang with all your fashionable friends.

Now, each of us has a bit of a problem letting go, which is understandable. Some of us even have a problem when it's not even our own stuff.

"Awwww, Jess! You're getting rid of these?" I picked up one of the yellow d'orsay Chinese Laundry wedge pumps.

They stood out because A) they're yellow and B) my friend Jessica was wearing them the first time I met her at her now-closed shoe store, Stems (I feel like I ought to make the sign of the cross when I write that. It was as big a loss as losing an actual person.)

I had a shoedrobe epiphany that day — that you could wear any color of shoes you wanted, the brighter the better, because the more they don't seem to go with the rest of the outfit, the more they actually do.

I loved those shoes, ended up buying the last pair in size 7.5 even though they were a little big.

Jessica didn't really want to purge 'em, but after having her baby last year, these shoes fit too snug and killed her feet.

"Wait!" I rushed off to my closet and plucked my 7.5s off the shelf, then handed them to her.

"They're perfect," Jessica said, slipping them on and wearing them around. She even wore them out the door.

A funny moment. After all the kicks I'd bought from her over the past two years, the, uh, proverbial shoe was now on the other foot.