A dream shoe or an aspirational shoe is a form of footwear that takes your breath away. It invokes a fantasy, not of what you are, what you want to be or even the very best version of yourself. But rather a fantasy of something that you are not. You secretly dream you could be. You are ashamed to acknowledge that you wish to wear this shoe. In reality you don’t buy it, even if you could afford it, because you don’t believe you are the personality to carry it off.

Since I am writing a novel inspired by shoes, I need to come up a dream shoe that does all the things that I described above to my fictional character. I have been scouring shoe shops all over looking for a shoe that would make me gasp. Something that would both inspire yet frustrate my protagonist. Haunt her dreams. Taunt her when she is day dreaming. Despite my tireless efforts, I haven’t found the right pair to describe in my novel. I don’t want to write a novel like My Brilliant Friend where a shoe plays an important part in the the plot and yet is never described. I found that endlessly frustrating. I need to visualize the shoe. It needs to be a concrete thing that I can almost touch between my hands and almost sense on the soles of my feet.

Luckily, in the world of fiction, if it doesn’t exist in the real world, you get to invent it. I came up with three different ideas for a dream shoe. I need you to help me decide which one I should use in my novel. Have a look all three designs and then vote for your favorite in the survey at the bottom of this blog post. Do you have a dream shoe? Please suggest it in the comment section.

Dream Shoe Concept #1: Ouch!

I came up with this idea in 2010, during a visit to a shoe art exhibit. The idea being that beauty is painful like a rose. It looks nice, smells nice and yet it can prick your finger and make you bleed. We all know that wearing high heels is a form of torture. And yet we choose to walk in these things with hopes embodying some beauty idea. This shoe has roses and prickly studs all over. Then an ankle wrap with more rock studs.

Dream Shoe Concept #2: Ribbon

This one is inspired by the idea of a winner of a competition. A type of highly coveted prize ribbon that was earned after a nail biting race. The ribbon would have something written on it that the wearer wishes to be walking towards. A word such as: success, joy or winner. In my imagination this shoe is purple and the ribbon is pink.

Dream Shoe Concept #3: Peacock Feather

A blue shoe with a single peacock feather impossibly flowing upright from the back. I can imagine the feather delicately flowing in the wind as the wearer walks around with it. Flapping against the calf and bouncing back into position. I can hear you saying: “But that is impossible, something like that would get damaged after a single wear.” I am not a shoe designer and neither is the protagonist of my novel. I don’t have to figure how this would be made practical. Let’s imagine that through some technology magic, some shoe designer figures it out. The idea that beauty is a delicate yet nearly impossible thing to achieve is served by this idea. My only reservation with this idea that I already used a peacock feather theme in my novel Graffiti Hack. I don’t like to recycle themes in my novels.

So which concept is your favorite?

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