30th August '17: 'But I want RED shoes…'

Hello from Wednesday.
Yesterday it was wellies, today it’s shoes. My earliest shoe memory is going to Gillinghams, a quirky, box-lined shop in Fulham, and wondering why they NEVER had coloured shoes in my size.
To this day I can still picture Shirley, the kindly assistant, shaking her head as I pointed and pleaded for red, for pink – ANYTHING but black or navy. I was four. My mum later confessed that she’d always go down as advanced party and select a shortlist of ‘sensible’ Start-Rite choices that I was not to be allowed to deviate from. Perhaps this limited palette is why my footwear choices have become the antithesis of that famous Ford slogan: in my case, ‘Any colour as long as it’s NOT black’ (what I wouldn’t have done for a pair as pretty as these (bottom right). What are your first shoe memories?
Martha, The Colour File x

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