*Note: this book was so inspiring that I will be sharing my very own shoe story here on the blog soon!*
Our Shoes, Our Selves by Bridget Moynahan and Amanda Benchley is a beautifully photographed (shout out to Melanie Dunea), coffee-table style book, but you don’t want to skim over the text because it’s just as impactful.
For the book, actress Moynahan and journalist Benchley asked 40 women to tell the story behind their most meaningful pair of shoes. The women are a diverse group (visibly, but also in their backgrounds and careers) including names like Katie Couric, Rachael Ray, Barbara Bush, Christy Turlington Burns, Padma Lakshmi and Rhonda Rousey. I cried when I read about the ice skates given to Rosie Perez by a nun at the children’s house where she was living, and smiled knowingly when my favourite author and podcaster Gretchen Rubin shared that she’s really not that interested in shoes (so Gretchen).
In Moynahan’s own story, she tells of the black Miu Miu leather motorcycle boots she purchased when hiding from paparazzi at an L.A. mall. She had been hounded since announcing her pregnancy (she had already split from her football star boyfriend, who had moved on with a successful model – yes, Tom and Gisele) right through into motherhood of her son. “I decided that these boots would give me back some of the confidence and strength I had lost – lost from a very public breakup; lost from having a baby on my own; lost from two surgeries to correct hernias from having my baby; lost from not losing baby weight because the two surgeries kept me from recovering; lost from feeling incessantly violated by the paparazzi.”
As I mentioned off the top, I am currently working on my own shoe story which I will be sharing here soon (I’m teaming up with my fellow blogger Jenna MacDonald from There’s a Shoe For That who is doing the same) and we’re encouraging all of you to consider your own shoe story. Take a photo, think about the meaning, and be ready to share, even through something as simple as a post on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter. Once our stories are live, we’ll share the hashtag and how to tag us so we can all see each other’s stories.
Thanks for the inspiration, Bridget and Amanda!
For more information or to purchase (did I mention how beautiful the full-colour photography is?):