My Evil Shoes

We can safely say spring is here! With that comes an urge to clear out the old, making room for the new. Unearthing the warm weather pieces you forgot about is like finding money in an old coat (OK, maybe not exactly, but you could find that too!). For many of us, this cleansing takes the form of both mental and physical - as the memories associated with these items run through your thoughts.

Ludlow began her project a couple of weeks ago. Her shoe obsession had become a space problem, leaving her to rationalize each pair in her inventory. It was then that she stumbled upon them. 

The pair Ludlow had buried back in 2006 after a steep fall from grace. Like many things in her closet, she couldn't quite let them go. Besides, they had cost too much to give away. They were Jimmy Choos! They'll probably come back in style! 

The culprit(s)

What's that you ask? OK... we'll tell you so that we may save you from a similar fate:

In the fall of 2006, before the financial crises the world was a happier place. Blissful economic ignorance pervaded. Ludlow was living in London and traveled to Greece to present to a group of investors. Included in her suitcase was a new pair of shoes from the Jimmy Choo A/W 2006 collection. Due to their height, she couldn't walk very fast in them, but speed is usually a reasonable cost for fashion.

The morning after her arrival Ludlow walked up to the stage in her Jimmy Choos and launched in to her presentation. At it's conclusion, the Q&A session started. She listened to the first question, and in an effort to engage her audience, took a few steps closer to them while starting her answer.... and then, she walked a bit too far. 

She stopped feeling the ground under one foot and immediately began trying to balance backward. She couldn't manage it and fell right off the front of the stage. That's right. As she fell, she could hear the entire room in unison go "ah". 

She landed on her feet, with the first row of the audience stopping the momentum from the fall.  The entire room froze. Ludlow looked at a colleague in shock. He looked back in shock, then mouthed the words "are you okay?!". Ludlow nodded and pulled herself together, slowly walking back to stage left, up the short set of stairs and back on the stage. 

"As I was saying, the current environment lends itself to..." Right then the audience rose to their feet and clapped. A standing ovation! Ludlow curtsied in thanks. Then she noticed, in the back of the room, were the rest of her colleagues, red with laughter. Ludlow had to fight not to laugh as hard as them.

Later, a mortified Ludlow mustered up the courage to mingle with the lunch crowd. The guy next to her said, in between drags of his cigarette (it is Greece after all!): "We won't forget you now! Don't worry, you were just nervous. A very good presentation otherwise."


Ludlow wasn't nervous. She was just klutzy... and in a new pair of shoes with Mt. Everest-like views. Readers, please note: only wear shoes you've already test driven for a speaking event!

Lesson learned... these things are going in the goodwill pile.