Meet Charles & Keith

As usual, my Singapore trip was another toxic, sleep-depriving, must-remain-intellectual-at-all-times kind of trip. And like in any of my travels, I always hope there's that 1hour break I can manage to shop for shoes.

For the first time ever, I packed very light (key is to pack dresses and one fierce shoes!) to give space for all the goodies I'm bringing to my colleagues from all over SouthEast Asia (they love the vegetarian pork rind "chicharon" and some mangorind candies - combination of Philippine mango and tamarind). In fact, I brought so much that I had an extra overnight bag. I never expected to go home with the same luggage weight.

I guess it was "meant to be" - on the first day, my Steve Maddens failed me for the 2nd time. It got ripped just as I was presenting in front of a boardroom of highly charged, mentally superior group of people (I was the first to present). So needless to say, I NEEDED to buy a replacement pair. And as always, Mr Charles and Mr Keith were ever reliable.

These light gold sandals were the perfect shade, the perfect cut! Bought it in 20min flat, while the shop was closing. It was not on sale, but still not bad at only S$53 (about USD35). I went home to my hotel very happy.


But my pretty Thai friend was much happier, carrying 4 bags worth of 11 pairs of shoes. Look at that smile - no boyfriend can put that kind of smile on any woman's face!

And look at her loot. She actually had to request for 2 FedEx boxes and we spent our last night packing away (convinced her to keep the boxes so the shoes wont get damaged en route to Bangkok).

Two of our pairs were exactly alike. The black criss cross at the lower right of the photo above had a hot pink version which somehow didn't suit me as well, but I was so tempted to buy them. The pretty friend was very "mad" at me for constantly saying "super nice" with all the pairs she tried on (but they WERE super nice on her lovely white feet!).


Not to say, I didn't have my own share. Just 6 pairs (compared to her 11 - I'm obviously trying to lessen my guilt), though not counting the flat sandals I bought from Rubi.

All were from Charles&Keith except for the disco ball silver shoes from Rubi.


My fave pair from this splurge --

This brand has evolved so much in the past years. With fiercer designs, I look forward to more meet ups with these guys.

Friend says this shoe shopping will last her a year. I said "yeah right". Perhaps I was giving myself a reason not to abide by her rule?

all shoes ave price of S$29, 5 from C&K, 1 from Rubi

16 pairs down

Spring cleaning more than 10 years worth of stuff (er, junk) has brought me to weed out 16 pairs of shoes. Wow. Not amazed by the number of pairs I've amassed (obviously gone past that already), but I'm awed by how much my taste and sense of adventure in shoes have changed! 


Goodbye to chunky heels, adieu to squarish toes, farewell to 2inches and lower.

Rarely or over-used clothes also went in to the pile --

Kinda deadly if you ask me. I have this feeling I have every right to replace those sixteen pairs in one go.