I Really Don’t Get It.

So I am not what one would call “fashion forward” and may not be the best judge of what is hip. Do we still say hip? I don’t really follow what is trendy in fashion/pop culture because I know most women only look good in 5% of what celebrities are actually wearing. I prefer comfort over style and hate shopping and spending a lot of money on clothes unless I can wear that piece of clothing all the time and with pretty much everything else I own. I tend to stay in the neutral color tones and am content wearing many different shades of grey, black, green & blue. I adore fashion shows, but when I watch things like Project Runway I only agree with the judges 30% of the time. And as we speak I am sitting in yoga pants, green & blue argyle knee socks, pink slippers, a red sweatshirt, and I have a multi-color piece of random fabric in my hair in place of a headband because I love it.

See, I love my fabric headband….

My point is, I get it….I am not the best judge of fashion. But I do know when something doesn’t make sense and should be removed from the stores promptly and that is why I have to say I just do not for the life of me get Gladiator Sandals and/or Gladiator Boots.

Now I know these came out a couple years ago, but I had really hoped it was just a phase and a bad judgment call by some designers and they would be gone by now and after one season we would never see them again. But they are still around and becoming ridiculous!

OK, maybe a simple and semi-understated gladiator sandal like this…

......would look good on some people (especially when worn with jeans). But I just don't get them in general, I mean isn't the idea to elongate your legs and not cut them off at the ankles? These shoes definitely cut off your legs when you wear them with anything other than jeans.  If you do not have large calves, are the right height, the right age, and have great legs these would look "good" on you. But then they (the crazy designers of the fashion world)  went from a simple shoe to a shoe that now has a life of its own.

SEE!

Now they are like part boot, part leg warmer, part sandal, part S&M shoe, part where is the rest of your shoe, and part WTF is going on with your legs?!?!?! IT IS TOO MUCH   There is a difference between cute strappy sandal (which I like) and an unfinished one that cuts your legs in weird places. Seriously, where is the rest of my shoe?! If I am wearing a shoe that in theory is suppose to come up anywhere from your ankle to mid calf I want the whole shoe that I am paying for….not just pieces of it. It looks like the shell of what could be a cool shoe but was never finished because the cobbler left for Mojitos and passed out the night before the shoes were to be displayed at Fashion Week. And now we are left with pieces of shoes that look very uncomfortable, have no arch support (which is important in my older age), and makes your calves look like sausages.

And the worst part is that even though the celebrities may be starting to move on to other styles (though someone needs to take all of the Olsen twins gladiator shoes away from them STAT) now the general public is starting to wear these shoes more often and I have to tell you…..it ain’t pretty.  Maybe because I live in a college town and I am exposed to girls who study the “show” Jersey Shore instead of studying where Jersey is on a map, I feel like this particular bad fashion is everywhere I look. And unfortunately mama isn’t there to tell Brittni she doesn't look like a greek goddess but rather the court jester; and instead she has a bunch of drunk girlfriends who are going to let her go out in public wearing those dreadful shoes and flattering her on how great they look because they saw Audrina where them on The Hills and she looked awesome.

Sigh

So my point of this post?  If you can pull the more simple ones off in a fashionable way, please do.  I guess I just do not like seeing 20 year olds squeeze their legs into these while they wear cotton shorts with BGSU on the butt, a too tight tank, and a scarf.  There are other people to get your fashion image from other than girls from The Hills.