Loafer Around - my Sunday Ode to Loafers, including a review of the Toni Tassle Loafer

If a man walks in the woods for love of them half of each day, he is in danger of being regarded as a loafer. But if he spends his days as a speculator, shearing off those woods and making the earth bald before her time, he is deemed an industrious and enterprising citizen.

Thoreau

Ah - too often in my life I am an industrious and enterprising citizen - I work long hours on behalf of the people of my province and I do my best.  But Sundays - Sundays are a good time to loaf - to walk in the woods, read a good book, catch up with family, cook a nice, leisurely meal...

Thoreau's principle applies as well to fashion, if you ask me.  How many times in the week when I am wearing heels and fancy garb do I think "Oh! to be in my converse sneakers and sweat pants!"

The loafer, dear friends, is fashion's gift to us.  It is the shoe that feels like a Sunday that can be worn Monday to Friday!

I have a small loafer collection, two pairs of which were added this fall: the Aldo Leopard Print loafer and the J Crew Toni Tassle Loafer.  You have seen a bit of the leopard print loafers already this month, so I will not dwell on them, except to say that they are comfortable and I are giving me much joy!

The Cole Haan black patent penny loafers were purchased last summer in Freeport Maine at the outlet there.  They need a little spit and polish - I wore them out Friday night after work with my jeans and wandered all over downtown and in dusty/grassy tents, listening to music!  They are very comfortable!

The green velvet loafers were purchased online last December from the Cole Haan website.  I love the colour - they are really Christmas-y in many ways, but I may trot them out a few times this fall to wear with my jeans or my boulevard green minnie pants.  They are very comfortable with their quilted, padded lining and I get a lot of compliments about them!

My latest acquisition was one I hemmed and hawwed over earlier this month: the Toni Tassle Loafers in Champagne, which were recently on promo (I think they still are though they seem off the site this a.m. - they are sure to popback - everything does eventually - we will likely see Marissa in there at some point!) and with the 30% off promo on top of the site promo, the price came in at a reasonable $130 CDN.

As you know, they come in a couple of colourways, but given my fall colour stories, one of which had a lot of pinks and burgundy, the champagne version seemed best.  This is a comfortable shoe - I wore it with bare feet on Friday to work and did pretty well until late in the day (I always have to break any new shoes in hours at a time as my feet are so persnickety!).  They are all leather and so breathe very nicely!

The "champagne" colourway is not really champagne at all, unless you are thinking of a kir royale cocktail - there are definite pinky undertones in that champagne colour!  The burgundy tassle and toe are very pretty. I got a lot of compliments about these.

I paired them Friday with my superfine cotton suit in beechwood and a jackie shell in sweet pink.  It was still so hot!  I kept the jacket on for Friday night's fesitivities, pairing it with a coldplay tshirt, a big scarf, jeans and my back loafers.

A close-up shot of these on, which my husband thought was very odd...  I bought these in 6.5, which is my typical size for loafers or ballet flats, so I would say they fit TTS.  If you can catch these on an additional 20 to 30% off, I would say they are a good quality and attractive shoe that is very comfortable and thus worth the price.

***************************

Finally, a shot of what I wore to work on Thursday.  As I have noted, we had a bit of an Indian Summer here late last week - Thursday hit 80+/32+!

As you know, I was quite taken with this shot from the website:

Now, I am unlikely to wear a peach sweater wrapped around my waist at work (or elsewhere actually, unless I am taking a hike or walk and get warm!) so I decided to shop the closet and see if I could recreate the essence of this outfit:

I paired my lilac featherweight cashmere sweater, which is a couple of years old and still in excellent shape, with a lightweight silk blouse, the citrus No. 2 cotton pencil skirt and my greeny-blue Valentina slingbacks.  I thought of trying to recreate the shot but

a) husband would think I am crazy; and
b) my knees are not so great now and I am unsure how easily I would have gotten back up!

However, I was quite pleased with the effect and this is an outfit I will dig out again in Spring!

I hope you all have a delightful Sunday which involves much loafing around!