LeDandy came to terms with his inner demons while staying at the Peppermill Hotel / Casino in Reno earlier in the week. No, the addiction wasn't gambling. It was shoes. This shouldn't come as a surprise to you as I made a confession sometime ago on this blog. I admitted that I am shoe fanatic. Well, a few days ago I did something about it. I bought more shoes!
Two shoe auctions ended while I was at the Peppermill. Both are the vintage, low vamp Braganos which come up infrequently on eBay. For my size (8 Med), I've only seen them twice over the last three years for auction. These shoes are about fifteen years old or more and I'm sure they will be harder to find as time passes. Hence my aggressive stance towards getting these babies.
My first pair is the reason for this post's title. The woven style shown above is known as Bragano's St. Tropez model. LeDandy discussed this specific model in his July 13, 2007 post,
"No, I do not like it. Not really my style. Just because others want the St. Tropez doesn't mean I have to like it. This type of shoe is something you'd see on old episodes of Miami Vice."Ok, I lied. Now I like it.
I paid dearly for these shoes as there were three other motivated bidders. Based on the rarity of these shoes, I was willing to go up to $125. My winning bid was $111. Hence, JD cried. Actually he didn't but he should have cried at that price. The highest price I ever paid before for used shoes was $50 for a display pair of Allen-Edmonds.
One pair down and another pair still up for auction. Another seller had the old Bragano tuxedo slipper ("Bologna") which has a much lower cut than the contemporary models. This shoe, in my opinion, is actually more desirable than the St. Tropez model. Unfortunately I didn't have much left over in terms of money from the prior auction. My limit was $30 for this pair. This pair is actually a 7.5, not an 8. Low vamp loafers are quite forgiving in terms of fit and the old blue label Braganos usually run a tad large. I was not optimistic but hoped the 7.5 size might throw people off. 
I was ecstatic when I found out that I got this pair for $22. The shoe gods were with LeDandy.
As I said, no one died from this experience. If I get one more pair of shoes, this situation may change.
Have I ever told you about the old Polo opera pumps? LeDandy may not have long to live!
