Surprise Sneakers for Jeans
Plus, coffee with Somsack in Madrid.
I’ll get to all of the great Spanish zapatillas in a sec, but first, look who came to town – Alex Mill’s creative director
, writer of the ever-clever Somstack Substack and maker of my absolute favorite jeans for guys.
It was great to see him. (An American designer in Madrid! Some common ground with another human for the first time in weeks!) Over coffee at La Duquesita, Somsack and I talked about jeans and what we’d been seeing on the streets. I told him where I’ve been shopping – up and down Calle de Barquillo and in the dime-sized shops that punctuate Barrio de las Letras; Serrano Street, for Loewe etc. I showed him my new sneakers: Spalwarts from a small, multi-brand store around the corner called Mott. (They’re Swedish and you can get them at La Garçonne, I’ve since learned, but in very limited styes and colors). I had originally wanted the mossy green Marathon (pictured below). But the store only had my size in Pigeon Blue and now I haven’t stopped wearing them for a week. Somsack approved.
I have an essay stirring in me about what seeing new and unfamiliar clothes feels like when you’ve become desensitized/programmed by the ubiquity of a global fashion industry (hint: It’s exciting!), but for today I’m going to keep it simple. My mental capacity is pretty maxed out. Organizing life with small kids in a foreign country – while trying to learn & practice a new language – turns even the simplest tasks (parking, buying tickets to the school play) into tedious micro-challenges. Over the course of a day, they add up. And my brain gets tired. It actually reminds me of how I felt postpartum – disastrously slow to respond. Not foggy, per se, but big observations about how one’s surroundings condition perceptions of beauty and shift the eye by degrees both minor and massive isn’t something I can really cover at this time. (Although, the sneakers I bought are probably a result of that phenomenon, you’ll see.)
So, let’s just talk about sneakers today. Raise your hand if you’ve heard of Hoff? Me, neither, until I got here and started looking at women’s feet. Hoff is a Spanish brand that launched in 2017. It makes casual shoes for men and women (I like them for men a lot, btw). They have a store on Calle Velázquez, so I went. It was busy. Here I am taking a photo of myself in a busy store on a fancy street Spain:
I bought these Hoffs. They feel a tad out of character, but I am living more than a tad out of character at the moment and it’s interesting to use clothes as a way of becoming one with a place. (Some people do this by eating the local cuisine; I get there via footwear.) I like the neon orange sole and New Balance-like profile of the Bangkoks. The brand makes other styles, lower and more mesh-y, that appeal to me less. It doesn’t matter how far away from home I am, I’m not about to start wearing neon sneakers. (Though these are really cute for some.)
I suspect I’m sticking to sneakers because I’m not yet interested in buying new clothes. In fact, I’m clinging to my mainstays – the J.Crew sweater I have in three colors, the white tee I bought in multiples before I left, my Rachel Comey handy pants, my R13s, these DL1961s, and the TOJ Bobs. These things all ground me and require very little thought. I’m glad about that and love my new shoes.
That’s all for today. It’s my son’s 4th birthday and we’re going to the Zoo Aquarium de Madrid. Wish me luck (with parking, especially). Thanks for reading. Thanks for hitting the heart button. Do these sneakers look crazy to all of you over there in the States? Is my life-semester abroad in Madrid even interesting? I haven’t forgotten about jeans, I’ll have some newness soon. In the meantime, these from Re/Done go with every pair of sneakers under the sun. As always, wherever, Denim Forever.
Jane
More to read…
Wait. I’m in Spain? Here’s why.
This Alex Mill jean is beloved by so many women I know.
Wow. These readers were a hit.
Love the lace socks. Super cute with sneakers.
Yes! Keep the dispatches coming.