Stan Smith: A Retrospective

I was going through bouts of anxiety in my lil old cubicle at work the other day, and you know when you circulate your list of worries through your head and each time a worry comes back around, it's more catastrophic than it was before? That was happening to me so I took a walk around my office to ya know, clear my head, a process that usually involves a stop in the kitchen to make tea and dip my hand into the gum jar, then a trip to the bathroom because when you're worrying or procrastinating, there's no place like the bathroom because time doesn't exist in the bathroom. (I came up with this theory in college when I was writing my thesis and looking for ways to procrastinate and started going to the bathroom to braid my hair.) Do you know what I mean? I don't really either but I'm currently 300 pages into Kafka on the Shore and there's a lot of metaphysical, three-dimensional time talk and what can I say, I'm a sponge when it comes to reading da lit-er-a-ture.

So I was in the bathroom, walking around my office, trying to get rid of my anxiety when I looked down at my feet and saw my shoes. Stan Smiths. My first thought was how lucky I am to work in a place where I can wear men's tennis shoes to work and still be taken seriously (I hope I'm being taken seriously, awkward if not). My second was that around this time last year, I thought these shoes were the batshit ugliest things I had ever seen and I wanted no part in the trend.

Ugly in a cute, black and white juxtapositional, way?

And so here it is, a retrospective on the Stan Smiths. I remember first seeing them dispersed throughout street style shots of New York Fashion Week in February. They looked so...white. And bulky. Boat-like, if you will. I was on board with the general Adidas sneaker trend but more partial to darker styles like the Campus (I just Googled them and now I need this ponytail iteration). The Stan Smiths hadn't been worn past the feet of fashion show attendees stateside, but then I went to Paris and blah blah blah Paris, am I right, and I saw them on the feet of both fashion industry folk and (well-dressed) plebs. Regular ladies in Monoprix toting around Vanessa Bruno bags, buying yaout, couscous and whatnot, were wearing Stan Smiths. And theirs weren't bright white but worn-in and clearly well-loved.

By the time I got back to New York and hauled my ass to the Adidas store in SoHo, they were sold out. A shame but never one to accept defeat in a shopping expedition, I found them online. I've been wearing and seeing them increasingly more on the street over the past year. They've been great conversation starters too, like the time a very flamboyant 50-year old man (the hip literary type I aspire to be friends with) complimented them in an elevator, or when a classmate at the acting class I took to find my inner voice told me she loved my shoes. There was also the time I wore them home from Crown Heights but that's an inside joke between me, two rompers, and my roommate.

Just when I thought I had found a favorite sneaker, a new one comes along to covet. Enter the Isabel Marant interpretation of the Stan Smith. They're strikingly similar and you could argue that they're a total copy, but they're branded with Isabel Marant and come in metallic hints and a leopard-print variety. Not going to critique them at all because I'd buy them if I could.

Back 2 Adidas

As I was about to turn off my light last night and bury my face in my mound of pillows, I grabbed my computer and went to Adidas.com. That I acknowledge this was a bizarre thing to do is precisely why I'm writing about it here. I had read an article in the Thursday Styles earlier that day about writer Jason Horowitz's habit for Adidas originals, and at 12:05 AM, I was inspired to follow him in his act of sneaker collecting.

When the Stan Smiths started popping up in seemingly out of context outfits during February fashion week, I scoffed at them. They were ugly and I didn't need white bulky shoes that would make my size 10 feet resemble boats. But then I went to Paris tee-hee and the French were wearing them so I needed them too. Instead of buying white tennis shoes, I bought a pair of navy campus shoes on the Adidas website from my little fifth arrondissement hotel that had very hostel like qualities. My navy shoes and I have gotten along great. We've had quite a blast frolicking around New York City and jaunting to Colorado for a weekend, and I won't forget the memories because there's no marker of a fun time like a permanent beer stain on your shoe.

In the daylight savings city that we now occupy, I've started a lovely post-work habit of bopping down to SoHo and scouring racks of clothes amidst the European tourists who have nothing better to do than go to Zara. (Seriously, why?). In the months and years leading up to now, I had thought the massive Adidas store near the Broadway-Lafayette subway stop to be so "ew, who wears Adidas anymore" and random, but now it's my sneaker mecca. There's a Journeys or something like it next door, where I realized upon entering that I've unintentionally acquired most styles of sneakers that the store offers without ever having shopped there.

To bring this post full circle, the last thing I did last night was look at Adidas originals online, the first thing I did this morning was write 200 words about them, and the first thing I'm doing when I get out of work today is trying on as many white Adidas styles as I can get my hands on at the Adidas store in SoHo.

I won't let my new shoes be the victim of spilled beer.

Here's a tricky Q: what's the plural of Adidas?

Overalls!!

One of my friends turned me on to the prospect of overalls a couple of weeks ago when she recommended I watch In A World. Lake Bell's wardrobe in the movie isn't anything to write home about, but she does sport a pair of overalls that look really comfy and chic in a late '90s kind of way.

I was also watching Mamma Mia on the plane the other day, a movie that could either be construed as the best or worst thing ever. I've seen it maybe 15 times because I own it in my iTunes (I have no idea how it got there), and each time I watch it, I get the urge to break out in song in a pair of overalls à la Meryl Streep. Worth noting that I get the urge to break out in song like, 10 times a day.

To state the obvious, I really want a pair of overalls. I don't consider them to be appropriate attire for the typical 9 to 5 work environment--although they could be at my place of work where lucky for me and the paisley printed velvet pants I wore the other day, anything goes. I feel like overalls are best for a walking the dog occasion, which happens to be one of my least favorite activities unless I have the intention of using my #pudge to meet/stalk/attract members of the opposite sex...in which case I probably shouldn't be wearing a pair of baggy overalls.

My ideal overalls outfit would be a combined channeling of Lake Bell in In A World and myself in 2nd grade when I had a different pair for each day of the week. If a pair of overalls were in my closet right now, I'd wear them to work today with a long-sleeved crewneck shirt and my new Adidas. Add a plaid shirt around my waist for the grunge effect. And an ear cuff. So into ear cuffs right now. And def a backpack.

Adidas Campus shoes, Frame denim overalls, Gap long sleeve crewneck, LL Bean flannel, Campbell ear cuff, The Row backpack

What's the difference between like and love? Because I like my Skechers, but I love my Prada backpack.

I love my Skechers.

That's because you don't have a Prada backpack.

Adidas, or Not

I began seeing Stan Smiths in street style pictures during New York fashion week but didn't realize how viral the trend had become until I set foot in the city manifestation of my soul mate last week (that's Paris, captain obvious). Everyone (though not anyone I personally know) has them--three of the bitchy chic buyers on my flight were wearing them, as was the manager of my favorite boutique by the Sèvres-Babylone metro stop (I'll never know the name of the store because its name is displayed in illegible neon pink font).

I've been doing some thinking on the Stan Smiths: I like them but not enough to buy a pair. I have a pair of white leather sneakers already, and a little part of me squeaks every time I look down and notice they're not as bright and clean as they were five minutes earlier. Now that I think about it, the appeal in the Stan Smiths lies in their tennis shoe shape, not their bright white color, though that does help. When it comes to an Adidas sneaker, I'm partial to a darker version in suede that proudly displays the logo. 

There are a lot of sneakers in current spring collections and upcoming fall collections that seem to have taken their shape inspiration from an Adidas original—or just a regular old tennis shoe. Based on my shoe observations whilst in Paris, I'd say that we're about to experience a resurgence in the flat tennis/soccer/skateboard shoe arena, even though one in three French women still wear wedge sneakers.

Below are some of the sneaks that have been on my mind. I have a particular inkling for the Twins for Peace shoes--two girls in the airport were wearing them in a beaded version, and I walked past the brand's store in the Marais by chance. Of all the shoe varieties, the most economical option would be to go to Foot Locker and buy a pair of Adidas or Pumas. I did, and I can't wait to wear them with my #trackpants.

PS. I'm back chez moi and slightly depressed because I'm not in hashtag Paris anymore, but that's okay because there are things in New York that I missed, like my bed, my mom, and almond milk.

Clockwise from top left: Sandro shirt, Veja shoes, Adidas Superstars, Saint Laurent low-tops, Twins for Peace low-tops, Puma Classics, Golden Goose sneakers, Vanessa Bruno trousers.