Amber your Loubs are lovely. I hate the horse hoof look - I think it only became popular because some celebs are extremely vertically challenged.
Undercover shoe book is written in a Nordic language. Will translate a few bits. "The most outragous shoes are there to attract the youngest, most inexperienced, most vulnerable clients. Women with real power don't fancy bright colors, high heel and studs galore." (She sells a lot of shoe to real powerbrokers during the UN General Assembly when they come to the shop with their armies of assistants and security persons.)
She says the normal life cycle of luxury shoes is 1 to 2 months. During previews, buyers from high street come in, order 20 different pairs, then have them broken down and copied - and manufactured in the very same factories luxury brands use. Luxury brands tolerate this because only mass appeal will make their shoes iconic. And luxury shoes are made to break down quickly.
Oh, and a big part of luxury shoe business is about returns. So you can return whatever you boughts - it's fully normal, people do it all the time.
Most of the vendeuses prefer to wear flats although they would get substantial discounts on their merchandise - most of the don't even like the shoes they are selling but are ready to say anything to get the commission (in the US, they have no base salary).
The shop is also used to young mums who look for sexy, stylish and comfy shoes - the venduses laugh in the back room, it's an oxymoron. Oh and many women have boot muffin tops and stretching the boots in the back room is a routine procedure. And women with stick legs buy the narrowest Loubs that stay up by themselves and have premade curves.
The vendeuses hate the sales season - the store is a war zone, customers are rude and impatient, commissions near zero. The sales shoppers are called vultures and most vendeuses won't bother to serve them.
Many stylish customers have disgusting feet. They try to wipe the sweat on the salon carpet. The worst offenders are young women who wear Uggs or flats without socks - their feet are generally dirty and disgusting. Vendeuses have perfume-soaked smelling strips for reviving themselves when a customer smells particularly awful. The combo of mothballs, BO and halitosis is particularly nauseating and quite frequent among luxury shoppers in NYC. Some customers have rotten toenails oozing with pus - that includes fashionable Park Avenue girls. Stiletto tarsals are treated with Botox shots to numb the pain.
Oh and did you know that when men wore skinnies in 1820s most of them wore wooden or fabric fake calves - and people spotted them in balls just like we do now - real or enhanced? 