Shoe rack
Photographer: Marko Krunić
Luna Lu
Luna Lu, television and digital format creator. Recognised for the series: Histerik, Glamurama, Štiklom u vrata, POPodne, Talija, Luna park and ŠBB KBB. She has been writing columns continuously since 1994, right up to today when her Monday column on the Nova.rs portal is current. She promises a third book – „Čudna devojka (Žitije jedne Šindivile)“ – but doesn't have a clear deadline, so she keeps pushing back the completion of the first draft. She spent the first 50 years of her life in high heels in Dorćol, and is now spending the second half of her life as a Zemun resident, walking on flat ground by the Danube with her dog Oktavijan. She possesses a serious collection of shoes and a treasury of contemporary art. She is the mistress of happy 20th-century objects. She repairs memories daily and on request.
Usually, what's unusual is that the concepts I adore also have names made up of perfect arrangements of letters. Love. Marmalade. Bindweed. Dog. Nightingale. Sunbird. Turquoise. Pearl. Soul.
However, there are also exceptions to that rule. Shoes. And it's not just a word. And I love them so much. Neither footwear nor kicks – neither sounds right to me, and I can't resist them. And it's been like that since the beginning of my humanity. My first favourite shoes were patent leather. They arrived from Italy. First steps and first fashion obsessions with Grandpa Momčilo. Oh, *he* was the real „fashion freak.“ A gentleman from polished heel to hat. Mum inherited her style from her father. It was passed down, like many good and bad things, through the family tree. When I asked Mum what she liked about Dad Vladislav – she said he had impeccable shoes. With a man, first look at what he's wearing on his feet – the model, but also especially the condition the shoes are in. That was the lesson. It was SFRY. We didn't grow up in trainers. That was the time.
Photo credit: Nadeždić Brothers
As a little girl – at my grandmother Milica's, my dad's mum's – I was obsessed with her heels. I'd slip my little feet in and totter about in the pointed-toe pumps. Everyone would laugh – shake their heads and say – „What kind of a tomboy will this one be!“ As I grew – that pale pink pair practically became a part of my foot. Milica would give me lessons on how to walk in them – with a book on my head. The book had a yellow cover – „A Thousand Whys – A Thousand Therefore.“ Those were my first heels and I walked in them from Dorćol to the SKC garden.
The most important trick a girl can grasp is to step from the hip – that's when the magic sung about in the lyrics „When you walk, you don't stop and you don't touch the ground“ happens.“
The most important thing about footwear is how well the heel is centred. Of what use are the most expensive and popular fashion brands if you can't dance, wiggle, stride out, and stand firmly on your feet in those shoes.
It's hard to explain the aesthetics and ethics of the 20th century to people of the 21st century. How, for example, do you explain the queue outside the „nanule“ (clogs) in Višnjićeva Street? Oh, how sexy those nanule were. Designed from a single piece of wood, so to speak, in one go – complete with a platform. Not at all robust – rather delicate.
And they were obedient –
They served out of love.
There was no need to sing them the verses – „Don't clatter with your clogs“ – they were so well-heeled that they were inaudible.
The connection between two millennia could be Carrie Bradshaw. She's to blame for me spending all my money on sky-high heels during my golden years when I was earning the most. Back then, I didn't know I should have been investing in handbags. Their value grows – over time. But I have no regrets. The collection is there. I take them for a walk now and then. Their time will come too. At least in „The Everything Shop“ that I'll open eventually, quite near the Danube. It will be a mix of a second-hand shop and a gallery, which additionally repairs memories upon request, opens new perceptions, sparks new appetites, and accelerates the metabolism of the senses.
Thank God for the „Lilu“ shoe cabinet that's helping me transition from dizzying stilettos to comfortable flats.
Once upon a time in Venice, there was a magician who pulled plush and satin socks onto an elegant shoe. His name was Filip Modelo. It is my favourite boot style of all time. The sock on the heel. In all patterns and colours.
As someone who grew up on punk music – I can't resist good Doc Martens, or biker boots for that matter.
And as a child of the eighties – everyone had to have a pair of cowboy boots. Then, at the end of May, pair them with a denim mini-skirt.
But, the beauty of life.
„Pretty girls walk through town“ – could be the soundtrack to this shot. As the streets smell of linden tea.
I admit – in my own maturity, after the age of fifty, I daydream about living in flip-flops. I was in Brazil, where this type of footwear originated, which is really confusing as they aren’t called Brazilians. But that confusion probably arose because of geishas. Their tiny steps contributed to us not even thinking to doubt the country of origin.
As someone who has spent nearly 40 years in heels, I'm only just starting to see the beauty in flat shoes. And choosing trainers is difficult for me – it feels like solving a quantum physics problem. That's why I stick to boxing shoes. I had a pair of Pumas – I really regret not buying dozens of pairs of the same model.
They say that when we open a bottle of perfume, we bring back memories of when we wore it – and I look at the shoes in the photograph and remember the exact moment I chose them, who I ran into their embrace, and what my subjective feeling was at that moment in my life.
Photographer: Marko Krunić
Look after your feet.
Look after your shoes.
They are important because fear collects in our knees, and in an era of anxiety, the right pair of shoes is one that makes us fearless.
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When you buy quality shoes, it's normal to want them to be comfortable every time you put them on. And of course, to last.
