Should I Buy “Furkenstocks” Y/N?

New Arrivals // CÉLINE Fur Slippers #vsp #celine #designerconsignment

A photo posted by VSP (@vsp_consignment) on Jan 14, 2015 at 1:05pm PST

In 1936, Meret Oppenheim, the Swiss Surrealist artist, had tea with Pablo Picasso at the Café de Flore, in Paris. Oppenheim was wearing a bracelet, of her own design, that was clad in ocelot fur. Picasso admired it, noting that one could cover anything with fur. Soon afterward, Oppenheim produced her most famous work: a teacup, saucer, and spoon covered with the creamy-tan fur of a Chinese gazelle. The piece is now in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, in New York, and is celebrated for its suggestive conjunction of the domestic and the erotic. Oppenheim’s teacup came to mind last fall, while I was browsing in a shoe store and noticed that Birkenstock had created a peculiar version of its Arizona sandal — the classic, two-strap style long favored by hippies and German tourists. The sandal had the familiar chunky cork base and thick, buckled straps in dull brown-gray suède, but the insole and the straps were lined with fluffy white shearling. The shoe looked alluringly comfortable, like a Teddy bear that cuddled back. It also looked perplexingly impractical: if it’s cold enough for fur, it’s too cold — and likely too wet — for open-toed shoes. The sandal was witty, provocative, and slightly silly. Like an iPad, or an eight-dollar bottle of cold-pressed juice, it seemed the covetable answer to a need that hadn’t existed before it came along.

Another stop on my Saturday afternoon tour of nope-not-going-back-to-work-you-can’t-make-me: I visited my friend’s consignment store “just to see what was new” and they had the Celine fur sandals Rebecca Mead references in her incredible profile of Birkenstocks. They even fit my stupidly tiny feet!! But, I mean, you simply can’t buy fur-lined sandals and remain human. Even for me — a devoted fashion lemming — the “Furkenstock” is a step too far. Ha ha, get it? Step? Like in the fur-lined sandals I wish I had bought? You get it.

Anyway, you should read the Birkenstock article immediately; it’s a really perfect look at why trends happen when they do, plus some really great fashion history, plus it introduced me to the word “Furkenstock,” so.