Trendy Wednesday - The Gladiator

Has it really been nine years since the movie Gladiator first hit the big screen? I feel old! I had just started dating Mark when I saw the preview for this movie, and I told my roommate Sarah "That's one movie I won't be seeing this summer." It could not have been more than two days after I had made this declaration that I got a call from Mark asking if I'd like to see a movie. If he could have only seen how giddy I was that he was asking me on a real date - up to that point we had been to a med school formal and a cocktail party. As fun and glamorous as I thought those things were, I was ready for a date that didn't involve tuxedos and beef tartar. I was daydreaming about seeing whatever was the latest chic flick when I found myself agreeing to two for one pizza and the ten o'clock showing of what else - Gladiator. It turned out, among his many talents, Mark could pick a movie! To this day it is one of my favorites. I think it is in part that it was truly a spectacular film, and it is in part the sentimentality that comes along with it being the first movie we saw together.

How does that relate to the hottest trend in shoes - well I thought that the warm and fuzzy feelings I get when I think back to that movie would by now have transferred to the trend. Sadly, it hasn't. I have to admit, I don't really like the gladiator. Even on Gwyneth Paltrow, my style icon, I find them to be slightly distracting and somewhat unflattering. Here, where she's wearing a beautiful feminine Grecian gown, all I can focus on are the chunky black straps that look like centipedes crawling up her legs. It makes me wonder, if a shoe can make Gwyneth look like she has cankles, would I be crazy to try it? And try I have. I have searched and searched for months to find the right pair. A pair that combined the masculinity of the gladiator with the femininity of his muse. I opted not to look for a pair in black because I think the color combined with the bulkiness of the shoe are much too dramatic for summer dresses. Finally, after all this time, I have found a pair that I really like. I think that the platinum shade will be muted enough not to draw so much attention to the ankles, and it will be dressy enough to pair with fun, flirty sun dresses.

They say Rome wasn't built in a day, and I guess neither was my affinity for the Gladiator.