A girl’s right to shoes
As Carrie from Sex and the City says, a girl has a right to shoes. So how come I couldn’t find a single pair in my size at Jerusalem’s biggest mall.
I was on a mission to find no-heeled, moderately comfortable black shoes under 300 shekels to wear to many social networking events this month (Deva, idrink, and wordcamp). Not an easy feat (ha).
I went to many stores and didn’t see anything I liked, because there’s basically 2 options- platform or wide Israeli style or some combination of the two. Things looked up when I entered Gazith and mustered up the courage to try on the sexiest shoes I might possibly ever own. They were perfect for under jeans, a decent price, and most important – no heel. (the boot featured here).
So, when the salesman asked for my size, instead of braving the metric system to figure out my shoe size in Israel, I decided to play by different rules and just ask for the biggest size possible. And, you guesed it, he brought a 41 and it was too small. I struggled into it, even removed my socks, but no luck. So, I gave them my best disappointed face and suggested that they start making shoes in a size (gasp) 42, which I assumed would fit me. I’m sure it’ll happen. I hear the phone ringing now with the announcement.
When I got home, I wanted to double check what size I would be and found an online shoe size converter chart from US sizes to Israeli or European sizes at about.com. From the chart, it seems that the whole world agrees with Gazith and the Malha mall, and women with a size 10 should just stay in the US because they are not welcome in shoe stores across Europe or Israel – the chart stops after size 9!
I came to the conclusion that being tall is beautiful, but having feet that balance your height is unacceptable.
I’ll leave you with a few heartfelt words on the subject from a comedian that I newly discovered, Demetri Martin
I was in a shoe store and the guys call me boss, and I said, Ya, can i just get those sneakers in a 10? And uh, he said, Okay and then he went down stairs. He came back and he said, I dont have a 10, I have a 9. Oh great, because while you were downstairs, my toes were severed off. So that works out. Normally it would be stupid for you to tell me a number different than the one I said, cause it goes with my body part. But given my very recent accident, youre right on. Ill take the 9s and a pile of band-aids, thank you. Youre re-hired cause youre a genius.
He even used my exact size. What are the chances?!
The Big Felafel 
You have me in stitches…..my college roommate was a size 10, and she had a horrendous time in the States finding stylish shoes that fit….my mom and I have the opposite problem–we’re EXTREMELY short, and finding a size 5 is almost impossible outside of the SF Bay Area….one reason my mom refused to leave the SFBA was because she could always find clothes and shoes in her size, which was not always the case in other locales we had lived in (the SF area has a very large Asian-American community and hence carries a lot of petite sizes.) BC (Before Childbirth) SF was the only place I could find a size 3 dress on a regular basis….we won’t talk about that since it’s been over 20 years since I could get anywhere near a small size, and the “F” word in my family is “Fat.”
| Posted 15 years, 7 months agoI feel yeah, Rebecca. But don’t give in to what the shoes stores are telling you! Tall is beautiful, but so are nice long feet to go with the nice, long legs.
| Posted 15 years, 7 months agoI too feel for you as I am also gifted with size 10 feet. Look how far you have come, though. I believe that last time I saw you during the summer you wore open toe shoes. I remember a time at a certain camp at the Berkshires where your only shoe option was a pair of blue pumas.
| Posted 15 years, 6 months agoso i am needeing to know for a friend where to buy tall womens clothing and shoes for 10 and up in Jerusalem, Israel? She wants to kow soon. E-mail at the one i left todah!
| Posted 13 years, 6 months agoHi Yael, I actually just managed to find 2 pairs of boots that fit me at Gali shoe store but it took me 5 years to find shoes I liked that were in my size! I’ll keep you updated as I find items for tall folk.
| Posted 13 years, 6 months ago