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upgrades: new shoelaces (laces are so cheap!)

An inexpensive way to brighten and refresh your shoes? New laces! More to the point, contrasting laces.

For standard, flat, sneaker-style laces I recommend Converse laces, which come in a few lengths and many, many colors. ~$2!

For sturdy, round, boot-style laces, check out Doc Marten’s. ~$3!

[Make sure to get the correct length]

before & after:

pumas before
pumas before
pumas after
pumas after

 

converse before
converse before
converse after
converse after
docs before
docs before
docs after
docs after
IMG_2033
and after
and after
and after
and afer
and after

 

See what I mean?

(Which color would you go for with the doc martens? Tough call, right?)

N.B. New white laces tend to make broken-in shoes look especially tired.

Posted on

history: grooming is my favorite pastime

Sure painting and drawing, sure knitting and crafts, sure cooking and organizing and shopping and eating, sure hanging out with friends and writing and photography, sure calligraphy and wine and Shakespeare and the 19th century novel…but what I really love? What I do whenever I get the chance? What I find maximally calming and therapeutic and satisfying? What I put hours of attention and effort into, and investigation, and all the money it takes?

Yasuyuki Tagaki, Untitled #10, Forest. 2011 (via artligue.fr)
Yasuyuki Tagaki, Untitled #10, Forest. 2011 (via artligue.fr)

Grooming.

I groom.

O how I groom. O the tools. O the unguents. O the potions. O the experimentation. O the time.

No centimeter of my body escapes care.

Like weeding a garden, editing a text (I find editing to be a fitting metaphor for much of my life), cultivating a path through the wilderness…

Yasuyuki Tagaki, Untitled #5, Forest. 2011 (via artligue.fr)
Yasuyuki Tagaki, Untitled #5, Forest. 2011 (via artligue.fr)

 

This means clipping and trimming, oiling and treating, masking and exfoliating, cleansing and brushing and smoothing and massaging and just…addressing in the most comprehensive way.

I liked what I heard someone say recently, if you had only one suit to wear for your whole life, imagine the care you would take with that suit. I like this way of thinking about the body, particularly the skin.