Sale PSA: Shiny joggers from Tibi, now $126 with code SALE20, a chic simple blazer from The Row, now 60% off, and a gorgeous shiny croissant bag from Lemaire, currently 20% off with code STYLE20.
1. This week, sharing this pretty bucket bag from J.Crew.
I love metallic bags! But I don’t often find nice ones in leather, and especially at a decent price. This one looks very nice, a great shade of gold, slouchy, and will definitely add interest. Wishlisted.
2. A thoughtful piece, via The Cut: Why Can’t Our Friendship Survive Your Baby?
3. I enjoyed this piece, via the NYT, about design classics of the future.
4. I don’t know how I feel about this column, via Vanessa Friedman for the NYT, about shoes office in a house. The bit about dawdling if a host wants shoes off, and trying to get them to change their mind. Maybe it is cultural (for me) but I would find that an uncomfortable request.
5. This week I read Life Ceremony, by Sakata Murata.
I liked this! I’ve been wanting some short stories lately and so reached for this, and have been doing about a story or two each night. The writing is signature Murata, the stories are interesting and often quite weird. Not the read if you are in the mood for a fun thriller, but yes the read if you want some cool short stories. If you’ve read and enjoyed Murata’s other work, I highly recommend Life Ceremony.
12 Comments
Sharon M
September 22, 2023 at 12:25 pmInteresting story about removing shoes. I take off my shoes downstairs in my home…but still wear them into the house. My husband wears his in the house…upstairs and down. My stepson and his family live in Manhattan…no shoes allowed. We follow their rules…it is Manhattan, and they have a one year old. In anyone else’s home I respect their preferences…if I wanted to cover my feet, I would carry socks in my purse. No problems.
Kat
September 24, 2023 at 9:06 pmYour response sounds perfect!
Patricia
September 22, 2023 at 2:52 pmI grew up in Scotland and didn’t really think about it, although we usually had slippers. Then I moved overseas and knew some Canadians – I was a bit perplexed when they’d take their shoes off just inside the door. Now I live in Canada and I never wear shoes in the house, and always offer to take mine off in someone else’s house (to be fair, it’s expected here – snow! slush!).
Kat
September 24, 2023 at 9:06 pmThat all makes sense 🙂
V
September 22, 2023 at 7:29 pmI live in Hawaii where most people remove their shoes when you go into someone’s home. We recently moved here and were hosting new friends, a couple from Miami, for brunch. The woman removed her shoes when she saw the small pile near the door, but her partner kept them on. I felt awkward asking him to remove his shoes so I just let it slide.
I later commented to my husband that I thought it was kind of rude that her partner hadn’t removed his shoes. But my husband thought that maybe he didn’t think to remove them (or thought it was optional) because he’s not from an area (or a culture) where removing your shoes is customary.
Kat
September 24, 2023 at 9:07 pmYes…I can see both sides to it! I never knew that about Hawaii but makes sense 🙂
Philip
September 25, 2023 at 4:37 pmOf course I had to search for that lamp. i’m obsessed! it’s on my wishlist. Thanks for the book recommendation, too! will be handy for my upcoming flights. And the shoe issue is nothing new to me as Hawaii resident and Asian. lol
Kat
September 25, 2023 at 8:44 pmIt’s a gorgeous lamp!!
Alyssa
September 29, 2023 at 1:07 pmWe’ve always been a shoes-off home, and entering a shoes-on home is so weird to me! But I know plenty of people who prefer it that way and I leave them on, as requested. So, I guess I expect the same courtesy when someone enters my home (though I have a few pairs of washable slippers on hand if they put up a fuss, which hasn’t happened yet). In any case, I can’t imagine trying to persuade a host to change their mind!
Amy
October 1, 2023 at 10:23 amHere in The South, we don’t have a culture of removing shoes at the door. At the time, I wasn’t even familiar with it as a practice outside of my Japanese language classes in college and learning about customs in Japan. So imagine my horror of meeting my future in-laws from another part of the country, completely unprepared for the ask of removing my shoes at the door. (Cute boots, but not cute socks – with, yes, a hole in the toe – and way past the good side of a pedicure.) It was a minor trauma, I won’t lie. Hahaha!
Kat
October 3, 2023 at 1:22 pmI totally get that!! I am used to doing the shoes off and still forget at times that i’ll have to do it at other homes when I am wearing my “bad” socks. Lol.
Melissa at Welcome Objects
October 15, 2023 at 5:12 pmI feel like every 6 months there’s an article or column like this in one of the major publications about shoes off or not. I am team shoes off (grew up this way), and provide slippers and socks for guests. Very weird to suggest trying to change the host’s rules. It’s their home, their rules! Of course if someone needs to keep them on for mobility/stability issues, that’s a different thing.