What’s in your bag, Sea of Shoes’ Jane Aldridge?

Date December 18, 2013

Jane Aldridge has the designer shoe game on lock. Her wildly popular blog, Sea of Shoes, has documented her favourite purchases and pairs since 2008, landing her on the pages of Vanity Fair and at dinner tables with Karl Lagerfeld. So it’s fitting that we caught up with the red-headed blogger at Holt Renfrew Yorkdale, to celebrate the launch of the newly-revamped shoe hall. Naturally, she was advising fellow footwear lovers on pre-Christmas purchases and posing for photo opps with fans. (As for Aldridge’s own shoes, open toe Jerome C. Rousseau cage booties are a new favourite. “I’ve been wearing these tons, actually, ever since I got them,” she said.)

While she’s still based out of her hometown of Dallas, Texas, Aldridge travels frequently. Before she arrived in Toronto she was in Paris, covering the Le Bal des Debutantes for Sea of Shoes. It was her second time at the ball—she famously attended as a debutante in 2009—and the Lanvin earrings she purchased for the occasion were still in her bag. Which, by the way, is a lesson in why you should always be thrifting: that Chanel purse was scooped up by her mom at a suburban thrift shop for a mere $15. As for the rest of the items Aldridge keeps on hand—including many goodies that she stocked up on during a recent trip to South Korea—read on for the full Sea of Shoes scoop.

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sea of shoes jane aldridge

[The Chanel purse] my mom found at a thrift store for $15. We have this really really small—it’s not even a Salivation Army—it’s a small charity shop in Euless, [Texas] and really senile people go there and I guess someone dropped it off. My mom saw it being put on the shelf and just grabbed it. I’m really bad at buying purses, so, I was lucky to be able to steal that from my mom, though, she says it’s on loan indefinitely! It has been well-loved. It might be time to put some duct tape on it soon!

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sea of shoes jane aldridge

That’s my weekly planner from Korea that I’m obsessed with, they have a whole line of stationary, so I special order it, it’s so cute! [The sunglasses] are from Korea as well, wow! I’m sounding really boring… laughs

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sea of shoes jane aldridge

[The earrings] are Lanvin and I got those in Paris for the ball actually, because I had a sequin paillette top and a ’50s skirt, but it wasn’t quite fancy enough so that was my Christmas treat. I have the matching necklace too. The chocolates are for my sister, I’m going to go down [to Holt Renfrew] and grab some more before tonight.

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sea of shoes jane aldridge

I’m the worst packer—I didn’t bring any lip balm on this trip, so my lips are falling off. So [today at Holt Renfrew] I got some Bobbi Brown lip balm, it’s really chic packaging actually, and I love the lip glosses so I grabbed a red one. The 3 Concept Eyes green nail polish is from Stylenanda in Korea and it stays on forever, I love that colour.

I was in Korea in October, I did a lot of beauty shopping obviously! I can’t wait to go back. I’m already out of all my face creams. Seriously, I used all of them! And they make great gifts for Christmas, so I’ll be able to give Korean beauty products.