And yes, it certainly started in the childhood for the Annalucia, who had very flat feet and was required to wear heavy lace-up Oxfords, for which she was cruelly taunted by the other girls who wore the black Mary Janes of the patent leather. (She has no doubt that each of them has come to a sticky end.) Today she is somewhat limited by the W attached to her shoe size as well as her inability to walk in any shoe with the heel height of more than two inches, but still she scans the catalogs and the online selections, looking for the Perfect Shoe beside which the glass slipper of the Cinderella will have all the charm of the dusty old tumbler.

A good designator to look for in item descriptions is NOS, which stands for New Old Stock — brand spanking new vintage shoes that were never sold and thus never worn.