Yesterday, I neither wore nor brought a pair of high heels to work.  It was cold. I was depressed. And I fell off the fashion wagon, hard.  

I awoke from my traumatic fashion injury in a pair of printed J.Crew ballet flats that haven’t seen pavement since Bush was in office.  I suppose that in a moment of weakness, I thought this would be fine since I didn’t have any meetings on my calendar.  But at 9:30am a constituent called to set up a last minute meeting with me and my printed flats.  

I’m a reasonable person (mostly), so I know that the world won’t end if someone sees me in ballet flats.  I know that no one is going to launch an attack ad against my Boss pointing out the lack of sartorial decorum in his office. But, I’ve been emotionally under the weather lately and when I feel down, I like to look good to compensate.  And for a person who wears heels almost every day, and cute ones at that, flats don’t compensate for a down day, they confirm it’s existence and announce it’s arrival with every step.  

I was about to send out an all staff e-mail asking for a pair of size nines in any color when it dawned on me: I have a pair of heels in my desk.  Actually, I have three pair in my desk.  This discovery prompted the following question: When did I become the girl with shoes in my desk?  

Years ago, when I started on the Hill, I took over from a girl who had a pile, a veritable mountain, of shoes under her desk.  Leopard printed, blue patent, basic brown, black flats, sneakers; every shoe this chick owned was under her desk.  And I admit that when I saw that, I judged her.  Harshly.

Upon the realization that I am now the chick with the stockpile of shoes, I started to ponder the trajectory of my life and how it was that I came to be the girl who has a shoe boutique in her file drawer.  (Don’t hate. I said I’ve been a little emotional this week.  Anyone with ovaries can understand why.)

After much contemplation, I came to three conclusions about the shoes in my desk:

1)  If I can afford to keep three pairs of cute shoes in my desk without noticing their absence from my closet then I am not going out enough.  Clearly, my social life needs a boost.  Or maybe I have too many shoes?  But since you can never have too many shoes, it must be the former.

2)  Perhaps, this is a mark of success?  My shoes are in my desk because an increased level of responsibility has necessitated more time in my cubicle.  Ergo, the shoes in my desk are a sign of professional development.  (This is probably a reach.)

3)  While unintentional, the collection of footwear in my bottom drawer is the perfect selection of shoes for the office.  Huh.  Maybe I subconsciously planned this shoe annex so that I would be prepared for any occasion as all fashionistas should be?

It is this third point that inspired today’s post.  So if you are a busy professional who needs to keep shoes in her desk to save purse space, ensure good fashion at all times, and occasionally rescue your tootsies from poorly selected sling backs that rub in all the wrong places; then these are the three pairs that you need.

The Classic Black Heel

Christin Michaels Sage (Zappos, $131)

These are a rescue shoe.  Low enough heels to be comfortable, high enough to keep hems off of the ground.  They go with everything.  Think of them as O-Negative blood–universally needed in emergencies.

The Colored Shoe

Franco Sarto Napoli (Zappos, $89)

These shoes go with everything cause they go with nothing.  You might like a red pair, a green pair or a yellow pair; but these are the pair that you reach for when the black heels are too short or too boring.  If you want to continue the medical references, colored shoes are the defibrillator gets the pulse going again when the shoes you wore are just too boring to be allowed.

The Nude Open Toe

Rebel Chloe Peep-Toe Pump (Amazon, $185)

Wearing a summer dress or a an outfit of bright pastels?  You can’t wear black pointy toes or colored heels with that.  No, you need nude pumps to make your legs look long and neutralize the color and life in the clothes.  When you need a shoe that won’t clash with anything, you need nude pumps.