Learning Argentine tango is addictive! It should come with a warning! I have several reasons why I started learning and why I am still hooked. Big time. But that is, perhaps, for another post. But I will let you in on one of them — SHOES.

I am a self-confessed shoe addict and I have more than 50 pairs. When I began learning tango, I tried on practically every heeled pair I got but only one was good enough to keep me stable on the dance floor. It was a pair of cream Laura Ashley mary janes. I didn’t bother putting a photo of it because it is well tattered now.

Tango shoes are not widely sold here in the UK. Eventhough there are dance shops that sell dancing shoes, they are quite low heeled compared to the more popular tango shoes these days. For me, tango is a lot more expressive if you dance with at least 3-inch heels! It feels more passionate and sensual. My Laura Ashley pair were of the correct height but like I said, I’ve worn them to bits now. So I decided to search the internet for my very first pair of proper tango shoes.

What I realised is that tango shoes are not cheap. Maybe if you buy them in Buenos Aires, you could perhaps pay for less than £40 but as there are shipping costs, the price one would pay for the cheapest decent pair is £70. I bought my first pair from Tango Wear. As the shoes are custom-made, I had to make sure that they got the correct sizes even to the point that I had to draw my foot on a blank sheet, scan it and send it to them. I had to wait 5 weeks for the pair and all the while nervous that it won’t fit. To my delightful surprise, it fit like a glove!

But one cannot have only ONE pair of tango shoes!

My second pair came within days after the first purchase. This time, I didn’t have to pay any shipping from Argentina as I found them at Oasis, which is a high street store, for a mere £50! Granted that it may not have the usual padding on the insole that would prevent me from really hurting my foot but the balance was just like any other made-to-dance footwear.

I felt really lucky with my latest hunt. In the world of tango shoes for women, there are 3 names that are considered ‘designer’ — Comme Il Faut, Neotango and Darcos, perhaps in that order of haute couture status. Comme Il Fauts (the CiFs) are really pretty. They are considered the Manolo Blahniks of tango shoes. A pair, bought in the UK would cost £120 and there is currently only 1 dealer where you could buy them from in Great Britain. You may order them from another country, except Argentina, which may be cheaper (around US$180) but with the shipping costs, you will end up paying the same amount as you would if you bought them here. Neotangos cost around US$170 and Darcos €140 (from the EU distributor). With extensive surfing and Googling, I discovered that Darcos has an Ebay shop where they are selling the shoes at (possibly) their standard prices in Argentina! There were no second thinking and I immediately started bidding on an item, which I won and is also now happily introduced with my tired feet.

This is not the end.

I am still aiming to land a pair of CiF and if you check back in maybe a couple of weeks’ time, I’ll have a new one to show you all. Stay tuned!

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