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Given that Zazzle lets you sell custom-designed Keds, it naturally follows that there’ll be seven different vendors offering fifteen different shoe designs featuring the Virgin of Guadalupe.
Kaeggles’ Mary of Guadalupe is definitely the best. If I had the money, I’d buy a pair right now, and Patrick would envy them. Runner-up is Suzettas’ Our Lady of Guadalupe 2. (Other designers: 3, 4, 5, 6, 7.)
Don’t make too much of it. There are a lot more shoes that have Obama on them.
The pink, the pink, it is coming to attack us!
(and yes, you're right, the first one is closest to the right feel. it's a pity there isn't an option for a proper amount of gold leaf. Our Lady of Guadalupe is my favorite... probably partly because of how joyously gaudy she is when you're a small Catholic girl.)
I like Suzetta's best. But there's something kind of wrong about walking on Our Lady of Guadalupe.
I was curious about what other political designs there might be, and did a search for Hilary Clinton. Now I'm amused at their search algorithm. I set Product = Keds Shoes, and searched for "Hilary Clinton".
First two results: Sarah Palin shoes
Third result: YOUR LOVE STILL HAUNTS ME JOSEPH
Followed by a few Clinton designs, and then a bunch of Obama ones.
My best guess is that they have a lists of related terms (in this case politicians) and bring those up, too. The designer of the love still haunts me shoe is "naderpromotions".
As a lifelong know-little, may I inquire what it is about Our Lady of Guadalupe that makes her a more desirable icon for a shoe than, say, St. Thecla?*
*I just love her name.
Kaeggle's shoe is the evangelical shoe: the image faces the rest of the world, engaging others. Suzetta's shoe is more reflective: it invites the wearer his/herself to contemplate it.
Beth, it would be wrong to put her image on the sole, or to wear the shoes while shoveling out the stable. Otherwise -- okay, I have to admit, it's never previously occurred to me that there might be places where you couldn't put an image of the Virgin of Guadalupe, aside from obvious ones like toilet bowls or the crotches of naughty undies.
Around here, decals of her are sold in coin-op gumball machines, and there are shrines to her in corner bodegas. Patrick told me that when he went to see a concert by Cafe Tacuba (currently in the running for Best Rock Band in the World), there were enthusiastic concertgoers down on the main floor waving big N.S. de G. banners. You see tough-looking guys in their twenties who've painted icons of her on their jackets.
Let me show you some stuff. Fleece blankets: 1, 2. Pre-printed quilt blocks: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, plus coordinating fabric, 9. Iron-on transfers: 1, 2, and patches and appliques, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12. On a light switch plate cover. With the Stars and Stripes. On a refrigerator magnet. Worked into a candle holder, a holy water font, a lace curtain, a wristwatch, a checkbook, a porcelain urn fitted with a music box, a very nonstandard Mexican flag, an "antique" lighted mirror, a tapestry throw, a tote bag, a clock, a bull-rider's belt buckle, and a mousepad. It's, like, anything that's good to start with is better if it has the Virgin of Guadalupe on it, as long as you treat it respectfully. I hope I'm not insensitive to sacrilege, but when I saw those shoes, I could only think of them as a good thing.
Mad: Why not St. Thecla/Tecla/Tekla? Several reasons. It's not just that the only existing Life of St. Thecla/Tecla/Tekla/Teckla (which the Catholic Encyclopedia tactfully refers to as "purely legendary") would run up an immoderately high score on the dubious saint scale. Contemplating her Life, and especially the part where she baptizes herself, makes me realize that I left an important criterion out of the scale:
-9.5 Saint's Life includes an episode which is theologically difficult or impossible to justify.I forget whether she's the one who did all the tunneling.
The worst one can say of the other St. Thecla, Virgin and Martyr of Chepstow, is that she's associated with a Welsh well where some very colorful healing practices were carried on into the 19th Century. If you follow the link for her, you'll also find a lively discussion of the first St. Thecla.
There are lots of saints I'd happily have on my shoes, though I'd feel a little funny if they belonged to one of the discalced orders. (A ridiculous scruple, I know.) It would be fun to do one with the Francisco de Zurbaran painting of St. Margaret of Antioch on the toe, then cover the rest of the shoe with different images of her dragon.
Heresiarch: I noticed that. It's another one of the reasons I like that version.
Teresa--I was mostly wondering why Our Lady of Guadalupe rather than any other. I pulled Thecla (whom even I know is muy dubioso) out of my hat because I like her name.
I did notice that they had a couple of pairs of really swell St. George keds, with dragons. But he's been demoted too, hasn't he? It's tough work being a Saint.
I started off looking at the NSdeG shoes, but got distracted and wound up looking at the hamster shoes.
Oh, yes there are. Of course there are.
Just curious* ... is the 'legendary' St. Thecla the ones the Greek Orthodox venerate?
* I wish I could say that this has nothing to do with me having just sat through the baptism of my daughter's infant cousin at the Orthodox Church of the Annunciation in Modesto, CA.
On the plus side, the saints their church was wallpapered in decorated with around all the internal walls, were pretty. Their clothing ranged from 'vague draperies down the body and wrapped around the head' to some clearly medievally or Renaissancy tunic-and-stockings outfits. Hagia Sofia and her three daughters (faith, hope, and love, each bearing a handheld crucifix) were depicted, so clearly they're not afraid of 'legendary'.
Teresa@7:
It does seem vaguely troubling. I mean, if you were wearing the shoes with a skirt and the Blessed Virgin were to open her eyes, well that might be a view that even she couldn't unsee.
Matthew Daly @ 11 ...
Her own eyes, staring back at her from the frilly depths?
TNH @ #7: it's never previously occurred to me that there might be places where you couldn't put an image of the Virgin of Guadalupe...
My favorite has always been the pick-up trucks that have the Virgin of Guadalupe depicted on the tailgate--where she can both bless the truck and its cargo and passengers, as well as subtly warning would-be tailgaters to back off, lest they nail the Mother of God should they rear-end the truck.
Offered without comment: Our Lady of the Arcade.