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| WHAT IS IT? |
If you are a reader of American Craft magazine and you see an article about a shoe that you tie up with different ribbons, in different configurations that you create yourself, and if you are a fan of buying handsome, well made shoes, then you might find yourself, as I did, rushing to the Internet and ordering a pair of Mohops.
I opted for the least expensive shoe Mohop made (they're not cheap!), the walnut slide, a sandal, because I was taking a chance in buying them. There was a curious lack of customer reviews on the website. I didn't let it stop me though from making this impulsive purchase.
Note: I guess this is a review, and an examination of a shoe as art and a functional object as well. This is a first for this blog.
The postal service delivered a box with multiple goodies inside. There was a tissue wrapped set of cards, each with a pictured sandal and step by step diagrams on how to tie it. There was a muslin bag printed with the bag maker's designer logo. There was another silk screened (?) wordless design printed on heavy yellow paper. That was mysterious. And another unusual enclosure: two cellophane wrapped candies - a Fire Ball and a Lemon Head. And of course, the sandals: a right and a left sole, and an organza bag filled with striped ribbons.
What a lode!
What a lode!
The soles of the sandals had a slight vamp heel made of walnut, sandwiched between a 1/4 inch of black rubber or rubber-like synthetic, shiny on the bottom with an added textured heel, for traction I'd guess. The foot bed had a silvery-white design that reminded me of one you might see on a skate or a surfboard.
The most unusual feature of the sandal was that there was no permanent upper. Instead the sole was edged with thin rope loops to accommodate ribbons. The sandals came with black ribbons already laced into the loops, and a bag of 6 other ribbons of various stripes, the type I had ordered. Solids and metallics were other styles you could choose.
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| once shiny-smooth, now dented by gravel |
To me the black was uninteresting. I already had sandals that were black, why was this a worthy addition to my sandal collection? To find out its worthiness I hastened to pull out the black ribbons and try another pair. So what was my selection?
I had three pairs of colored grosgrain ribbons that had threads of gold woven into them. I wear silver jewelry, I am not a wearer of gold.
Then there were three others with no gold: thin pink ribbons with a green dotted line running through the middle, wide black and white striped ribbons, and an American flag design on the third pair.
What should I choose? The answer was obvious. I must choose the flag.
Am I patriotic? Certainly I feel privileged living here in this country, and in this town, and I defend my country when the rest of the world maligns it, but I am not such a patriot as to fly an American flag day in day out from my porch, or put a flag decal on my car, or wear a flag pin. But it was the Fourth of July, the American Independence Day the next day, so it had to be flag ribbons.
How to lace them? I could refer to the cards, so kindly included in the package. But alas! Each card depicted a tying method for a thong sandal while I had ordered a slide sandal. None of these would work. I shot off an email to the Mohop Company to request the proper cards be sent.
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| the lacing pattern |
In the meanwhile, I had to go to the Mohop website and peruse the online instructions for the slide ties. There were a half dozen styles to try - not too difficult to follow at all. There were only 5 loops on each side and you simply wove the ribbons back and forth in their specified order and you created your sandal upper. Easy peasy!
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| the lacing pattern made ready to wear |
However, putting them on was far more challenging. The ribbon had to be loosened enough between each loop so that the toes and then the foot could enter easily, without a toe catching on a ribbon.
Typically, as the foot meandered its way through the floppy bands of grosgrain ribbon, the pinkie toe was the one that got hung up along the way.
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| Hooray for the red, white and blue! |
By the way, if you accidentally pull out the ends from their loops, give up and start over. You will never be able to reinsert it with your foot in the way.
When the feet reached their correct position, it was time to tighten the laces, I found myself repeatedly baffled as to which part of the ribbon to pull to tighten them, as it was not laced in a regular sequence as it is in your average shoe. Eventually, feeling dumb and awkward, I was able to tighten them and tie them where they ended, which was off-center.
Time to walk and see how these red, white and blue beauties traveled. But alas again! They were too loose and I had to sit myself down and proceed again to stupidly pull the wrong loops until more snugness was achieved. As I walked again a few steps, I stopped to tighten them more - and again, until at last they clung to my feet like striped skin.
I wore them to my friends' house for dinner on July 4th, and they felt good. I kept them on - I wasn't going to go through another session of putting on my Mohops, so I wore them as we watched the neighbor's fireworks display.
The next day I experimented with other ribbons and other ties. I tried lacing the gold ribbons in and tried them on. All wrong. My feet looked like Cleopatra's, or Delilah's sandals in an old Technicolor movie.Which could be nice, but not for me. And there were three pairs of ribbons with gold in them.
I wrote a second time to Mohop. Justin had answered my first email promising to send a packet of the correct instructions the next business day, so I wrote to Justin. I described my disappointment at the ribbon selection I had received.
Graciously, Justin replied that I could select the ribbon replacements that I liked and he would send them to me, if I would also send back the offending ribbons. I said I would, and neatly looped and bagged up the gold ribbons. The green and the white and the red ribbons with their golden strands looked like perfect Christmas ribbons awaiting packages to wrap. I mailed them off as I promised.
Mohop's site sold accessories - more ribbons and also rings to weave into the ribbons. I bought some rings at the local fabric store that I thought might work, but they were not quite right, size or color-wise .
Putting on Mohops was fun, and it was a challenge, but I knew, wildly impractical for most people and probably for me, too. For now it is a novelty, an origami-esque plaything. Most attractive to me, and to others, judging from the compliments I've received, have been the wide black and white striped ribbons.
The challenge with these wider ribbons is trying to keep them flat and not twisted, and to get them to tie at the same spot on each sandal. Add to that the time it takes wiggling the foot in and tightening them securely and they are a significant time investment.
Once they are on good and snug, they are easy to wear, and do not chafe or squeeze the feet. They do make noise. The walnut sole on this sandal is not very flexible, making it a slightly "cloppy" sandal.
How long I will be willing to fuss with putting on my Mohops? Will I gain finesse and speed as I get accustomed to taking them off and putting them on? Or will I tire and grow impatient for the days of easy slip-ons such as the carefree, old style flip flop.
Time will tell.
Time will tell.
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| Try it for yourself - could you get your foot in here? |
Update 2016: I lost, somehow, the entire bag of ribbons. They must be in my bedroom somewhere, but for the past year I have not been able to find them. They now have pink and black ribbons laced into them. I put them on exactly once this summer, and after taking a few steps, took them off again. They were slipping off...
