Posted on: Friday, January 17, 2003
HAWAIIAN STYLE
Hawai'i's 'first lady of shoes' has a style all her own
Carmen Fuertes Vierra is a "shoe-in" as Imelda Marcos.
Not that this attractive Filipino woman bears a strong resemblance to the Philippines' former first lady and beauty queen, but she does have 250 pairs of shoes — and matching outfits in the same fabrics.
Make that 250 and counting!
Such a clotheshorse was this Garden Isle country girl that she didn't have to add a thing, wardrobe-wise, after graduating in 1963 from Waimea High School before moving to Honolulu for business college and work at Bank of Hawaii.
Having sewn since eighth grade, she had more than the required number of coordinating skirts and blouses and jumpers for the "real world."
Over the years, she sewed her husband's aloha shirts, daughters' prom gowns and school clothes.
"I hate to brag," said Vierra, 58, "but I (even) did weddings."
For her own part, though, she favored things "loud" — reds and purples, she said, that often led to ribbing by friends.
"Well, no car's going to hit you in THAT outfit," they would tease. Or, noting her penchant for the bright and bold, "your roots are showing," they would kid, not referring to her hair color.
"You know how we Filipinos are," she said. "They call me 'Hawai'i's Imelda.' "
She has her own style, say bank co-workers. "Someday like Mamo," she says wistfully, "there'll be 'A Carmen!' "
At some point, as recycling became the rage, Vierra began pairing slightly dated shoes with leftover bits of fabric from outfits she had sewn. Matching head-to-toe became her trademark.
Soon, not only outfits but shoes as well — hundreds of them — began spilling out of closets and what little empty space remained in her two-bedroom Makiki/
Mo'ili'ili apartment. Shoes began popping up in clear closet storage boxes and resealable bags and stacked on shelves.
Husband Sam just grins and bears it, she said — never a complaint. Typical guy, he owns but four pairs of shoes.
She now has more shoes than outfits, adding about 25 more pairs a year.
She spends an average of $30 to $40 per pair, although her pride and joy is a $230 pair of magenta suede boots.
Birthday and Christmas gifts will most likely be more footwear, she said, and relatives in Texas ferret out shoes from outlet stores for her. She's size 6 1/2.A few hours' work with fabric and glue transforms an "Ugly Jane" pair of shoes to a "Carmen." Fearing flooding "the market" and diluting her own uniqueness, she politely refuses friends' requests for custom "Carmens."
And while most of her shoes are modest, tasteful 2-inch medium pumps, the shoes she wears to work each year on Elvis' birthday are stiletto heels, adorned with a portrait-of-Elvis button to match her Elvis outfit. It's all complemented, tastefully of course, with an Elvis watch.
Bank customers have noticed her sartorial splendor. Usually they check out her shoes first, even before greeting her. Many have dubbed her the Wai'alae-Kahala branch's "Best Dressed." Heck, again a "shoe-in."
Currently, she has fabric touting Bank of Hawaii's pig-themed "Bonus Rate Savings" made into a T-shirt dress and "pig" shoes. For Aloha Week, she coordinates bank aloha fabric with shoes.
Although her shoes are not mentioned in her will, one sister-in-law is "already standing in line" for them, she said. "She already has (her own matching) outfits ready to go."
One problem Vierra has is schlepping all her shoes along on Neighbor Island bank business trips.
"Just bring your black shoes," her boss insists. "No one will notice your shoes on Lana'i."
No problem for "The Shoe Lady."
"I 'interbranched' the shoes," she said, routing them through the bank's mail system so they would be there on her arrival.
Always a step ahead.
The Advertiser's Wade Kilohana Shirkey is kumu of Na Hoaloha O Ka Roselani No'eau halau. He writes on Island life.
