Pairs Of Shoes

When the sun bears down and the mercury rises, nothing wears better than cool, forgiving linen. It's breezy and comfortable and has a way of looking rich, even if the clothes were purchased at bargain-basement prices. WONDERING IF YOU WERE GLIMPSED? Check out baltimoresun.com / glimpsed for additional photos of fashion-forward locals and a critique by fashion writer Tanika White of the styles she saw around town. NICK JONES Age: 47 Residence: West Baltimore Job: Home improver Self-described style: "Excellent."

Dina Klicos, a veteran of Baltimore's volunteer community, has put in untold hours ensuring the success of benefit parties, dinners, balls and 5-K races.The result? A great network of like-minded friends and a flexible wardrobe that easily slides from her day job as the Greater Baltimore Medical Center Foundation's director of annual gifts and special events, to occasions like "The Chocolate Affair." This event, to benefit the Center for Poverty Solutions, takes place from 6 to 9 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 28, at the Museum of Industry.

Dorinda Tolson went to Catonsville Community College to learn how to transform rooms. Instead, she learned how to transform shoes. While studying interior design, the self-confessed shoe fetishist also took an art class that introduced her to the wonderful world of colors and how a dab of this and that can create any number of wondrous hues and shades. The result is a cottage industry called Step On It. Tolson, of Randallstown, runs the business with her brother.But Tolson, who works by day in the express mail department of the U.S. Postal Service, is about more than shoes.

Iris Hill Green, a medical secretary and Middle River mother of two, knows the best time for shopping: on her lunch hour, when no one's pulling at her to detour into the toy store.During the work week, she'll sneak away to the Fashion Bug or White Marsh Mall, to browse uninterrupted. Green is also aware that looking good is a part of her job. "Doctors like it when you reflect their office," she says. Even during Saturday morning office hours, Green comes to work in a flowing summer dress made of her favorite fabric, rayon.

NEWSWEEK magazine reported today that it has obtained transcripts of tape-recorded conversations between Sun columnist Susan Reimer and herself.Apparently unable to get her husband and children to listen to her, Reimer has been thinking out loud recently, the newsweekly reported, and her so-called dearest friends have been recording her comments in an apparent attempt to bolster their own grand jury testimony and to protect themselves against any future appearances...

Ed Perry has shoes. Lots of shoes. Thousands of pairs of shoes, all in bags in his living room.Perry has been collecting shoes -- new and secondhand -- since January for the Our Little Brothers and Sisters orphanage in Kenscoff, Haiti, about an hour's drive from the capital, Port-au-Prince. The shoes will be given to about 400 children -- from toddlers to older teens."I was talking to a friend of mine in January when I was down there [in Haiti]," he said. "He dropped off some money for some of the older kids to buy themselves some shoes.

"Have gavel will travel," is auctioneer Ann von Forthuber's motto, and she has the wardrobe to back it up. On any given day, "I don't know if I'm going to meet an attorney in an office in downtown Washington, and then going to an abandoned warehouse with no electric and heat, or whether I'll be talking to very simple folk after the passing of a loved one and what they want to do with the property," says von Forthuber, who operates Auction and Estate Representatives in Baltimore. "My clothes have to keep up with me."

"The Ethics of International Relations" will be the theme of the four-day 35th annual Naval Academy Foreign Affairs Conference, which begins Monday.About 180 student delegates from more than 100 colleges in the United States and eight other countries will gather for meetings, speeches and discussions of global events.Speakers will include Rushworth Kidder, president of the Institute for Global Ethics, at 2:15 p.m. Monday in Alumni Hall; Paul D. Wolfowitz, dean of the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at the Johns Hopkins University, 1 p.m. Tuesday in Alumni Hall; and Hanna Suchocka, former prime minister of Poland, 7:45 p.m. Wednesday in King Hall.

When life changes, Alice Caplan believes your clothes should, too.So after getting separated last year, the 60-year-old secretary cleaned out the closet of her Owings Mills home, trading in her soft culottes and cardigans for classic blazers and scarves.The wardrobe transformation has won praise from friends and colleagues. But the person who seems most delighted is Alice Caplan herself."I meshed my clothes," she says, "with the person I wanted to be."It seems like your change of lifestyle had a profound effect on your style.

"If the shoe fits, wear it. If the shoe doesn't fit but it looks good, wear it anyway."This seems to be the motto of millions of American women who have suffered debilitating problems as a result of wearing ill-fitting shoes. Although shoes are meant to protect the feet from injury, for many women they do just the opposite.The American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons reports that more than 43 million Americans, most of them women, have trouble with their feet, usually from wearing shoes that do not fit. Surveys indicate that 80 percent of women wear shoes that hurt their feet, and more than 70 percent of women have developed painful foot deformities as a result.

David Joseph Kessler, former president and owner of Kessler Shoe Manufacturing Co., whose Mother Goose line of shoes was worn by generations of children throughout the nation, died Monday of heart disease at Gilchrist Hospice Care. The longtime Pikesville resident was 88. Born in Baltimore, the son of an immigrant shoemaker from Europe, Mr. Kessler was raised in Northwest Baltimore. During the 1920s, his father made $40-a-pair hand-turned women's shoes. "They were made so well that you could fold them up and put them in your pocket.

Stylish Brigit Bowers has a philosophy about fashion: "Fashion is a means of individual expression, transforming and changing along with your life's phases and experiences." Right now, this 21-year-old Roland Park resident is experiencing her summer job as a hostess at Salt Restaurant before beginning her senior year at Vanderbilt University. But, we'd say her fashion reflects an individual expression that promises a chic future. Age: : 21 Residence: : Roland Park Job: : Vanderbilt University senior, part-time hostess at Salt Self-described style: : "Individualized, neutral, dynamic and classically contemporary."

A mobile shoe store stocked with more than 1,000 pairs of sneakers and steel-toed boots was stolen from a Glen Burnie parking lot, a store employee and police said. The 28-foot box truck - stripped bare - was recovered in Baltimore County hours after the theft Thursday from the parking lot behind the Red Wing Shoes retail store and warehouse in the 7100 block of Ritchie Highway, said Karen Gower, the industrial sales manager. She said she lost about 1,140 pairs of shoes, socks and shoe inserts, worth about $150,000.

The little one said a lot. Anchoring a row of nine nicely manicured toenails across Kelly Thomasson's flip-flops was one that was not only unshellacked, but altogether missing. The 28-year-old recreational runner from Pasadena had been wearing shoes that were too small, and the constant jamming of her feet into the tops of her sneakers took its toll - a common mistake that causes untold pain and, according to her and her husband, unsightly feet. At stake were her regular workouts on the road and at the gym. A friend and more experienced runner recommended she get some professional help, not from a doctor but an experienced retailer.

When Kim and Brian Gross picked up their 1-year-old daughter Riley from day care, she was often barefoot -- even in the winter. Because the child's shoes were hard-soled, the day care workers took them off to let the youngster toddle more easily. It was only a matter of time before the socks came off, too. Frustrated in their search to find shoes flexible enough for their young child to wear through the day, the Cockeysville couple decided to design their own. Now Rileyroos, as the shoes are called, are sold in stores in Maryland and beyond.

When the sun bears down and the mercury rises, nothing wears better than cool, forgiving linen. It's breezy and comfortable and has a way of looking rich, even if the clothes were purchased at bargain-basement prices. WONDERING IF YOU WERE GLIMPSED? Check out baltimoresun.com / glimpsed for additional photos of fashion-forward locals and a critique by fashion writer Tanika White of the styles she saw around town. NICK JONES Age: 47 Residence: West Baltimore Job: Home improver Self-described style: "Excellent."

You know a confident woman when you see one. There's something in her stride, in her lifted chin. Her complexion glows, her posture commands attention. Something about a confident woman makes you want to know her, or at least know more about her. Mary Kay Ash, the late founder of Mary Kay Cosmetics, once said, "While clothes may not make the woman, they certainly have a strong effect on her self-confidence - which, I believe, does make the woman." Which is exactly why we wanted to get to know the four fashionable women profiled below.

Diane Bell McKoy, 55, describes herself as a constant shopper. But not for material things. She's shopping for donors. As the new CEO of Maryland's largest African-American philanthropic organization, she's focused on reaching out to the community. "When I'm out in public for different events, I'm always shopping for opportunities to make connections," says Bell McKoy, who lives in Ten Hills. She is also writing a book and continuing to mentor young women. Perhaps a donation of one's time is the best gift of all. 1 Treo Smartphone "A PDA [personal digital assistant]

Myrna Kaplan had already picked out one pair of shoes by Olivia Rose Tal, and was trying on another. She liked the stylish wedge, but didn't love it. If only the front had a neat little twist, like another pair she had at home. That twist was so snappy. And comfortable. "Can you do a black twist?" Kaplan, of Guilford, asked Dorinne Tal, the shoes' designer, as she waved the sample shoe in the air. "Of course!" Tal said, her favorite phrase of the afternoon. And with that happy accommodation, Kaplan bought that pair of wedges, plus three more.

By Nadine Khtikian's count, Americans can do their part to end poverty in west Africa just by donating a pair of used sneakers. It may seem an odd approach, but since January, Khtikian has been collecting athletic shoes from around Baltimore with the aim of shipping thousands of sneakers to Ghana, where they will be refurbished and sold. Half of the proceeds will go toward training a needy farm family in environmentally sound agricultural techniques. At $3 each, 500 pairs of shoes will pay for a water pump, a well, a bicycle, chickens, assorted trees and additional items.