Clothes maketh a man, and in tango, shoes maketh a woman. When the woman steps on the dancefloor and makes those beautiful adornments with her feet, all eyes are on her shoes.

The tiny, glittering, piece of leather that wraps tightly around her feet, protecting, beautifying. And in Buenos Aires the Manolo Blahnik of the tango shoe world is called; Comme Il Faut.

Comme Il Faut; a famous tango piece by Di Sarli; french for 'it's the necessary standard'. Indeed the shoeline has become the yardstick that separates the exclusive taste and the rest.

My first trip to the one and only Comme Il Faut shop in Buenos Aires was an intimidating experience. Apart from intruding an exclusively women's realm, I entered the little classily designed white room and found nothing on display. Luckily for my virgin trip to Comme Il Faut, Royce was with me.

We settled down on a plush european sofa and got served by a well dressed lady. Royce started to ask for shoes, giving her some specifics like colour, size, designs. The lady took note and then disappeared into the warehouse, appearing later with several boxes, revealing some of the most elegant shoes I've seen. To my surprise, Royce took one look at them and said, 'No.' She then gave the lady furthur specifics and finally, on the third round of display, I got to see the best of Comme Il Faut. It was then I knew why Royce said no on the first round. Compared to the beauties that were in front of me, the very elegant shoes from the first round appeared extremely plain.

It was then it dawned on me. You don't choose the shoes; Comme Il Faut chooses the shoes for you. Depending on how well dressed you are, how many pairs of shoes you buy, most importantly, how much they like you. Royce then explained to me, I have to know what I want and then I have to be able to dig them out of the sales lady.

This sales strategy baffled me at first, but looking around me, I saw ladies in the crowded little room buying five, ten pairs. Slowly I came to realise this air of exclusivity was what contributed to the Comme Il Faut phenomenom: To be able to own one means you are someone.

Royce had since left for Tokyo. And I found myself in a situation where I had to go alone to Comme Il Faut to buy shoes for some friends in Singapore. How do I, a young chinese lad from Singapore, that speaks minimum spanish, charm Comme Il Faut? I was at quite a lost. Several strategy occured but they were either filthy or too violent.

But this writer has the brains. :) If men are from Mars and women are from Venus, what better to let a beautiful Venusian who speaks perfect spanish do my job instead.

Enter Ana Karin from Sweden, a fellow hostelite who dances samba, speaks perfect spanish and has them beautiful spanish eyes inherited from her mother, a Spain native.

So I did my research on the type of shoes I wanted, invited Ana to come with me to Comme Il Faut.

They loved her in Comme Il Faut. Every round was the best they got. I made half my purchases from the very first round of shoe display.

I didn't have to dig at all. :)

Ana, me and the shoes