Shuesday: Girl of 1,000 Shoes

Zia Ziprin has the Best Job Ever!

In the back of Girls Love Shoes, her vintage store on Hester Street in the Lower East Side, Ms. Ziprin presides over what she believes is the only shoe archive in the city. Soon after she started selling vintage shoes in 2002, Ms. Ziprin, a doe-eyed designer with a perky manner, noticed that shoe designers were snatching up pairs they liked for inspiration and research. This did not make her happy. "It got painful to sell my most beautiful shoes," she said wistfully as she stood near the color-coordinated racks in the back of her store. "I'm attached to them." A friend suggested that she curate a selection of her favorite shoes like a museum exhibit and make them available for rent. Thus, Ms. Ziprin's 1,000-pair archive was born, filled with shoes that rent for $60 a week, or $350 for a 12-week season.

She's just so entrepreneurial! (in addition to being 'perky').