One of the perks of my job is that I get to travel quite a bit (follow along on Instagram). Last week, I visited New York. My days were packed with meetings and taxi and subway rides to meetings, but at the end of one of the days I found some time to duck into a Paul Andrew shoes sale.

One of the things I love most about New York is the shopping. Two days before I left for the trip, I saw on Paul Andrew’s Instagram page that he was having a sample sale in midtown Manhattan, two of the days I was going to be in the city. Since I was staying in Hell’s Kitchen, it was only a few avenues and couple blocks north of where I was staying.

I’ve only been to a couple sample sales in my life, on previous trips to New York. I left both of them empty-handed because the rooms were too tightly packed with people and products, and it all felt too overwhelming.

The Paul Andrew shoes sale was completely different. I went on the second day of the sale, only a couple hours before it was ending. Even with my late arrival, there were still plenty of shoes left, in all sizes, and a wide range of styles, materials and colors.

If you haven’t heard of Paul Andrew before, he’s known for his ultra-high-heels with interesting cutouts and beautiful craftsmanship. I’m a sucker for pretty shoes, and I’ve been eyeing his pointed toe heels with the unique cut-outs for awhile.

When I first arrived at the sample sale, a tall blonde woman welcomed me and asked what size I wore. She pointed me toward my size. The shoes were perfectly lined up on white shelves lining a white-walled room.

Although the space wasn’t very large, there were only two or three other 20 or 30 somethings in the room with me. I tried on several pairs of heels, and after about 30 minutes of trying on nearly every pair of 39s and 40s in the store, I decided on four pairs to take home. I know — four pairs is a lot, but I had a hard time even narrowing it down to four! I loved so many of them.

My favorite pair, and the pair the sales associates gushed over, are these Spring 2015 Tempest suede and snakeskin lace-up heels. They are totally impractical for my life, but just too pretty (and too good of a deal!) to pass up.

My trip to NYC was a lot of fun. My work meetings went even better than I expected, I got catch-up with one of my long-time high school friends, and, one of the best parts was getting to try on so many lovely Paul Andrew shoes and walk away with four pairs at less than the retail price of one! If you’re ever in NYC, you’ve got to find out if there are going to be any sample sales. 

Of all the shoes I tried, which pair do you like best?