Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Fanfic Related Random questions about Lois

For all those out there, who know so much more than I...

Can tiramisu be chocolate?

And, if Lois were wearing some really nice, expensive shoes out to a fairly formal dinner date with Clark, what brand name would they be?

I have no idea how authentic they are, but there are recipes for chocolate tiramisu online. here is one just to get you started.

Joy,
Lynn

In my mind, something like Chanel or Prada (in other words, classic) seem to be brands Lois would go for. She's definitely not a Manolos kind of girl.

Could Lois afford Prada?

What would be the cost of Chanel or Prada shoes back in 1995? Is Prada much more expensive? And where would Lois get shoes like this? Would there be a Chanel or Prada store in Metropolis somewhere, or are they sold through the high-end department stores?

I am not sure what they would have cost then. I would guess somewhere around $300-600 on average, but that's a total guess! I found some sites that may be helpful. It seems Chanel is slightly less expensive than Prada (I found one site that says the average Chanel shoes are $100-$300) and yes, Lois would have bought them in a high-end department store. I think a good model for this store is Bergdorf Goodman on Fifth Ave in NYC -- they are also really famous for their amazing window displays.

Some other sites that may be useful:
Prada shoes
Chanel shoes

Have fun making our girl stylish!

Well, assuming that prices and costs of living in Metropolis are similar to New York, we can make some guesses about what Lois's finances are like. We know that Clark's apartment, which was a dump when he rented it was going for $900 a month in 1993. Lois's apartment, presumably was somewhat more pricy.

According to this site:
http://nyjobsource.com/salary/media.html

The average new york reporter earns $59,440 a year.

According to the inflation calculator, found here:

http://www.westegg.com/inflation/

$59,440 in 2009 would be worth $41,429.44 in 1995.

Assuming Lois's salary isn't hugely greater than other reporters, she was making a little over $40,000 a year. Her rent may have been as high as $1500 a month (or $18,000 a year.)

Could she have afforded Prada? Maybe...but I doubt she could have filled her whole warddrobe with it.

We even have an idea about how much Lois had saved up. She bid on Superman at the Superman auction with money she'd planned on using for a Tahiti vacation. I don't remember how much money that was. Maybe someone else can enlighten us?

I found something:

From the script :

Kathryn

Edit:

Here is the episode with the auction

I\'m looking through you

And then:

Just my two cents...

If this is first or second season Lois, I don't see her as a Prada owner. I would expect something more like Nine West. It's just my perception that someone who wore their hair in a bob as she wants something that looks nice with very little effort, also wouldn't be spending a lot on shoes. This maybe me, as I'm very fashion illiterate, but I think of Nine West as more shoes that an average person would buy - not terribly expensive, but they do the job, are comfortable enough, etc.

For reasons I can't explain, I can more easily see Lois from later seasons splurging on Prada. Maybe because as the show progressed, Lois
seemed a little less "all business" and practical and more likely to indulge on things.

Wow! Thanks, everyone, for the great info! I'm not sure yet how it's going to fit into my fic, but I'm sure I'll use it.

I agree that Lois would be more practical - especially seeing as how she probably often "loses" shoes to the job like at the Metropolis Reclamation Center or whatever it was called.

And as a point of interest, Teri Hatcher wears a size 10 shoe. You ask how I know that? Well, I always wondered how in the world Superman could have fit his feet into Lois' shoes in 'The Eyes Have It'. Of course, I still don't know if it's really plausible because, while Teri Hatcher's shoe size is easily found on the internet, Dean Cain's shoe size is not.

I read somewhere once that Dean's shoe size is 12. Judging from seeing his feet, in shoes, in person, I'd say that's probably right. So, I don't think he wore Teri's size 10's. And wow! I didn't realize her feet were that big! I have big feet, for a woman, and let me tell ya', finding the 'boat' section when you go to buy shoes is harder for women than it is men. And that's when I look for sneakers. I can imagine what it would like looking for heels! (Good thing I don't wear them. )

SQD

Have you ever tried the men's section for tennis shoes, SQD? I used to buy them. I was thinking I used to get size 6 mens which is 2 sizes less than what I wear in women's. I found this link that suggests that, as a rule, mens's shoe sizes are two sizes less than women's: web page

There is also a shot of Superman flying with Lois in his arms and you can see that Teri has feet on the large size.

Depending on where you live, it can be easier to find large size dress shoes / heels. When I lived in Columbus, Ohio, it was actually harder for me to find size 8's in dress shoes. It was quite common to find dress shoes and heels in women's sizes 11, 12, and even 13.

I don't have a clue what brand shoes Lois might wear, but I do agree her clothing got more up-scale in Season 3 than it had been in S1 and S2.

As for this: You are absolutely right about that. I wear a 10 or 11, depending on the style, and it often seems like all that is available are heels. I'm tall enough as it is, I don't need to be walking around in 3 inch heels, but that seems to by what the shoe manufacturers want me to wear. <shakes head>

Here are my two cents, both as a fashion lover and a journalist.

Even for being a reporter at a major metropolitan newspaper, Lois dressed a lot nicer than many of her real-life counterparts. I worked at a paper that would compete with The Daily Planet in terms of circulation, and most of the reporters wore slacks and nice tops, or even jeans and sweaters. Only the upper management wore suits and the like on most days. And don't even get me started on copy editors such as myself ... Most of them (not including myself) figure that they aren't going to be seen outside the newsroom so they wear whatever the heck they want, including sweatpants. No joke.

I can see Lois wearing some nicer heels that she got from Nordstrom or Macy's, but nothing more expensive than that, since she does a lot of running around and going undercover. I figured the shoes she ruined in "Ultrawoman" were a nice leather pair, but nothing designer. While Teri Hatcher is definitely a Manolo Blahnik kind of girl, Lois is more likely to wear heels that she can chase bad guys in. I actually have a black strappy pair of heels VERY similar to the ones she wore in the opening scene of "Lucky Leon," and they were about $80 at Nordstrom. Most of the truly designer shoes -- Blahniks, Stuart Weitzman, etc., have VERY high heels.

As for the clothes, I can also see Lois buying a few nice suits a couple times a year at the aforementioned department stores starting from the time she got hired in her early 20s because she wanted to make a good impression and be taken seriously. I actually have a book about TV fashion and L&C had a section and Judith Brewer Curtis, the show's costumer, said that she dressed Teri in a lot of Calvin Klein (including most of her coats) and pieces from Barneys New York's signature collection. But here's the catch -- I don't think the viewers were supposed to THINK Lois was wearing designer clothes. They just happen to look and fit well. Kind of like how the most basic T-shirts that the guys on "Friends" wore could have been $250 a pop. The designer and price was for the actor, not the character. And Lois wouldn't likely be able to afford Prada or Chanel -- we're talking about purses that are, on average, $3,000. I could, however, see Ellen having something by one of those designers -- and Lois having contempt for what she would likely see as a shallow display of materialism. I mean, seriously, the woman doesn't even carry a purse half the time, just a briefcase.

Oh, and this is a side comment, the average salary for a reporter in New York that Shane posted factors in that some of the biggest newspapers in the country -- Newsday and the New York Times and Post -- are there, and that doesn't say whether those are reporters working for papers IN New York, as opposed to just living there, i.e. reporters who work for the Wall Street Journal in New Jersey. That is going to significantly up the median salary, as opposed to other states.

I can't recall which episode, but there is a very funny scene in which Lois is ordering shoes by phone from a catalog. She goes through a whole litany of numbers: shoe size ( I beilieve it was 7), catalog number, credit card number etc...and then she is told that the shoe is out of stock. I seem to remember that it was quite a coup on Teri's part to finally get all the numbers right and the scene in the can.

Perhaps someone remembers which episode that was.

Jude

Actually, I'd say that Lois's income will be somewhat higher than the average posted on the website Shayne referred to (adjustments for inflation obviously being necessary). If we're to take it that the Daily Planet is a stand-in for the New York Times (i.e., having one of the biggest circulations in the country and a daily, general interest paper covering the city, country, and world), New York Times reporters are going to make considerably more than their colleagues at New York's many, many other papers (the WSJ being the exception). My friends who work for the Times in various capacities, all make substantially more than the average posted on the site. New York has a ton of other papers, including the Post, the Globe, the Daily News, the Village Voice, and the hundred or so ethnic or country-specific news sources, like the Russian Bazaar and Urdu Times. These papers, with their much smaller circulations and reduced ability to command top dollar from advertisers pay their reporters a lot less than the New York Times does. At the beginning of the show, Lois has about four years' experience at the Planet, plus three Kerth Awards, so she's probably gotten a couple of raises.

I would liken it to the site's report on average lawyer salaries. It states that average to be $140,000 in 2011 dollars. But a fourth year associate at one of New York's top 100 law firms will actually make over $200,000. So despite being relatively junior, their salary is substantially higher than the average for the entire city (which is substantially higher than the country as a whole).

I'd roughly guess Lois's salary in 1994 to have been about $60,000, but I think Shayne's dead on in terms of what her apartment would have cost.

As far as the shoes go, I'm guessing Lois does indeed have a lot of pairs of something sensible, like Nine West shoes in her closet (though she does dress up a heck of a lot more than my reporter friends). However, she's probably got at least a few pairs of Stuart Weitzman's or Pradas or the like in her closet for when she dresses up for things like the White Orchid Ball.


Rac (a proud, long-time New Yorker, temporarily in exile on another continent).

Lois is also a native and knows people who know people. She can probably get stuff at half price from gray market places.