There she was, on the subway. She was wearing a lovely, bubble-hemmed rain jacket, carrying an adorable parasol, but all Ireallysaw were her shoes. Oh, they might not be your taste, but for me, those nude-colored, peeped-toed, triangle-heeled sling backs were the cutest shoes I’d seen in all of Manhattan.

Just as I was figuring out my opening line — we Midwesterners are a bit timid when approaching New Yorkers — the train came to a stop, and she hopped off, taking the secret of the shoes with her.

Believe me, I searched. I dragged my poor friend into every shoe shop we encountered, looking for those shoes with no luck.

So how does one find shoes without a brand or style name? Here’s what I learned in my pursuit:

/b Endless.com and Zappos.com both allow you to make an acute search by color, brand, shoe type, heel type and price. If you don’t know the brand, you can search by as many variables as you like, until you either find what you’re looking for or something very close. The only thing you’ll lose are the hours spent searching.