Linda Grant wrote an article in The Guardian the other day about comfortable shoes, and how real people - even, god forbid, stylish people - eschew (haha) the pornographic skyscrapers we're told are fashionable.
I also prefer shoes I can walk in, although I have been known to wear shoes I can't walk in for special occasions (and just because they look wonderful). But day-to-day, I want to be able to negotiate bad paving and city streets and downward slopes and children and all those things that high heels render dangerous.
I like ballet flats, but I don't want to live in ballet flats. I like a bit of heel, but I don't want a stiletto. I do wear Converse if it's the weekend and I'm at kids' sport, but I don't want to pretend to be 15.
So what else is there? I looked at the 'comfort' shoe section of a department store recently, out of curiosity. I wish I hadn't ...
Loafers are everywhere. Alexa Chung may be able to wear them and look cool (with or without irony, that is the postmodern question?). But I fear that if I wore them I'd look like Mutton Dressed as Old Lady. There are other gorgeous classics, like the Roger Vivier Pilgrim, but I fear the same result (even if I could afford them).
I have seen just one shoe shop that has potential. It's near my main client, stocks imported Italian shoes, and seems to have some positively attractive mid-height heels. Thus far, I've only walked past at 8am, too early for it to be open. And by lunchtime, I've been so dispirited/busy/cognisant of my lack of funds, I haven't retraced my steps and gone in.
Next week, if I have to go in for the client, I am going to go into that damn shop.
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6 comments:
I don't suppose that shoe shop has a website? I'm desperate for 2 pairs of shoes, one with comfortable heels and the other a bit like a loafer, or slip on without heels. Come Monday, I'll brave the city and do some searching.
I'm a fan of Fluevog, Arche, Ecco and Think! shoes. All make very cute styles in walkable heels. (1.5 - 2") None of these in any way look like old lady shoes. ;-)
Ma, have a look at the shoe website I sent you - also, I'll email you some others.
Pseu, thanks for the recommendations. We can get some Ecco shoes here, but none of the other brands and I haven't liked any of the Eccos (we get a small range) - definitely have my eye on some Fluevogs when I have the funds. I still love the Franchescas you put me onto! I might have to spend more quality time looking on the internet ...
I found that Linda Grant post rather irritating, actually. Whole tribes of us eschewed bad-for-feet heels and found funky and, we thought, attractive alternatives for decades while our Jimmy Choo, Manolo Blahnik-wearing sisters sneered. Now they're all moving into an age where sore hips and bunions become a concern, they're hopping on the bandwagon as if they invented comfort. I echo Pseu -- Fluevog has been doing funky comfort here in Vanc'r and now far beyond since I was in my 20s. The Spanish company Camper and the German Think! are great, as is El Naturalista (I think also Spanish). Mags is a Dutch shoe -- more for funky city walking than for dressing up, but they're beautifully made, and they're comfy.
Have fun looking . . .
Mater, I can understand your irritation! Thanks for the other tips also. I am definitely going to buy a pair of Fluevog Giulias (the red or the black - oh, the dilemmas!) for next autumn/winter. I think the trick is to avoid the mainstream shoe shops and department stores which seem to sell shoes only for the very young/very rich/very fashionable.
I love my black Giulias and have been debating adding a pair of red ones -- a feisty piano teacher, then in her 70s, used always to sport a pair of red ankle boots with a bit of heel, when I first moved to this city and was part of that music-teacher community. She's been gone almost a decade now, but I still think of how well those red booties conveyed her feisty spirit, and I'd love to follow in those footsteps . . .
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