Thinking shopper

It’s shoetime – and we don’t mean flip-flops

If you’re ready to ease back into ‘real’ shoes, go gradually – your post-lockdown feet will thank you, says Emily Cronin

Have you made your re-entry yet? I don’t mean into the world/the pub/your best friend’s house, but into your regular shoes.

If you’re anything like me, you probably spent most of lockdown barefoot, slipping into sandals and trainers when absolutely necessary (the latter only for thrice-weekly Couch to 5K sessions). You’ve no doubt made leaps and bounds in your tolerance for strange footwear. Maybe you moved from viewing Crocs as a crime against style to thinking, ‘Those strawberryprinted ones are kind of cute.’ Maybe you’re reading this wearing a previously unthinkable combination of socks and sandals. All of which will make the prospect of going back to proper shoes pretty daunting.

Trust me, I’ve tried. I spent a good half hour trying on every shoe in my wardrobe. Yes, even the boots. All in the interest of discerning whether it would feel like reacquainting with old friends or like light bondage. It was the latter, and not in a fun way. After squeezing my feet into pointy-toed slingbacks (which theoretically I adore, but haven’t been able to bring myself to wear in over a year), I tiptoed toward the full-length mirror, and saw… Someone who no longer knew how to walk in heels. They looked ridiculous. Not that I dwelt on it, because they also pinched insistently enough that I shucked them off pretty quickly.

Footwear must be the one area in which easing lockdown has an inverse relationship with a feeling of liberation. For our toes.

So as we all start going places beyond our front gardens, what should we wear on our feet? Make the move back into real shoes a gradual one. Consider your choice of footwear by its degree of rigour, and work your way up the scale one step at a time. On the lowest level (Level One) are the flat sandals and trainers our feet have relaxed into. One step up are low block heels – we’re fortunate that it’s summer, the season of open toes (but sadly not salon pedicures – yet). Then, on Shoe Level Three, if you will, are the closed-toed mules or kitten-heeled shoes of the sort you’d have thought nothing of wearing to work before All This. Above that is anything pointy (shudder), and above that, anything embellished enough to be a centrepiece of a look, or with a threeinch-plus heel.

But do we really want to make it back to Shoe Level Five? Some people insist that they’re excited to get back into sparkly party heels. I can see this, but maybe not until winter. And then, only if I have the promise of comfy slippers waiting at home. Shoe Level Zero: now you’re talking.

DRESS, £85, and STRAPPY SANDALS, £85, both & Other Stories (stories.com)