A letter from a reader

At 63, I stopped believing a comfortable shoe could also be one I was happy to be seen in

I have never written one of these before, and I nearly did not. But I have said this to enough friends now that it seemed easier to just write it down.

For about ten years my feet gave me the same losing choice every morning. There were the pretty shoes, the ones I bought because they looked lovely in the box, and by lunchtime I was walking in my stockings with them hanging off two fingers. And there were the comfortable ones, flat and sensible, the kind that do not hurt but that I would quietly slip off under the table because I did not much want anyone looking at them.

Pretty, or comfortable. It always seemed I could have one, never both.

So most days I gave up and wore the sensible ones, and kept my feet tucked under my chair.

Then I saw them on a woman at the market

She was about my age and moving easily around the stalls in what I took for a smart little loafer, a soft beige knit with a neat gold buckle on the front. I assumed they cost a fortune. When I asked, she laughed and told me they were the most comfortable thing she owned, and that they were built like a sneaker underneath.

They are from Iris & Nora, a little boutique here that has been quietly dressing women our age for a few years now. They do a whole collection of these everyday orthopedic shoes. I ordered mine that evening.

What happened at the lunch

I wore them to a lunch here in town on a busy Saturday.

Three women stopped to ask me about them before we had even ordered. One of them was my friend Sue, who I have known since our kids were little and who has never once said a word about anything I have worn. She told me I looked like I had made an effort. I had made almost none, which is rather the point.

What stayed with me, though, was that I did not think about my feet once. There is a cushioned sole and a soft insole under you the whole day, so they do not ache the way they used to by three o'clock. I have barely taken them off since, to the market, to dinner, round the garden of an evening.

Three things I have learned since

One. It does the impossible thing. It looks like a proper shoe and it feels like a slipper. The clean shape and the little gold buckle do the work, so all I did was step into them.

Two. Comfortable and nice-looking are not opposites. The orthopedic sole and soft insole keep me easy on my feet all day, and I am still happy to be seen in them, which I had honestly stopped expecting from a comfort shoe.

Three. Slip-on is a small freedom. The knit is light and breathes, and you step straight in with no bending down and no strap to fuss with. You do not appreciate that until you have it.

About the price

I will be honest, the price made me suspicious more than anything.

It is $51.95. It was $100.00.

My first thought was that there had to be a catch, because a shoe this comfortable that still looks this smart usually costs a good deal more.

There is no catch that I have found. It is a small boutique selling directly, and they run a summer sale to move the season's stock. I read the reviews before I ordered a second color, the way I imagine you are doing now. Just over three hundred of them, sitting at 4.2 stars. Not the suspiciously perfect five you see on some sites, which if anything made me trust it more. The same things kept coming up. One woman had written, “First shoes in years I can be on my feet all day and not slip them off in the car. And they go with everything.” That was the one that decided it for me.

What I would tell you if we were friends

If you and I were sitting on the porch with a glass of iced tea and you asked me, this is what I would say.

If your comfortable shoes are the ones you hide under the table, and your good shoes are the ones that hurt, it is worth ten minutes of an evening to take a look.

Not because a pair of shoes changes anything. It does not. But being comfortable on your feet all day and still liking what you see, at the same time, is a small thing I had stopped expecting, and I would rather you did not stop expecting it either.

The sale is on now, they come in several colors from a US 5.5 to an 11, and the nicest ones go first.

I do not hide my feet under the table anymore.

Peggy