I had not worn a heel in nine years. This is a letter about the pair that ended that
I had not worn a heel in nine years. This is a letter about the pair that ended that
Six things the Florence gets right that heels get wrong, from a woman who had made her peace with flats.
Peggy Dalton · Customer · Austin, Texas · 5 min read
Nine years ago I took off a pair of heels under a table at a wedding and never put another pair on. I am 63, I do not work for anybody, and I have never sold a shoe in my life. What I have done is buy heels, for thirty years before that, and take most of them off under tables. So this is not a review. It is a woman who thought her heel days were over, saying otherwise.
The pair I am writing about is called the Florence, from Iris & Nora, a small boutique here in Austin that has been quietly dressing women our age for a few years now. I first saw them on a woman at my niece’s rehearsal dinner, and when the boutique later asked if they could put my letter up for others to read, I said yes, on the condition I could be completely honest in it.
Here is what thirty years of heels taught me. They come in two piles. The pile that looks wonderful and hurts by the appetizer, so you spend the evening calculating the distance to your chair. And the sensible pile, which does not hurt and does not do anything else either. Somewhere around sixty I stopped buying from either pile and quietly became a woman in flats at every party.
Standing tall and counting the minutes, or comfortable and looking down at everyone. I chose flats, and I missed the height more than I let on.
The Florence is the first heel I have owned that refuses both piles, and having stood in them from cocktails to the last dance, I can tell you it comes down to six things.
The morning they arrived. Green, which I never buy, and a heel, which I never buy. I nearly sent them back unopened.
You stand on the heel, you do not balance on it
The heel is a wide square block, not a spike and not a wedge. Your weight sits on something the size of a matchbox rather than the size of a pencil, so there is no wobble on a lawn, no teetering on a step, and no ankle doing overtime all evening. I walked across gravel in them. On purpose.
The block heel and the little platform. This is the whole engineering.
First heel in a decade I could walk on grass in. The block heel is the reason. Steady as a flat, tall as a heel.
Carol R., Round RockThe height you see is more than the height you feel
There is a little platform under the toe, so your foot is not tipped forward the way it is in a normal heel. You get the lift without the slope, which is the difference between an evening and an ordeal. I did not know I needed that explained until I felt it.
The little platform means my foot sits flatter. Looks like a proper heel, feels like a much smaller one.
Diane M., GeorgetownThe toe is wide and open
Nothing is pinched, nothing is pointed, and your toes are not being asked to share a space designed for someone with fewer of them. Wide and open, the way a summer shoe should be, and it looks elegant rather than clumpy while it does it.
Room for my toes at last. Wide, open, and still a pretty shoe. I did not think that combination existed.
Patricia L., Cedar ParkThe straps cross and hold, and there is nothing to fiddle with
Two wide bands cross over the top of your foot and hold it there. No buckle to do up, no strap to adjust, no bending. You slide your foot in and you are shod. At my age I count that as a feature worth paying for on its own.
The two straps crossed over. They hold the foot without holding you up in the morning.
Slide in and go. No buckles, no bending, and the crossed straps keep my foot exactly where it should be.
Linda K., San MarcosThe back is open, so they come off in one movement
Which matters at the end of the night, and it matters in the car, and it matters at the door. No unbuckling, no hopping. Off, and done. They are the easiest heels I have ever owned to get out of, and, more to the point, the first pair I have not wanted to.
Backless means they slip straight off in the car after. Though honestly I kept them on till I got home.
Janet S., New BraunfelsThree colors, one black sole, everything in your closet
The green I own, a black and a brown, and every one of them sits on the same black sole and heel, so they go with the navy dress and the white trousers and the linen skirt without a moment’s thought. I went back for the black. The woman from the rehearsal dinner owns all three, and I understand why.
The three of them on the bed. Same heel, same sole, three different evenings.
Bought the green for a wedding and the black for everything else. They go with every dress I own.
Maureen T., PflugervilleThe Florence, against the heels you have been buying
You can find a pair of dressy sandals for eighty dollars almost anywhere. I know, because I have a shelf of them, each worn to one event and taken off under one table. Here is the difference, laid out plainly.
A spike or a wedge, wobbling on anything but tile
Foot tipped forward, sore by the appetizer
A pointed toe with no room in it
Buckles to fasten, straps to adjust
Off under the table by nine
A square block heel you stand on
A little platform, so the height you see is more than the height you feel
A wide, open, elegant toe
Crossed straps that hold, nothing to fiddle with
Open back, off in one movement, when you want
About the price
The Florence is $39.95 at the moment. It was $80.00.
I will pass on what the boutique told me, which is that this is their final summer sale as they close this chapter of the shop, and once this stock is gone, it is gone. Their words, not mine. What I can tell you from my side is that at that price I did not deliberate long over the black, and that the middle sizes were already thin when I went back.
I also did what I imagine you are doing now and read the reviews before I ordered. Just over three hundred of them, sitting at 4.2 stars. Not the suspiciously perfect five you see on some websites, which if I am honest made me trust it rather more. The same six things I have just walked you through come up in them, over and over, in other women’s words.
By the front door, where the shoes I actually wear live. They have moved in.
If you have made your peace with flats but you miss standing tall at a party, this is the pair I would put in your hands myself, while your size is still there.
Peggy
FLORENCE | Block-Heel Slide Sandals
- Square block heel you stand on, not balance on
- Little platform under the toe, height without the slope
- Wide open toe, nothing pinched
- Crossed straps that hold, no buckles
- Open back, slide on and off
- Green, black or brown, US 5 to 10
- FREE shipping & 100% happiness guarantee
Final summer sale on now. The middle sizes go first.