At some point in my adolescence, motivated presumably by the Grateful Dead/Dave Matthews Band (the same thing as each other in my 11- or 15-year-old mind) aesthetic sweeping the youth, I decided to get Birkenstocks. Even though these fit badly, I somehow got it into my head that this was all that I could wear for summer sandals, as in that anything else would fit wrong.
Then Birks came back, allegedly, and I got a pair in white, and then, a couple years later, in silver. (2010s, thereabouts.) I own both still, but because neither color selection has aged well, certainly not after that many splash-pad visits, I cannot be too enthusiastic about either. I’m not sure if they’re comfortable or if it’s that I wear them with socks (more on that soon).
There was a moment, during my peak Israelophilia (age 22, maybe?) that I got some Naots on West 72nd Street (as one does), and these were on paper what I like in a sandal but also sort of meh and in retrospect rather hideous. I think this style, but with more of a flat sole.
This summer I knew I was beyond due for a new pair of sandals, but also, maybe not? Maybe I’m just not a sandals person. I know I can’t do the flip-flop between-the-toes thing, not for long walks at least. I associate sandals without socks with horrible blisters.
“Dr. Scholls will be my favourite sandal / higher heels than that I cannot handle.”
Pauline Park, I know where you’re coming from.
But I like the idea of being so easy-breezy I have not worn socks on a hot day. Do I want to look like a male German tourist? Is this an expression of my truest self? I feel like no it’s not.
So I told myself I’d get sandals in Europe. What I didn’t take into account was that “Europe” was the shepherding of little children, which isn’t super conducive to shoe-shopping. Attempt 1 was in a shoe store in my husband’s hometown in Belgium, a store I cannot ever again enter it would be too shameful. First there were kid-wrangling issues (no property damage). Then I asked whether if I bought a particular pair they’d be able to punch an additional hole in the strap since it was otherwise too loose and it was as if I’d asked the very proper Belgian saleswoman if she were a cobbler and that is not the same thing and I’d done a breach of manners but the idea was that I needed something to wear for this family gathering and hadn’t wanted to bring too much and surely I’d buy shoes in Europe but this wasn’t happening.
There was some discussion with this shoe saleswoman about how some pair would fit differently if I didn’t have socks on and she said something like, of course you wouldn’t be wearing socks with sandals and I said something like that’s what you think and was promptly ejected from not just the store but the entire continent. OK not quite but it was all too awkward and I didn’t find sandals.
Then we were in Antwerp for the day and when I say that I researched Antwerp shoe shops I mean I did the extent of this that Googling things while dealing with non-sleeping children and my own jetlag at night permitted. I managed to fit in a solo ducking-into-shoe-store and had about three seconds to decide between a couple pairs. Pair 1, ancient-Greece-style flat sandals that looked chic but felt like some Everlane ones I had years ago that looked like they’d be comfortable but were unwearably not that. Pair 2 were these:
Delighted to discover that the high-heeled ones were the vastly more comfortable (and, thanks to some kind of extension of the sales, equally affordable), I went with those of course. I’ll wear them all the time! I said, conveniently forgetting that I spend my shoe-wearing time pulling a wagon with two no-longer-tiny children in it. (In Canada, at-home socializing is shoes-off.) They are comfortable… for platform sandals. Not blister-giving or whatever, but not something I often have occasion to wear.
Then I started seeing women around in these. One was this fahbulous-looking women in her 60s (?), so chic (a scarf even involved, but she wasn’t French!) and I was asking her about the sandals to the point that I missed my stop.
But I couldn’t do it. Reasons being: These are like $40 USD and in Canada with shipping and fees and exchange rates and whatnot, just over $100. It’s not that $100 is unacceptable for sandals but that it is unacceptable for $40 sandals. And: I hadn’t tried them on. What if they’re terrible? How would I know what size to get, and did I want to spend $100 in mailing sandals back and forth? I knew I’d keep whatever I ordered so I couldn’t order these. And: what if they’re too much like kids’ sandals, which would make sense because they are those as well.
But, so nice! And supposedly fine to wear in water!
Then I happened upon a shoe store that had them, but in the size smaller than I’d likely need. They fit great apart from being a size too small (and in the wrong color) so I figured I had enough info, there was a discount code for selling my soul (giving my email address) so I justified it. And then all there was to do was to hope they’d arrive in time to wear them a bit before it stops being the weather for that.
They arrived! Except, they did not. It was these instead:
If you see these and think, so, it’s the shoes you ordered, then how on earth did you get this far in the post, you are not the intended audience for this content.
There were stages of reaction to the arrival of what were most certainly not the shoes I’d ordered. First was like: these are the wrong sandals aren’t they. Then I remembered how I’d gone back and forth between these and the others, to the point I had to check which I’d ordered. Yeah it had been the others. But what if these were better? Could it be?
I went back and forth. I overthought. These are more elegant, more the look I was imagining. But: am I just keeping these because I can’t be bothered/because I want to have sandals to wear now and not wait until the correct ones (that I might like less) arrive in November or whatever? What if those are sold out? What if I just like these more?
The time came to go run some errands and I had to decide, if I wear these I am keeping them, because it is thus when sandals leave the lot. Reader, I took the plunge. They’re comfortable! Not sneakers-level, but more so than Birkenstocks. Too soon to say definitively but I think these meet the level of, something I will actually wear. If so, I will no longer have warm-weather footwear that ruins whatever outfit I’ve gone with. If I pair them with one of my Italian nonna nightgowns it will be great, I will #influence all the dropoff/pickup moms, maybe some of the dads as well.
So there you have it, the decision of the century.
I find all of this deeply relatable
Also, I’m a big fan of Tevas for a summer walking sandal.
Sandals are horrifyingly difficult and I have been wearing the same pair for at least 5 years. (Tevas or Keen, not sure which) I sympathize with your quest. I like what you got, maybe I should look for something like that.... I am too lazy to go sandal shopping if it's not an emergency though.
Apparently the fancy model Smiths visited the fancy farmer Neelemans. I bring this up because Nara Smith wore a very Phoebe dress, or at least I think so, so now we need your analysis.