The Smartest Shoe Investment I've Ever Made

Before they disappear from the sale I must tell you about these shoes. Sorry, I know I’ve missed a week of posting (illness, I’ll fill you in with my tedious tale later) and now I’m just casually dropping in to talk about shoes, and loads of you may not even have any interest in shoes, especially ones with narrow pointy heels that will get trapped in the gaps between curbs and are really massively inadvisable, but I honestly think that this particular style of shoe is such a classic that it would be a crying shame not to tell you about them.

Question: do you rarely go “out out” these days but on the odd occasion it does happen find yourself in an absolute panic about what to wear because 90% of the time you live in a pair of Adidas tracksuit bottoms you’ve had since 1997 and a fleece that has sausage dogs printed on it? You’re not alone! This is why it’s important to have a very small and compact “out out” section of your wardrobe that contains, in no particular order, a smart pair of trousers, a dress you can breathe normally in and a nice top that looks good with jeans.

If you have these things then you will never have an emergency “out out” dressing crisis. A smart pair of trousers can be thrown on with a t-shirt and heels and you’ll look cool and nonchalant, like someone who works in fashion; the nice top can be chucked on with jeans (the nicer the top, the slouchier/older the jeans) and the dress is self-explanatory. I don’t need to tell you how to put one of those on.

Anyway, these are the shoes to have in your special wardrobe “out out” section! The LK Bennett Floret courts: aka the shoes with the manageable heel height.

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They’re never going to win a prize on the excitement front - I’m not trying to tell you that these are reinventing the wheel when it comes to avant garde looks - they’re just infinitely useful. I’ll admit that they can be a bit on the prim and proper side with the wrong sort of dress, but by jove do they always look excellent with trousers and jeans! That little pointed toe poking out from beneath the hem, telling everyone how prepared you are for all sorts of swanky/stylish occasions!

Wearing my LK Bennett Floret shoes in 2018. Still wear the same pair today!

If you want something chic, classic and timeless (and any more words you can think of that all mean basically the same thing) then you cannot go wrong with the Floret. They’re high enough to give a smidge of sex appeal but not so high you’ll kill yourself by accidentally tottering into fast traffic, the quality is superb and the pointed toe makes everything look more grown-up and expensive. I have them in beige, I have them in sparkly gold, I have them in a funky coral-and-white-micro-pattern and I now, as of yesterday, have them in the most gorgeous mid-brown hue.

And this is the reason I bring these shoes up now (I’ve actually been banging on about them for a whole decade, but never mind) is that they’re reduced in the current 25% off LK Bennett discounting event. In all of the many, many colours. My brown pair were 50% off - £99! (Find them here.)

Which is still a sizeable investment, I grant you, but I have been perusing this style of leather pointed court shoe online recently and can tell you that some of them (very similar) are multiple times more expensive. And the cheaper versions on the high street, even if crafted from leather, have not been nearly so beautifully made.

At this point you’ll either be with me, thinking by God I must have these too, or you’ll be against me. Perhaps you think the heel height is boring, that it’s just the wrong side of Corporate Christmas Party; maybe you’re entirely the other way, looking at the slenderness of the shoe and wondering whether I’ve gone completely mad, questioning how I can bear to strangle my forty-something feet into such torturous-looking bunion-makers.

Look, I’m easy about it. I’m just trying to spread around some very solid information that’s beneficial to the wider public. Or a section of the public. Those who need a fine quality pair of leather pointed courts that won’t drop in and out of fashion, that you only need to buy once, ever and that are about a sixth of the price of the ones from Manolo. (Where they are called pumps.)

The sale event is on for one more day, I think - you can browse the Florets department here!

These ones are the sexy higher version: Fern. See below.

But if you are looking at the Floret’s heel height and thinking Bloody Hell woman, there’s life in me yet, why such a safe shoe! then may I introduce you to Floret’s older, taller sister? Her name is Fern. She’s an entertainment lawyer, only flies business, has calf muscles of steel and ankles that are made of even sterner stuff. Behold:

Cor. What a sexpot. I have these higher ones in “Trench” (light beige) and now and then I still wear them, mainly if I’m at an event and know for sure that the furthest I’ll need to walk is to the nearest dinner table. And only if I’m confident that I won’t need to go to the toilet. I am tempted to buy these in the black just to stare at them and remember the woman I used to be. Although I was never great at walking in heels, it has to be said. Bit of a problem when you consider my previous occupation.

Anyway, if you can walk in these then get them and get them whilst they are nicely reduced. You will never regret it.

Fern at LK Bennett

OK, I’ll be back with a long and boring account of my various ailments and also some book and TV recommendations. Just need to stop stroking my new shoes…