It has taken a long old time but things have finally returned to normal. The pandemic is gradually receding in life’s rear-view mirror. We are still ravaged, the scars are still there – people lost, years lost – but we have relearned how to blur the scars with makeup and small talk. We have gone back to worrying about all the stupid things we used to worry about before we had that to worry about.
You know how I can tell? Because of shoes. Covid killed the high heel and elevated the slipper into a style icon. At the end of lockdown everyone went hysterical. Some declared they’d be flats-only for ever more. Others embraced Revenge Dressing in reckless spindly heeled sandals that they couldn’t walk in. And some changed their mind every weekend, pinballing from the trainers-only camp to the four-inch heel brigade.
But for the past month, the footwear I have worn most has been a pair of knee-high snakeskin leather boots bumped up on an inch of kitten heel and some square-toed loafers that sit on a chunky two-inch block. So the wearable heel is back – and it’s not just me. I’ve been travelling to fashion weeks for most of the past month, and everywhere I go – in airports, on pavements and in pizza restaurants – I see others in them too.
