I adore heels! At only 5’3” (in the morning, when I’m standing up very straight!), I love the extra height they give. I am aware though that, at my age, I am pretty lucky still to be able still to tolerate them. I know that lots of women have all sorts of problems with their feet which can make it difficult to find shoes that are both stylish and comfortable. In fact, it’s one of the issues that comes up most regularly during style consultations.

I am not going to pretend that it isn’t a challenge to look stylish if you are restricted to wearing “sensible” shoes but there are certainly options and they don’t have to look obviously orthopaedic! To show you what I mean I’ve put together some examples of stylish footwear which is designed for comfort and/or to address particular foot issues such as narrow feet, bunions etc. Click here to view the catalogue.

Here are my top tips for wearing comfortable footwear and still looking stylish:

• Always check out your footwear with your outfit in a full-length mirror. I can’t stress enough what a difference the proportions of what you wear can make. Flat brogues with a mini dress or trousers can look great. They’re unlikely to look as good worn with a mid-calf pencil skirt.
• Coordinating the colour of your hemline, hosiery and footwear will make your legs look longer and slimmer and draw attention away from your footwear.
• A pointed toe on a flat shoe will generally look more elegant than a round of square one.
• A low vamp (ie front) will generally look best with skirts/dresses but a high vamp will certainly work with trousers/jeans.
• Pristine white trainers can work with both very casual dresses and and floaty tea dresses. Best of all, they are still on-trend.
• Flip flops can be surprisingly flattering because of the low, V  shape at the front. Sparkly ones are feminine and add a bit of glitz.
• Wedge, kitten or block heels can be easier on the feet than stilletos.
• Flat knee boots can work well with dresses and skirts, particularly if you go for a fairly plain slim fitting option.
• Biker boots can be very comfortable and supportive and will give “edge” to an outfit – so why not release your inner rebel!
• Add decorative shoe clips – bows, diamante etc – to dress your shoes up and make them look more feminine. There is a great choice on Amazon and Etsy.

I hope you will find these tips helpful and that my footwear catalogue will introduce you to some new brands to try.  Everyone’s feet are pretty unique though so you need to be prepared to try out lots of different brands/styles to find the ones that will work best for yours.