I Gave Up on High Heels. What Can I Wear Instead?

I will quickly be attending my niece’s “formal-ish” marriage ceremony, my initial considering that the pandemic. I have a nice dress to use, but I really do not know what to do about shoes. I have sworn off heels — I don’t have to have them for perform, and just got weary of the agony — but sneakers will not minimize it. What is the ideal flats possibility that will glance fashionable and occasion-suitable, while not creating me search like a child? — Ruth Ann, Bloomfield, Conn.

Yoko Ono married John Lennon in flats. Keira Knightley married her spouse, the musician James Righton, in flats. Jerry Hall married Rupert Murdoch in flats. Alright, probably that past illustration was not the best, provided they are now splitting up, but the place is: If these females, really substantially in the public eye, can don flats to what is one of the most crucial dressing-up moments of their lives, the rest of us can also put on them.

There is this sort of a matter as official flats — and, as Christian Louboutin, of purple sole fame and a person who likely spends far more time than most of us pondering about the Tao of footwear, said when I asked, they “have no age restrict.” (Then he extra: “51 is the new 15!”)

But what do they search like?

There are so quite a few possible possibilities that it is perhaps ideal to start with what not to have on. Ballet flats, the go-to satisfactory comfy, flat shoe-that-isn’t-a-sneaker considering the fact that Audrey Hepburn wore them in “Funny Deal with,” can glimpse childish and clichéd. Ditto Mary Janes. (There is very little improper with a very little trend irony, but perhaps not at a marriage.)

Strappy sandals and mules are airy in the warmth, but they demand from customers a whole lot of foot treatment. If you are going to expose your toes and heels throughout a formal event, you want to make positive all those toes and heels do not resemble the digits of a Disney-deserving evil stepmother. (Terrible juju.) Based on your tolerance for loofahs and pedicures, that may indicate that the best answer is a uncomplicated shut-toe-and-heel fashion, most likely with something of a pointed, alternatively than rounded, toe and a streamlined profile.

Then focus on shade and embellishment. In the absence of eye-catching heels, that is what is heading to increase — no pun intended — your flat shoe activity.

Mr. Louboutin suggests that relatively than trying to match your footwear to your costume, the finest system is either to match your shoes to your pores and skin (in 2013 he started featuring a line known as “nudes,” which has grown to consist of eight distinct skin tones) or choose for metallics like gold and silver. Possibly choice has the gain of working with a variety of outfits, which means they are an affordable choice.

(Commonly, the far better the elements and composition, the lengthier a shoe will final and the much more at ease it will be — but also the much more costly. You have to weigh the cost-gain assessment, but this is a single product that could be value a little bit of a splurge, which will fork out off over time.)

You can perform all-around with embroidery and glowing additions that rework a essential flat into a thing particular. For inspiration, seem at the Dior couture shoe shown in January the designer Maria Grazia Chiuri taken care of her flats and practically-flats like jewellery, encrusting them in jet beads and nearly producing them into artwork objects unto by themselves. Then check out Badgley Mischka’s glimmering slip-ons or ankle-strap models and Nine West’s rhinestone figures.

They’re dancing footwear.

Your Style Issues, Answered

Each 7 days on Open Thread, Vanessa will reply a reader’s trend-relevant concern, which you can deliver to her at any time by way of e-mail or Twitter. Thoughts are edited and condensed.