At 62, I stopped putting two pairs of socks on
At 62, I stopped putting two pairs of socks on
Six things the Eloise gets right that ordinary winter shoes get wrong, from a woman who is not a fashion writer.
Caroline Richards · Customer · Nottinghamshire · 5 min read
Let me be plain about who is talking. I am Caroline, I am 62, I live in Nottinghamshire, and I have never once sat down to write about a pair of shoes. What I have done, every winter since I can remember, is put a second pair of socks on. The shoes are cold, so on go the thick socks, and then the shoes are too tight, my toes have nowhere to go, and by the end of our road my feet are cold anyway. So this is not a review. It is a woman who worked out she had been solving the wrong problem, saying so.
The pair I am writing about are called the Eloise, from Nottingham Boutique, a small boutique that has been quietly dressing women our age for a few years now. Ankle shoes in a deep burgundy, lined right through with soft grey fleece. When the boutique later asked if they could put my letter up for others to read, I said yes, on the condition I could be completely honest in it.
The answer was never the socks. Read on.
Here is the trap, and I suspect half of us are in it. A thin, cold shoe cannot be fixed with a thicker sock, because the extra sock takes up the room your foot needs, and a squashed foot gets colder, not warmer. So you end up with tight shoes, numb toes and the beginnings of a grumble every time somebody suggests a walk. I did that for about forty years without once stopping to think about it.
I kept adding socks to fix a shoe that had nothing inside it. The warmth needed to be in the shoe, not on my feet.
The Eloise is the first winter shoe I have owned that gets that right, and having worn mine out every day since they came, I can tell you it comes down to six things.
The morning they came. Softer inside than I expected when I put my hand in.
THE FLEECE IS INSIDE THE SHOE
This is the whole point. There is soft grey fleece lining the inside and a fleece collar round the ankle, so the warmth is built into the shoe rather than being something you have to add. One ordinary pair of socks and my feet stay warm from the front door to the shops and back. My toes have room, which turns out to matter as much as the lining does.
The lining. This is the bit doing the work.
I have worn these with normal socks all week and my feet have not been cold once. No more doubling up.
Margaret P., HucknallTHERE ARE NO LACES TO TIE
They pull straight on. There is a stretchy panel where the laces would normally be, so you push your foot in and that is you ready. No bending down on a cold morning, no laces coming undone in the supermarket, and no standing on one leg by the front door trying to hook a finger into the back.
On in a second, no hands. The bit I did not know I wanted.
No laces is the best part for me. I can get them on standing up, which my old boots never allowed.
Sylvia D., SouthwellA THICK SOLE WITH A PROPER TREAD
The sole is chunky with a deep tread cut into it, so there is something gripping the ground on a wet pavement rather than a smooth flat bottom sliding about. It is also deep enough that the cold of the paving stones does not come straight up through it, which is half the battle on a frosty morning at the bus stop.
The tread. Deep enough to feel like it means it.
Good solid grip on wet paths and a nice thick sole. I feel surer on my feet in them than in my old flats.
Eileen R., BinghamTHEY ARE CUSHIONED FOR A LONG WALK
There is proper cushioning underfoot, the sort that takes the jolt out of pavements, so a long walk round the shops does not leave my feet aching by the time I get back to the car. The boutique says it is designed to spread the weight more evenly across the heel and the ball of the foot, and whatever it is doing, I notice it after an hour on my feet.
Comfortable from the first day, no breaking in. I did the market and back and my feet were fine.
Brenda H., ArnoldTHEY LOOK LIKE SHOES, NOT WALKING GEAR
They sit at the ankle and they are a proper colour, a deep burgundy, so they go with trousers and a coat without me looking like I am off up a mountain. That matters if, like me, you want one pair by the back door that does the school run, the shops and a coffee afterwards without a change of footwear.
By the back door, where they now live.
Smart enough for town but warm enough for the allotment. I have the burgundy and my sister has the black.
Jean W., CarltonFOUR COLOURS, AND HONEST SIZES
There are four to choose from, my burgundy plus a black, a brown and a deep purple, and the sizes run from a UK 3 up to a UK 8.5. Not every winter shoe bothers going that far in either direction, and it is nice to be able to order your own size rather than the nearest thing to it.
True to size and they came quickly. Ordered the brown after these and I am wearing one pair or the other most days.
Pauline M., StaplefordThe Eloise, against the winter shoes you have been making do with
Most of us have a pair of cold shoes and a drawer of thick socks. I did, for years. Here is the difference, laid out plainly.
Nothing inside the shoe to keep you warm
The extra sock makes them too tight
Squashed toes, and still cold by the shops
Laces to tie on a cold morning
Thin soles you feel the pavement through
Soft fleece lining and a fleece collar
Room for your toes in one normal pair of socks
Warm from the door to the shops and back
No laces, step straight in
A thick cushioned sole with a deep tread
About the price
The Eloise is £36.95 at the moment. It was £74.00.
I will pass on what the boutique told me, which is that the middle sizes go first and once the winter stock has gone it can be a wait for it to come back. Their words, not mine. What I can tell you from my side is that half price is usually where I start asking what is wrong with a thing, and a few weeks of wearing them out every day, I have not found it.
And I do not trust perfect scores, so I read the reviews before I ordered. Just over three hundred of them, sitting at 4.2 stars, which sounded like real women rather than robots, so I read on. The same six things I have just walked you through come up in them, over and over, in other women's words.
Down to the postbox and back. No hopping about at the bus stop this year.
If you are already putting a second pair of socks on and it is only September, I would start here. It is a small thing, a warm pair of shoes. But the cold creeps into the whole day when your feet are cold, and this turned out to have a very simple answer that had nothing to do with socks. Go and have a look while your size is still there.
Caroline
ELOISE | Fleece-Lined Winter Shoes
- Soft fleece lining and fleece ankle collar
- Slip-on, with no laces to tie
- Thick sole with a deep tread for grip
- Cushioned underfoot for longer walks
- Ankle height, in four colours
- UK 3 (EU 36) to UK 8.5 (EU 43)
- Free UK delivery and 30 day returns
The autumn sale is on now, half price. The middle sizes go first.