A letter from a reader

At 62, I had worn beige on my feet for twenty years. I had rather forgotten I liked a bit of colour.

I almost did not write this down, because it is only a pair of sandals and I am not the sort of woman who gets excited about that sort of thing any more. But three different women stopped to ask me about them at a garden lunch on Saturday, and when that happens at 62 you start to think there might be something in it.

Somewhere along the way I had decided that colour and pattern were for the young. So my sandals were beige, or they were black, sensible and safe and entirely forgettable, and I told myself that was simply what you wore at my age. The trouble is a little of that goes on for twenty years, and one day you look down and realise everything you own is the colour of a biscuit.

I had decided that a bit of colour and a comfortable, sensible pair of shoes were two different things entirely.

So I stayed in my beige, and did not think much about it.

Then I saw them on a friend

A friend of mine had a bright pair on at a coffee morning and I could not stop looking at them, they were so cheerful, and then she told me they were the comfiest sandals she owned. They are from Nottingham Boutique, a little boutique that has been quietly looking after women our age for a few years, and they had their summer sale on. They are called the Bodine, a lovely bright bohemian print, and they come in four colours. I ordered mine that same evening before I could talk myself out of it.

What happened at the lunch

I wore them to a garden lunch on the first really warm day, feeling ever so slightly daring in all that colour. Instead of feeling silly, I felt brighter, and three separate women came over to ask me where they were from. Three. My friend Sue said they were lovely and cheerful, and I have decided to take that as the compliment it was.

That was the moment it clicked for me. I had spent years believing I had to choose between a bit of colour and a comfortable, sensible shoe, and here was one pair that quietly did both.

Three things I have learned since

One. The colour did me the world of good. After all those years of beige, a bit of brightness on my feet was like a little tonic. I catch sight of them and I feel a touch more cheerful, and a touch more like myself.

Two. They are properly comfortable. There is soft cushioning under my feet, so a whole day of pottering about does not leave them aching, and the toe loop and the strap at the back hold my foot nice and secure. No breaking in at all.

Three. They just slip on. No buckles, no bending down and fiddling, which on a stiff morning matters more than I would once have admitted. They have quietly become the pair I reach for all summer.

About the price

I will be honest, when I saw the price in the sale I was a bit suspicious. Sandals this cheerful and this comfortable usually cost a good deal more, and it turns out they usually do.

The Bodine is £24.95. It was £50.00.

There was no catch. They arrived quickly, they were comfortable from the very first day with no breaking in, and they looked exactly like the picture, which we all know is not always the way.

I did go and read the reviews before I ordered a second pair in the blue. Just over three hundred of them, sitting at 4.2 stars. Not the suspiciously perfect five you see on some sites, which if I am honest made me trust it more. One woman had written, "A bit of colour at last, and so comfortable I have worn them every single day of my holiday." That was the one that decided it for me.

What I would tell you if we were friends

If you and I were sat in the garden and you asked me, this is what I would say.

If you have spent years in sensible beige and black and rather miss a bit of colour, but you were not about to give up your comfortable shoes for it, then it is worth ten minutes of your evening to go and have a look.

Not because a pair of sandals will change your life. They will not. But there is something in looking down and seeing a bit of cheer on your feet, and feeling a little more like yourself, that I had quietly given up on, and I would rather you did not give up on it too.

Two practical things. The sale is on at the moment, half of what they were, and the middle sizes go first, which I found out because the size I wanted had nearly sold out by the time I went back for a second colour. And once the summer stock has sold through, that is it until next year.

A little bit of colour, it turns out, was exactly what I had been missing.

Caroline