A letter from a reader

At 62, I had forgotten what it was like to forget my feet.

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 people stopped to ask me about them at the market on Saturday, and when that happens at 62 you start to think there might be something in it.

The trouble is, every comfortable sandal I had ever owned felt like it. Heavy, stiff soles, hard straps, the kind of thing you are always aware of, that leaves your feet tired and cross by the middle of the afternoon. So a day out became a day of thinking about my feet, and I would come home and take my sandals off with a sigh of relief that rather spoiled the day I had just had.

I had decided that comfortable meant heavy and clumpy, and that light and easy was for younger feet than mine.

So I put up with the weight, and told myself that was simply how comfortable shoes felt.

Then I saw them on a friend

A friend of mine had a pair on and popped one off to show me how it bent almost in half in her hand, and I could not believe how light it was. 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 Elora, a lovely soft grey pair, and they come in six colours. I ordered mine that same evening before I could talk myself out of it.

What happened at the market

I wore them round the market the next weekend, and the strangest thing happened, which is that nothing happened. I did not think about my feet once. Instead, three separate women came over to ask me where they were from. Three. My friend Sue said I looked like I was having a lovely time, which I was, because my feet were not quietly asking to go home.

That was the moment it clicked for me. I had spent years believing comfortable had to mean heavy, and here was a pair of sandals so light I forgot I had them on.

Three things I have learned since

One. Light really does change everything. They are so featherlight and soft that I genuinely forget I am wearing them, so a long day out no longer ends with a sigh of relief at the front door.

Two. They bend and move with me. The sole flexes with my foot instead of sitting there like a stiff plank, so every step feels easy and natural, with plenty of soft cushioning underneath.

Three. The straps make them mine. They undo and adjust, so they sit properly around my feet however they feel that day, snug without pinching. And a soft grey goes with everything, so I no longer stand at the wardrobe wondering whether they will match.

About the price

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

The Elora is £34.95. It was £70.00.

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 brown. 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, "So light and soft I keep forgetting to take them off at the door." 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 your comfortable shoes are the heavy, clumpy sort that leave your feet tired and cross by teatime, so a day out has quietly become a day of thinking about your feet, 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 spending a whole day out and never once thinking about your feet, 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, and the popular sizes go first, which I found out because the size I wanted had 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.

I forget I have them on.

Caroline