A letter from a reader

At 62, I had given up on shoes that were both smart and comfortable.

I almost did not write this down, because it is only a pair of shoes 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 when I met a friend for coffee in town on Saturday, and when that happens at 62 you start to think there might be something in it.

For years I had the same two piles of shoes by the door. The comfortable ones, which were trainers, and fine for a walk but far too casual to feel properly dressed in. And the smart ones, which looked lovely and pinched and rubbed and left me longing to take them off. So every time I went anywhere I had to choose between looking nice and feeling nice, and more often than not I chose comfort and felt a little scruffy for it.

I had decided that smart and comfortable were two piles by the door, and never the same pair of shoes.

So I wore the trainers, and quietly minded that I did.

Then I saw them on a friend

A friend of mine had a pair on and I honestly took them for proper leather loafers until she told me how comfortable they were. 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 Junie, a soft beige pair with a little gold buckle, and they come in four colours. I ordered mine that same evening before I could talk myself out of it.

What happened in town

I wore them into town having slipped them on in about two seconds, and instead of my feet grumbling by lunchtime as they would in anything smart, I did not think about them at all. Three separate women came over to ask me where they were from. Three. My friend Sue said I looked smart, and I did not quite have the heart to tell her they were the comfiest thing I own.

That was the moment it clicked for me. I had spent years thinking I had to choose, and here was one pair of shoes that quietly did both.

Three things I have learned since

One. They look far dearer than they are. The loafer shape and the little gold buckle make them look like a proper smart shoe, so nobody would ever guess they are as comfortable as a trainer, or as kind on the purse.

Two. They feel like slippers. There is soft cushioning inside and the sole is light and springy rather than heavy and stiff, so a whole day on my feet no longer ends with me longing to take them off.

Three. They slip straight on. No laces, no bending down and fiddling, which on a stiff morning matters more than I would once have admitted. And they go with absolutely everything I own.

About the price

I will be honest, when I saw the price in the sale I was a bit suspicious. Shoes that look this smart and feel this comfortable usually cost a great deal more, and it turns out they usually do.

The Junie 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 navy. 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, "They look like proper shoes and feel like slippers, and no one believes what I paid." 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 two piles of shoes by the door, the comfortable ones you feel scruffy in and the smart ones that punish you for wearing them, and you are tired of choosing between the two, then it is worth ten minutes of your evening to go and have a look.

Not because a pair of shoes will change your life. They will not. But there is something in walking out of the house feeling both smart and comfortable at once, 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, they are half of what they were, 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 stock has sold through, that is it until next year.

I have not had to choose between smart and comfortable since.

Caroline