As temperatures climb and we enter the season of exposed feet, we’re here to help, with all the best tricks for keeping your feet presentable, as well as comfortable. While this week happens to be the start of Fleet Week, we’re doing our own take as summer begins. Welcome to Feet Week on the Strategist.
There are really only two things that need to be said about these St. Louis–manufactured sandals that were originally made for children: (1) They’re $40, and (2) I don’t think they’ll ever go out of style. I really believe that!
And you should trust me, because I am a slave to trends. My taste shifts dramatically every six months. When I saw enough attractive people on the L wearing loafers last year, I bought a pair and wore them so devotedly that their soles detached. Now I hate loafers! A few months ago, I told a friend I thought her white, round-toed mules looked like a pair of bull terriers. Now I have four pairs.
But! These Salt Water Sandals I’ve had for many, many summers. I ordered them a week into my freshman year at Bard (seven years ago), after spotting them on the feet of a new friend who went to high school in Brooklyn and whose style I envied — and copied shamelessly. They looked as good with the high-waisted Levi cutoffs I preferred then as they do with the cropped, flared pants I (and many, many others) favor now. They’re flat but comfortable, even on long walks, and they wear almost unbelievably well — mine are faded, but not trashed or broken. They’re not intentionally uncool like Dansko clogs, or showy like the woolly Rachel Comey mules I’ve been coveting lately. They’re just nice, plain, cool-enough leather sandals that can be worn most everywhere: to the office, after-work drinks, graduation parties and birthday parties and baby showers, not-too-fancy dinners, Introduction to Art History, or (best of all) poolside with just a bathing suit and a big, worn-in shirt.
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