If there’s one piece of fashion advice that I have always lived by it’s this: every woman should invest in a good pair of flats. Heels are gorgeous of course, and I have many, many (many, many) pairs, but you can’t do all the things in a pair of pinchy stilettos. A good pair of flats won’t hold you back; will travel with you anywhere; will let you hop, skip AND jump; and will even come to the rescue when you’re all achy from a night out in impractical shoes. Bonus points if you can dress them up or down.
So you can imagine my joy when, right as my previous ride-or-die ballet flats could no longer ride, I found my latest pair of BFFs (Best Flats Forever). Enter Cammino Shoes colourful range of slick slippers. Think pretty blush pink, ravishing red, sunshiney yellow, bold black, neutral nudes… patterns and glitter and neutrals, oh my! And, to my excitement, they had BLACK GLITTER (which is scientifically known as the chicest sparkly colour one can buy).
What particularly appealed to me about these beauties though, was that they fold up neatly for purse portability. Could these be the lifesaving shoes I had been looking for? I would need to put them through a little test first: could the Cammino Milagra black glitter ballet flats (so Italian!) survive a day in the life of me?
First things first: my trip to the local to get coffee. One thing I notice instantly is that these babies come up further on the top of my foot than previous flats, meaning they don’t slip off and my foot feels very secure in them. They have an elastic seam around the edge which ensures they don’t rub my feet the wrong way either. And I need to mention the little tab at the back so that I can pull them on easily without getting my finger trapped in the back too. My 30something soul appreciates all the help I can get pulling on my shoes these days…
I set off and immediately feel fancy, even though the rest of me is in leggings and an oversized jumper. My shoes are glittering in the morning sunlight and they’re shouting at the world to look at fancy lil’ me.
When I get to the coffee place, I wiggled my toes as I waited in line. So far so comfy. Also, as an adult I never thought I would be this excited about glitter shoes, but here we are. I ordered my normal coffee and then… well, it sounds strange but I swear the shoes whispered to me that I needed to get a doughnut. (That’s my story and I am sticking to it.)
Following my delicious (but less than nutritious) breakfast I thought it was time for a bit of window shopping so I headed on down to James Street to look at some of the boutiques. As I was traipsing up and down the rows of shops, I kid you not, a council worker stopped to tell me my shoes looked very glamorous. (I might have been trying to contort myself into a strange shape to snap a photo of them at the time, but a compliment is a compliment).
Then after a busy morning of shopping it was time for a little lunch picnic in the park and again, I was impressed with how chic my shoes looked, as well as how amazing my feet felt considering this was the shoes’ first day out.
I knew by this point that I was well and truly in love with my new pretties but the final test came with a quick outfit switch for a night out. Despite normally wearing heels, my new fancy flats fit the bill perfectly, transitioning to a night-time look and ensuring my feet remained footloose and fancy free all night.
If you’re looking for your new Best Flats Forever, you’ve found them. Til death do us part (and even then I’ll go straight back to Cammino and get a younger model).
For more information see Cammino Shoes here.
In her spare time, she likes long walks down the makeup aisle and performing in Brisbane theatre. You can follow her adventures on Instagram@thebeautypalate.
