If the shoe fits - in search of half sizes

shoewawa%20column.jpg Shoewawa editor Amber McNaught's new weekly column on - what else? Shoes!

Something strange has been happening to my feet lately. (It's OK, it's nothing disgusting - you can continue with your dinner, if you're eating it). For most of my life, you see, I've been a UK size 4 in shoes. Actually, that's not quite true: when I was in high school I used to wear a 5. I'm pretty sure my feet haven't shrunk, so I'm just going to blame that on the shoes themselves.

So, I've always been a size 4, and I'm a pretty much standard size four. I can walk into a shoe store and buy shoes without trying them on. I can order over the Internet with no qualms at all - if they're a size 4, they'll fit. Until recently. Because recently, I started wearing flats. And in flats? I'm no longer a size 4. In fact, I don't know what size I am, but I'm sure it's one that hasn't been invented yet. How did this happen, I wonder? And how on earth am I meant to find shoes that fit?

Even without the size issue, wearing flat shoes isn't something that comes naturally to me. For as far back as I can remember, I've been a high heels girl. It's partly because I'm short, and like the extra height that heels give me, but there's more too it than that. I walk differently in flats: they're far less elegant, and make me feel not just shorter, but somehow squatter, too. So it's no wonder that I've lived most of my life in heels.

Until recently I would no more have worn flats than I'd have adopted the "one pair of shoes for every occasion" philosophy that men have. I was a heels lover all the way. Then I bought a dog. A dog who needed to be walked every day, even when it's rainy and muddy. Now, it's not so much that I can't walk the dog in high heels: it's just that I don't want to. I can see no point in ruining all of my lovely stilettos by tramping through mud in them, and I don't want to wear down the heels any faster than I absolutely need to, so it was with some reluctance that I bought me some ballet flats. To my surprise, I loved them. Once I'd gotten past the issue of all of my jeans and trousers being way too long, because they were all cut to wear with heels, I decided I quite liked my new, cute flats. The problem with this? They didn't like me. Or rather: they didn't like mt feet.

Size four ballet flats, you see, are too tight. Oh, they seem like they're going to fit when I try them on in the shop, but once I get them home they'll be pinching like mad after twenty minutes. It doesn't matter which brand I buy: the same thing will happen. Size five? Too big. A pair of size fives will make me look like Ronald McDonald, and I'll step out of them when I try and walk. Buying insoles doesn't seem to help, so I'm left with a difficult decision: buy size fours and hope that they stretch (never try this, by the way) or buy size fives and feel like I'm wearing boats on my feet.

Well, about four pairs of flat shoes later (all from different stores, I hasten to add) I'm giving up on the "hoping they will stretch" thing. I'm not too keen on the Ronald McDonald feet either, so I'm left with one last option: hunt down some stores that stock half sizes. This is actually harder than you'd think. Here in the UK, most of the shoe stores I tend to frequent don't do half sizes. The ones in the States that do? Don't ship to the UK. What's a girl who's just discovered a love of ballet flats to do?

I will continue with my search. Until then, I'll be the one with the boat-sized shoes that fall-off every couple of steps...

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Amber McNaught is the editor of Shoewawa and a certified shoeaholic. If you see any cute ballet flats in a size 4.5, she'd love to hear about them...

Kim

As Gerald has already said, the choice of footwear will definitely impact the size and shape of the foot. This can happen both over time (actual change in the shape (that's width AND length) of your foot) and in the short term while in your choice of footwear (ie. when wearing high heels, your feet tend to be pushed further into the shoes because of all the weight that's been distributed to the front and you're using more of the length of the shoe than you would with flats). Feet also change in size throughout the day- they usually tend to swell (slowly or quickly) depending on genetics and also the type of shoe (material, build of shoe, etc). All manufacturers have their sizing quirks but for people who vacillate between half sizes have either wide or narrow feet. If you put two shoes up against one another in the same make, model but in two different sizes you'll be able to note that there is no huge difference in the length of the shoes even if they're 2 sizes apart or more (It's usually a 3-5cm difference, at best). The marked difference between the two shoes, however, will be the space (hidden from view, of course) inside of the shoes. If a person is a size 9 in length but has wide feet, they'll either have to size up in width or go up half a size. If you find yourself in the half-size dilemma, just buy half a size up and have your cobbler put in a leather insole underneath the factory insole-- this will make up for the half-size difference and your shoes will fit perfectly (quite frankly, putting those sticky pads on the back of the shoe are messy and hardly ever effective).

Jule

Lovely writing, lovelier writer...:)

I don't want to be the anti-climax here, but taking Gerald's comment into consideration, why don't you try walking your dog in wedge Havaianas? Not only are you maintaining your feet's arch, size, etc. it's also quite comfortable. I know, that's a bit nutty when the weather is far from nice, but just a thought. I certainly would not want to ruin my stilettos or flats in mud, seeing that flip flops are easier to clean

Erin

Amber, don't you also have a proclivity for red shoes? (or is that just me?)

If so, you totally need Henrietta in red as well (http://www.frenchsole.com/prod.... They're such a stunning colour!

Fi

Well this is all very enlightening, especially Gerald's comments. I am a size 9 (UK) or I was when I used to get measured for school shoes (and ended up in the same style for 3 years running as that's all the shop had in a 9, but that's another story!). But now I find some 8s fit me fine, while some 9s, often flats now I come to think about it, are tight. This article and comments explains a lot so thanks Amber and all the commenters.

And we can always rely on Emma to find just what we are looking for!

Amber

Thanks for the comment, Gerald - that's really interesting, and I was actually wondering if changing my footwear had perhaps changed the shape of my feet. I used to wear heels constantly, which meant that, on the rare occassions that I did wear flats, they would really hurt my legs - I think my hamstrings had shrunk from wearing heels all the time. Now that I work from home I tend to slope around in flat khussa slippers all day, or go barefoot, so I guess it would make sense that the shape of my feet would change.

Kylie - we must have been sepparated at birth! I think I'm going to splash out on a pair of the French Sole shoes Emma linked to, so I'll report back on how they fit!

If the shoe fits - in search of half sizes

If the shoe fits - in search of half sizes - Comments

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