And when La BellaDonna needs the shoes and not the boots, she turns to the shoe makers of the historic reproduction shoes, which are pleasing to the eye of La BellaDonna, and work with her wardrobe and wallet.

If La BellaDonna wears the ballet slipper in the summer, she wears the padded version in colourful pretty canvas offered by Keds and the like, with the comfy supportive insides. They are not the work of the Maestro, but at least La BellaDonna, she will not have to crawl on the hands and the knees after wearing them.

The Cole-Haans I bought were the slender-heeled models with the platforms, hence no bubble.

Taryn Rose makes some beautiful heels; expect to pay $400-500 unless the stars align and you find them on sale. Unlikely unless you live somewhere unusual and someone made an untoward buying decision for their market and you have a size that people don’t wear.

I know. Sigh.

All I can say is that once I’ve purchased and worn the shoes? I’ve not been sorry. Particularly as they don’t fall apart or look foolish/dated the next season.

I don’t know. Looking at the Cole Haan website, there seems to be too many goofy bubble shoes. I am glad you reject the bubble.

I am guessing that the difficulty in finding comfy beautiful shoes is the only thing that stops me from being completely broke–discomfort stops me from buying a lot of shoes. Although if gorgeous, non-injuring shoes were easy to find, I might not feel compelled to buy every shoe that seems like it might be my Holy Grail.

I promise I wouldn’t be seen with a bubble under my heel and a Chaiken suit… I promise. That’s why I directed you there.

Some of the shoes are way fug. Look harder.

Thanks for the advice and luck. For some reason the Cole-Haans with the Nike Air don’t feel comfy enough given their aesthetics. (I don’t want the visible Nike air bubble showing me that I have Nike Air in a dressy shoe–it just seems wrong). They are not all like that, but it seems to me they aren’t comfy enough. And some of them, to be honest, are ugly–no Nike Air bubbles in the back of my wedges-ACK. I either like the way they look or like the comfort but not both.

And some of their shoes really give you a “what are they thinking??!” kind of feeling:

http://www.colehaan.com/colehaan/catalog/product.jsp;jsessionid=Q3E2QEKFKPCCYCQFTBDCGWYKAWMEOIV0?productId=113853&categoryId=300502&productGroup=113855

Can I have a comfy shoe that doesn’t look orthopedic??? If we can send peeps to the moon, and are questing for Mars, you would think they could figure this out.

I am picky. That’s why my feet aren’t all messed up.

Maybe try your luck with the Cole-Haans with the Nike Air? Some of them are lovely and definitely stylish. They even have some really high heels with platforms for evening.

I wore those and Taryn Rose heels for work and did very well… nary a blister. I have 9.5 AA-AAA.

The Taryn Roses are hard to find in narrows, FYI. Cole-Haan much easier.

Good luck!

I’m visiting Manhattan next week and I can’t figure out what shoes to wear. I know I’m gonna look frumpy in the shoe department and it just kills me, cause I know I won’t be wearing heels—I tried that last time I was there and it was a bust…even my 2.5 in heel aerosoles give me toe blisters. :(

I am going on a trip where I need to walk a lot, and cannot find ANY shoes that are stylish and comfortable. The Tayrn Rose shoes I tried on were terribly uncomfortable AND frumpy. And all these blasted ballet flats being sold are killing me–even the expensive ones have no support, cut your feet across in the wrong spot, and if you have over size 6 feet, make you look like refugees could use your shoes to escape their island.

If I am going to spend good money on an expensive shoe, it aint going to be some uncomfortable ballet flat with no support. If my feet are going to be semi-uncomfortable, there is going to be some stiletto involved.

Even driving shoes are uncomfortable these days. I have a pretty average sized, normal foot. Why can’t shoes be beautiful, comfortable and non-orthopedic looking???

I have at least 4 pairs of shoes in my closet past their prime that I cannot get rid of just because they are the only ones that I can walk around Manhattan in and aren’t ugly athletic shoes.

Sigh.