Prosperine, ballet flats and Mary Janes that also hold up in the evening
A ballet flat is the flat shoe closed at the toe and cut low over the instep, with no fastening at all; a Mary Jane is the same shape with a strap across the instep. Both live on this page, alongside flat shoes in fabric and a few models with a low or spool heel. The strap is not a decorative detail: it adds the one point of hold that a shoe without a fastening does not have, and it is what lets you wear it for a whole evening without the heel slipping out.
The materials that appear on this page — leather, satin and glitter or mirror finishes — need different care. Leather moulds to the foot within a few days and can be revived with a neutral cream. Satin does not stretch and marks with water: it has to be bought in the right size from the start and kept away from damp. Glitter and mirror surfaces do not absorb, so they clean with a barely damp cloth, but they scratch against the edge of a step.
On a flat shoe the size has no margin for correction. Without a heel the foot does not slide forward and rests along its whole length, so a size too big is felt immediately as a heel that slips out, and one too small will not be solved by walking. It is best to try them at the end of the day, when the foot is at its largest, and to check that the topline does not press on the instep while standing still: in movement it will press more.
Compared with a low heel, a flat shoe changes posture more than it changes comfort. A heel of two or three centimetres shifts part of the load onto the forefoot and visually lengthens the leg; a flat sole spreads the weight across the whole footbed and reduces the pressure on the toes, but it asks the calf and the Achilles tendon to work in full. Anyone who usually wears heels does well to introduce flats gradually, not over a whole evening.
An elegant flat works better with trousers that show the ankle or with a knee-length skirt, where the line of the topline stays visible; under long trousers the effect is lost. For the same shape with an open heel or with a strap across the instep, look at the women's ballet flats.
