Life

A Fashion Blog For The Heel-Averse

Flats for Audrey Hepburn Image by Getty Images

By Phoebe Maltz Bovy April 14, 2017

For that phase of my life extending roughly from the weekly bat mitzvah years (I went to a girls’ school) to early college, I would — in my vague recollection, at least — wear heels. Some of the time. As I got a bit older, and settled into my own personal style, I started to realize heels were not my thing. Or at least not often enough for me to stay capable of comfortably walking in them. But other shoes very much were, and still are, my thing! I’ve spent many an hour, online and off, looking at shoes! Just… not quite the shoes the expression ‘shoe-shopping’ generally evokes.

Which is why I can’t believe I only just learned about British shoe blog En Brogue, via a recent piece at The Pool by blogger and author Hannah Rochell, a fashion journalist. The site — subtitle: “Love fashion. Love shoes. Hate heels” — is quite the trove of shoespiration. It features shoes of a whole bunch of brands, in styles across the gender self-presentation spectrum. The most useful recent post makes the case that flat shoes work as office wear. Sound too staid for a fashion blog? Check out the post on — hear me out, they’re fabulous — vaguely aquatic-looking sequined Converse. Even with the seemingly restrictive all-flats rule, En Brogue really does seem to come up with the shoe for every occasion.

Phoebe Maltz Bovy edits the Sisterhood, and can be reached at [email protected]. She is the author of “The Perils Of ‘Privilege’”, from St. Martin’s Press. Follow her on Twitter, @tweetertation

Phoebe Maltz Bovy is a former editor of the Sisterhood blog at the Forward. Her writing has appeared in several publications, including The New Republic and The Atlantic. Her book, “The Perils of ‘Privilege,’” was published by St. Martin’s Press in March 2017. She has a PhD in French and French Studies from New York University, and has read a lot of 19th century French Jewish newspapers for a 21st century American.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO