Afternoon:
15°c
There is one fashion look I completely covet. Scrubbed face, skinny jeans, dusty pink ballet shoes. Basically, it's the resting model look. Think Erin O'Connor or Lily Cole.
Sadly, it's one I can never do. Ballet flats are no good for size 14 girls. Trailing ribbons make your calves look chunky - plus you waddle because there's no heel. In an article for this newspaper, I wailed: "Fat girls can't wear ballet shoes."
Well, my bluff has been called. Shoe company Mascaro (owner of cult label Pretty Ballerinas) has opened a flagship store in South Molton Street and challenged me to find a pump there that works.
I was sceptical. Designer shoe shops are not my favourite places. Partly it's the mirrors; partly it's the Ladies-Who-Lunch clientele. But Mascaro, which started in Menorca in 1918 as a ballet-shoe workshop, is different. Husband-and-wife team Jaime and Ursula Mascaro understand women's relationship with shoes. Some limited-edition styles can even be tweaked to help with those perennial foot problems.
I have long narrow feet (size 8, God help me) with a narrow heel, so pretty styles drop off. I can't even think about loafers or court shoes. Everything has to have a strap or laces, which makes me feel like a fortysomething schoolgirl. But the Mascaros got me trying on their more "structured" ballet pumps made from semi-rigid fabric. I fell in love with their Rosario gold-sequined design. Admittedly they're more Wizard of Oz than Audrey Hepburn (reflecting my tragic love of glitter) but amazingly, they fit.
I can hardly breathe when I say they cost £295 but we're talking results wear. At the Standard Theatre Awards this week, every actress rushed up to find out where they were from.
There are drawbacks. I have to travel with a prissy shoe bag (so hand-sewn sequins don't drop off). And clearly I can never go out in the rain.
But these are minor sacrifices. Finally I have found a ballet flat that doesn't make me look like a man in drag.
