'The type of court shoes worn by the royal family in the 1960s – and by everyone's nan ever since – are the height of fashion'
Almost every morning for five long years I, and many millions of women like me, have faced a stark choice. We have stood in stockinged feet and wondered: today, do I want to wear flat shoes and so look short and dumpy, or do I want to give myself blisters/an overdraft wearing shoes that make me taller and more elegant but force me to shuffle at half my normal pace until I crack and hail a taxi? It's a vexing choice. I usually end up with a clumsy compromise: heels on my feet, flats stuffed into my bag.
Ever since the sad demise of the kitten heel – a classic case of fashion death by overexposure – there has been a real dearth of shoes with a wearable all-day heel of two or three inches. (By which I don't mean, obviously, that there haven't been any. I mean there haven't been any you or I would be seen dead in. Blisters and overdrafts are tiresome, but one must have standards.)
Well, I have exciting news. 2013 may not have an Olympic Games or an extra bank holiday but it does bring the return of the mid-heeled shoe. For the first time since the heyday of the kitten, the chicest heels are a supremely wearable two inches high. The type of court shoes worn by the royal family in the 1960s – and by everyone's nan ever since – are the height of fashion. (Don't be brainwashed by the ubiquitousness of the mega-heel in recent years. Even a tiny heel has a surprisingly powerful impact on your silhouette, because a heeled shoe not only makes you taller, it improves your posture. This is as true of a mini-heel as it is of a mega one – more so, in fact, since a more modest heel will do more for your posture than a too-high one that throws you off balance.)
Whereas the kitten heel was a cutesy miniature stiletto, the New Nan shoe is neither delicate nor suggestively curvy. The heel is the size and dimensions of a useful-sized lump of cheddar you might find in the door of the fridge – and about as alluring to the opposite sex. This is a shoe that speaks of bus stops, not bedrooms. But to start the day with a spring in your step rather than a spare pair of shoes in your bag is, surely, a great leap for womankind.
• Jess wears jumper, £65, whistles.co.uk. Trousers, £210, by Theory, from net-a-porter.com. Heels, £165, russellandbromley.com.
Stylist: Melanie Wilkinson. Hair and makeup: Dani Richardson at danirichardson.co.uk using Lancôme.