A Letter From a Reader: The Bridie Sandals (Elaine)
The woman on the bench outside the bakery was still doing up her buckles when I came out with the bread rolls. She asked me how I got mine on so quickly.
Why I gave up on buckles after sixty, and what I wear on my feet now, written down by a customer, not a shop.
Elaine · Customer · Hervey Bay, Queensland · 5 min read
Every Saturday Peter and I walk down to the little bakery on the main street for bread rolls, and every Saturday there is somebody on the bench out the front. This particular Saturday it was a woman about my age, bent right over, fighting with the buckle on her sandal.
When I came out with the rolls she was still at it. She sat up, a bit pink in the face, looked at my feet and said, how did you get those on so fast? I told her the truth. There is no buckle. There is a zip down the front. You step in, zip up, and off you go.
She made me show her. So there I was on the footpath outside the bakery, unzipping and zipping my sandal for a stranger, while Peter held the bread and pretended he did not know me.
Outside the bakery the next Saturday, in the brown pair. Peter took this one.
They are called the Bridie, from Portsea Boutique, a small Australian boutique that has been quietly dressing women our age for a few years now. Here is what I told her on the footpath.
No buckles to fiddle with
I gave up on buckles a couple of years ago. Not because I cannot do them, but because bending down to thread a little strap through a little hole, with your reading glasses on top of your head and your back telling you about it, is a nuisance. So for two summers I wore slip-ons that slapped about and never stayed on properly.
The Bridie opens with a zip right down the front, so your foot slides straight in. You zip it up and that is that. At the back there is a hook and loop strap at the heel, which you set once for your own foot and then leave alone. I did mine the day they arrived and have not touched it since.
The black pair, on the verandah. One zip, and I am done.
A little height, and steady feet
I like a bit of height. I am five foot three and I always have. But I do not want to be wobbling down the main street on a heel at my age. The Bridie has a light cork-look wedge of about 7 cm, so you get the lift, but your whole foot is on the ground. Inside there is a cushioned footbed with arch support, and the fit is roomy, so my feet are not squeezed by the end of the morning.
The toe is open, there are little studs and cut-out sides, so they look summery and a bit vintage rather than sensible. Nobody has ever stopped me outside a bakery to ask about a sensible shoe.
What I wear most weeks: the brown pair, jeans, a white shirt and the straw bag.
Why I went back for the other two colours
They come in black, brown and beige, in sizes 5 to 12. If you are between sizes, take the larger one. I bought the brown first. Then the black, for going out of an evening. Then the beige, because my sister in Bundaberg came up for the weekend, tried mine on, and would not give them back.
The beige pair, the day they arrived. A replacement for the pair my sister took home.
All three by the front door. Peter says it looks like a shoe shop out there now.
See The Bridie Sandals →About the price
I will be straightforward about the price, because it was the thing that made me suspicious. The Bridie is A$72.95, and it was A$224.95. The boutique says the sale is about clearing the season's stock, selling directly, with no middleman taking a cut. That is their arithmetic, not mine. Delivery is free and tracked across Australia. I have paid more than that for buckled sandals I stopped wearing because I could not be bothered bending down.
If you have quietly given up on buckles, and have been shuffling about in slip-ons that will not stay on, this is the pair I would hand you instead. Step in, zip up, off you go.
— Elaine
The Bridie Zip Front Wedge Sandals
- Zip down the front, no buckles to fiddle with
- Hook and loop heel strap to set your fit
- Cushioned footbed with arch support
- Light cork-look wedge, about 7 cm
- Black, brown or beige, sizes 5 to 12, free delivery across Australia
Sale on now. Between sizes? Take the larger one.