The Way We Wore: Fashion Week Flats-Tory Burch

Shoes-Tory Burch $250; Dress-American Apparel; Bag-3.1 Phillip Lim; Hat-Topshop

Every fashionista knows that with the start of show month comes the usual barrage of the same old questions all boiling down to curiosity about the so-called "survival tips." It's practically a right of passage. I remember my very first London Fashion Week, when I was assisting, and a woman with a camera stopped myself and my editor and put the usual question to the pair of us, I replied something meek and naive about wearing dresses with pockets so you can be a good journalist and always have a pen handy before my editor responded, without skipping a beat, that flats in the bag are the number one must.



And she was absolutely right, if you look carefully throughout the months of September and February in the world's fashion capitals, around corners from show venues and through the dark glass panels of slick editor town cars, you'll see them, secretly shedding their stilettos for something a little more humane for those "down" moments. I have stashed away a pair of my own in my equally unglamorous "auxiliary" canvas bag ever since.



So this season, having, for the first time in my fashion week sojourn, made it across the Atlantic with only one suitcase of a healthy extra charge-free weight (I'm still waiting for my gold star please...), when what I like to think of as "Fashion Week Hump Day," or day 5 of NYFW when the tootsies, simply out of high heel shape after a long, lazy summer spent lounging around in sandals, need a break, came around, my flat options were somewhat limited. It looked like I was shoring up for a day of boring black ballet pumps, sigh, a necessary crime. Enter Tory Burch to the rescue: this pair of caramel penny loafers (complete with Tory T logo penny tucked in) turned up one afternoon at my hotel, just in time, and not altogether too different from the adorable ones I used to wear to school just a few blocks further uptown as a little girl. A preppy and on-trend upgrade keeping flats feeling more fashion, than, well, flat, during showtime and giving you the confidence to keep your low-soled stride amongst the teetering glamazons suffering silently in their wedges, Thank you, Tory! xx