A Mary Jane Report: The Ones Tasteful People Are Wearing Now

I first learned about Rothy’s The Square mary jane from our contributor Erika Veurink, whowalked 15,000 steps a day around Florencein them. “They were comfortable enough to forget — high praise for days you’d rather spend focusing on negotiating at the leather market or admiring Michelangelo’sDavidthan on your feet,” she writes. Like all Rothy’s, they’re machine washable and knitted from recycled plastic bottles. Because of the flexibility of the material, the shoe “wore like a slipper, forming to my foot in the least Birkenstock way possible,” Veurink says.

I heard about them again from content strategistMaria Del Russo. Her pair survived the ultimate test last spring, when she walked nearly 25,000 steps in a single day while running errands. “Most mary janes dig into the top of my foot because I have a high arch,” she explains.NotRothy’s Square mary janes. But she mentions that her feet are wider toward the ball of her foot than they are around her ankles, and while the Rothy’s stretch, it can alter the shoe’s silhouette slightly. It’s “not the biggest issue in the world,” but it’s something to note! That hasn’t stopped her from getting a second pair (she has them in red and black).

Technically not orthopedic, but “spiritually orthopedic,”Söfft’s Elseys“have an extremely cushioned footbed, a reasonable one-inch heel (which reads more as ‘support’ and less as ‘heel’), and a toe box that’s wide enough to not pinch my toes,” says our senior editor,Hilary Reid. She notes that they’re more like “something you might find at an old-lady shoe store in Rome” rather than something “you buy after your podiatrist urges you to take better care of your feet.” She’s taken them nearly everywhere: dancing at the Russian Samovar, a ballet performance at Lincoln Center, and a Knicks game at Madison Square Garden. Reid’s review convinced filmmakerEmily May Jampelto buy a pair. Jampel took them on a weeklong trip to Barcelona, and on the days she spent walking, “they were perfect.” She adds, “I wore them out to dinner and spontaneously decided to go out that night in another part of the city and ended up walking around for hours in them.”

Jampel has worn these to a holiday party she hosted at Mood Ring in Bushwick where she was on her feet “the entire time,” and this past Valentine’s Day, when there was snow on the ground and she had to step over slush puddles. Both times the shoes held up without a hitch. They’re “one of the only platforms with a heel that I can actually wear all day walking the city without my feet hurting,” she says.

Intentionally Blank offers up to a size 12, which self-described “big-footed girl” Ashley Reese, a cultural critic and writer of theBad Brainnewsletter, appreciates. Be wary for the first several wears with the Christophers, however: “They do take some time to break in,” she says. “But once they’re broken in, they’re a dream.” Since breaking hers in, Reese has worn them all over London — “pubs, the Tube, and all” — and New York “without any foot pain after a night of dancing.”

On a trip to Athens, Courtney Mullen, an account supervisor at a creative agency, managed to get in nearly 20,000 steps while climbing the Acropolis — wearing Dolce Vita’s Caely. “I thought we were heading out for a short, easy walk, but it turned into miles up a steep hill with uneven, slippery ground on the way,” she tells me. “When I saw everyone else in hiking shoes and sneakers, I was convinced I’d made a mistake. But somehow the flats handled it all.” The same goes for wearing them in New York, where Mullen has worked, shopped, and justlivedin them. “You can walk miles in them and feel like you’re wearing socks,” she adds.

Vagabond’s Jolins “are a great pick for anyone with a shopping boner for minimalism right now,” according to authorSable Yong. She tends to wear them with wide-leg pants (like theGap’s Horseshoe Jeans) and A-line midiskirts — specifically, a lace-hemmed black satin skirt with a simple white T-shirt. “It’s basic, but I feel very ‘French girl ingénue who’s really the protagonist in the movie,’” she says. They’re easy to run around in, and “at this point, they’ve molded to my feet,” Yong adds.

[Editor’s note: Yong’s original pair were discontinued, so we’ve linked to a near-identical style that’s available.]

There hasn’t been a week that’s gone by since September that I haven’t worn my Puma Mostro Feys — they work in all conditions, even mud and snow. I say this with all the affection in my heart: Mostro Feys are fugly. Not only for the spikes that remind me of the tires on monster trucks, but for thehigh vampthat circles the middle of the foot (not exactly the sexiest part of the foot, in my opinion). Their fugliness is endearing, in the way of Simone Rocha for Crocs or Cecilie Bahnsen Asics. I have a suede version called Premium that’s still available at Farfetch, but there’s a leather version in white available on Puma’s website.

“I simply refuse to wear uncomfortable shoes at this point in my life,” saysMarie K. Stotz, a filmmaker and 99 Minutes founder. While she’s certainly “not afraid to go full New Balance dad-sneaker mode,” that’s not what she wanted for this spring — at least, not entirely, so she bought the Adidas Samba Jane. (It’s a version of the ubiquitousAdidas Samba, the favorite ofWest Village girls.) She’s only been able to wear the Samba Janes a few times so far, but they’ve “fulfilled their promise” in the comfort department. “I’ve been wearing them as a more walking-friendly alternative to a ballet flat,” she adds. She’s planning on wearing them on days when “I’m not quite sure what my plan is, but I know whatever ends up happening, I will be traversing the city for miles.”

[Editor’s note: According to Stotz, the Samba Janes run big. If you’re ordering onNet-a-Porter, she recommends going a full size below the U.K. size — which are listed as U.K. sizes 3.5 and 9.5 — that the size chart equates to your American size.]

The Air Rift might be more a mary janestylethan a mary jane, but I think it deserves to be here. Nike introduced theAir Riftin 1996, “and to many people, it was a monstrosity,” explains designer Yara Flinn. (It didn’t help matters that the split toe, like Margiela’s tabis, resemble “a cloven hoof.”) But the Air Rift has endeared itself to many in the years since. “They’re the most comfortable shoes on the planet,” says art historianSarah Isenberg, who has gotten three different pairs over the last four years. (Isenberg prefers Air Rifts with a Velcro strap overbuckles, which “I have to undo and redo every time I put them on.”) “I first wore them to the Louisiana Museum, and after an entire day of exploring the grounds, plus standing the entire hourlong train ride home, my feet miraculously didn’t hurt,” she says. ”Since then, I’ve busted them out for travel days, 20,000-step days, and long days at art fairs.”

Reid noticed these woolfriulanesat the Holiday on Madison pop-up last December. “The plaid felt holiday partyish, but not so much that I couldn’t wear them for the rest of the winter,” she says. Next fall — “or as soon as the streets aren’t soaked with slush” — she’s planning on wearing them with thin ribbed socks. These feature a rubber sole, asfriulanes— which are much associated with Italian gondoliers — traditionally do (the first were lined with bedsheets). “Like all friulanes, it’s a bit like wearing a slipper out, but the strap is adjustable and snaps closed around your foot, so it’s easy to get the exact fit right,” she adds.

Reid originally wore these friulanes“for a full day around town, and they stayed securely buckled in place” last year. This year, she assures me they’re “genuinely comfortable for long walks — I’m pretty sure I’ve walked at least 30 blocks in them at once.”

Vanessa Krooss, the head of brand at Merit, calls her Drogheria Crivellinis “a little irreverent and even a bit childlike,” but the velvet keeps them dignified. To get some cushioning and more arch support, she put a thick insole in hers. “I wear them all the time in the summer,” she says. “There was one day where I had three birthday parties spanning from an outdoor brewery in Red Hook to a dinner in midtown, and they worked perfectly.” And after two years of frequent wear, they’re still in good shape.

For herbook tour over the last few weeks— which included “a launch party, a bookshop signing, a literary-festival panel, a TV appearance, an in-studio radio interview, a Zoom radio interview, and an in-person podcast recording” — senior editorAilbhe Malonepacked her Flabelus Costello shoes, which she compares to the slippers from the12 Dancing Princesses.“I was confident that they’d be comfortable because a wedding photographer for A-listers I met recently told me that they’re what she wears to shoot,” she says. “I was right!”

Brand marketer CeCe Conner “fought through a wild line in Paris” for her Flabelus Claires, “only to find they have a website that ships to the U.S.” She has found them surprisingly supportive, comparing them to “little velvet angels on my feet.” Another of her fondest memories with the shoes was when her friends proposed a spontaneous meeting on 7th Street in the East Village. “With no time to really change, I ran home, popped on Adidas track pants with the [Flabelus] and headed to Jones Street Wine,” she remembers. “We sat outside and enjoyed the last licks of warm weather.” And in the event of a chill, they can be worn with socks likethese.

Labucq’s Norman mary janes are the first pair of shoesSandy Sanchez, copywriter and writer of theSmall Pleasuresnewsletter, ever “invested” in — back in 2023. “If you’re getting these, it’s because you want a sturdy (but still soft) mary jane,” she says. The shoes “have the support ofloafers” and were comfortable right out of the box. But “aside from being a great everyday shoe,” they go with all manner of “fun-colored socks” (pink, yellow, blue, red) — at least in the cocoa brown she has.

[Editor’s note: Some sizes are sold out, but you can sign up to receive an email when your size is back in stock.]

The Phoebes from Margaux are “hands-down the most comfortable flats,” according to Reid. They’ve beenplaces. “I packed them for our honeymoon and wore them for days of walking all around Vienna,” she says. “I’ve packed them as my only shoes for a weekend trip to the Berkshires, where I was doing less walking, but they worked well for bopping around town.”

Sarah Veurink, a marketing manager, has had Margaux’s Demi Janes for over a year (and “no blisters yet,” happily.) “I’m wearing these in all four seasons: running down sidewalks, trudging up my fifth-floor walk-up, standing through long work events, stepping over snow banks, etc.,” she says. (Fair warning: They can feel “quite slippery at first.”)

As a former ballet dancer,The Weird Real’sAlisha Bansalloves Repettos. But unlike new pointe shoes, these don’t pinch her toes. “When it isn’t winter, I wear them a few times a week,” she says. “It’s the perfect everyday height, so you don’t feel like you’re too flat on the ground.”

Faye Wood, co-founder ofEauso Vert, reaches for her Palomas from Elia Maurizi more than any other flat she has. Wood found them completely unintentionally at Merci in Paris last summer — and she put them on right out of the box to go to lunch with friends the same day. “I didn’t need to break them in at all, which, for a leather flat, feels pretty rare,” she says. The leather itself feels so soft that the mary janes are “almost custom to your foot.” No blisters, either. There’s “nothing dramatic to report, which is honestly the best endorsement I can give them,” she says.

Rose Anderson, brand director at Alex Mill and writer ofThe Rose Periodnewsletter, was shooting with Danish twins Amalie and Cecilie Moosgaard when she noticed one of them wearing “the most perfect black mary janes.” They were Aeyde’s Uma style. Anderson bought them that same night. “I did have to survive a Band-Aid phase,” says Anderson, who estimates it lasted a couple of weeks. “But now I wear them without socks, no problem.” She even brought them to Copenhagen on a shoot last summer — and walking back to her hotel after dinner one night, “a very cool girl literally stopped her bike to ask where they were from.”

Krooss wore Uma flats (without the mary jane strap) “into the ground” before getting her Umas. They’ve proved to be just as comfortable: She “did a full day of work events (12-plus hours of setup, shmoozing, and breaking down all on my feet)” in them, which is the ultimate co-sign in terms of comfort. Her version is ingrosgrain, with eyelets on the strap, which she found on sale last Black Friday/Cyber Monday — they’re marked down at Ssense for 60 percent off now.

Our senior writerLauren Rowears Carel’s Arianas. “As with all new shoes, there was a tiny bit of blistering, but after a couple of wears, they broke right in,” she says. “I also have bunions, and though these shoes look narrow, they actually accommodate them just fine.”

“They are the only thing I own with a logo, aside from a pair of Nike shorts,” says Catbird’s chief creative officer,Leigh Plessner. Plessner found her Miu Miu satin ballerinas brand-new on the secondhand market. “They were ready to go right out of the lovely pink box, but I did get rubber soles added; not as elegant but necessary for a walker in New York,” she says. The ballerinas are what she wears on her commute, which is five miles a day and “longer on wandering weekend days” when she walks over the Williamsburg Bridge and all over Manhattan.