“Somewhere along the way a woman is told that a comfortable shoe has to look like a comfortable shoe. I never accepted that.”

On the six things that made me choose the Opium flats, how they compare to the shoes you have been buying, and why they are $89.95 in our Retirement Sale.

I am Claire, and for a very long time now I have stood in a small shop in Brighton and helped women find something to wear to the days that matter.

In all those years, the conversation I have had most often across that counter has not been about a dress at all. It has been about shoes.

A woman comes in with something on the calendar. She has already been out looking, and she tells me — almost apologetically — that everything she tried on was one of two things.

The first kind is beautiful and it hurts. Narrow through the toes, hard underfoot, the sort of shoe you can stand in for an hour and then spend the rest of the day carrying. The second kind has given up entirely. It is soft, it is wide, it is sensible, and it announces to the room that she has stopped trying.

She does not want to be looked after. She wants to be dressed, and she wants to still be walking at nine o'clock at night.

The Opium is the flat I have been putting into those women's hands, and it is the one I would want you to have before the shelves are empty. Here are the six things I would tell you about it if you were standing in front of me.

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Real leather, and it gives where your foot needs it to

This is the whole shoe in one detail. The upper is genuine leather, and leather does something a synthetic never will: it softens where your foot presses and it stays firm everywhere else. There is no breaking-in period you have to survive. A week in, it has quietly taken the shape of your own foot — and it holds that shape rather than collapsing into a crease across the top.

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A square toe, so your toes sit the way they actually are

Most flats taper to a point somewhere your foot does not. That is where the rubbing starts, and after a certain age it is where the trouble starts too — the sore joint, the toe that has been pushed sideways for thirty years. The Opium is cut with a structured square toe, so there is real width across the front of the shoe and your toes lie flat and straight inside it. Women put the pair on in the shop and the first thing they say is that nothing is pressing.

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A cushioned footbed you can stand on from nine until nine

Nobody tests this in a shop and everybody needs it. Most flats at this price are a thin board with a lining glued on top, and by three in the afternoon you can feel every footpath you have walked on. The Opium has a properly cushioned footbed underneath, which is the difference between a shoe you wear and a shoe you endure. A day in the city, a long lunch, a service and the drive home — the same pair, without a second thought.

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A low heel and a sole that bends with you

There is a small shaped heel on the Opium — enough to lift you and lengthen the leg, not enough to ever think about. Under it the sole is flexible, so it rolls through the step instead of slapping down flat. That matters more here than people admit: Brighton footpaths, a wet tram stop in the city, the slope of a driveway. You walk normally in these. That is the entire point of them.

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Bold on the front, sensible everywhere else

A plain flat is a plain flat. What lifts the Opium is the sculpted ring on the front — a piece of proper hardware, tonal with the leather rather than shouting in gold, sitting exactly where the eye lands. It is the reason this shoe finishes an outfit instead of just completing it. With jeans and a plain top you look considered. Under a midi dress it holds its own all afternoon. Striking on the front, sensible everywhere else, which is the only way a bold shoe is any use on a Tuesday.

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Two colours, AU 4 to AU 10, one price

Black and brown. I make a point of the brown, because after a certain age the shoe rack narrows to black and nothing else, as though colour were handed back along with your thirties. The brown is the one I would take first — it warms everything you already own and it does not look like a work shoe.

It runs AU 4 through AU 10, including the half sizes, and it is cut true, so take the size you normally take. If you are between two, take the larger: leather gives, and this shoe is far happier with a little room than with none.

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The Opium, against the flats you have been buying

You can find a pair of flats for ninety dollars almost anywhere. I have had a long time to look at what comes back to me, and why. Here is the difference, laid out plainly.

I refuse to sell a woman comfort that asks her to look like she has given up. That is the whole reason I brought this shoe into the shop.

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Why the whole shop is closing now

I would rather you heard this from me than from a banner across the top of a website, because it is not a marketing sale and it deserves to be said properly.

Claire & June began as a small boutique in Brighton, and for nearly all of those years my golden retriever June has been asleep on the floor beside the counter. That is where the name comes from. Anyone who walked through the door met both of us.

My children grew up and left, as they do, and the house went quiet. June was the one who was always there — the morning walks, the evenings, the days in the shop. She stopped being a dog somewhere along the way and became the company.

June is old now, and she is unwell. Our walks have got shorter. After all the years she spent waiting for me to close up, I have decided to give her the time back. I am retiring, and the Brighton boutique is closing.

Everything left in the shop is going out in the Claire & June Retirement Sale. The Opium came into the shop at $299.95 and sold at that price. It is $89.95 now — seventy per cent off — and if you take more than one pair, the discount keeps going.

I will be plain with you, as I would be across the counter. This is not a price that comes back next season, because there is no next season to order it in. There are two colours and thirteen sizes, and it is the middle sizes that always go first.

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The more you take, the more comes off

Stacks on top of the retirement sale price. Applied automatically at checkout.

Women take both colours far more often than you would think, and sisters and friends order together. If there is a wedding, a sixtieth or a christening on the calendar this year, that is the sensible way to do it.

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Of everything left on the shelves, the Opium is the one I am most sorry to see go, because it is the one that answered the conversation I have had most often across that counter. It is still wrapped in paper, and there is still a note in the box. Whatever else is closing, nobody here has started cutting corners on the way a pair leaves.

If your own shoes have quietly gone sensible, go and look at the brown. I hope it is the pair that makes you stop.

— Claire, with June at my feet
Brighton, Melbourne

See the Opium — $89.95 while sizes last → See the Opium, $89.95 — black or brown →