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"  &amp;quot;You should see your face.&amp;quot; Executive accessories editor Sam Broekema is looking at me with pity in his eyes. We are in BAZAAR&amp;#039;s storied fashion closet, the place where women&amp;#039;s dreams live. But mine are dying. We&amp;#039;re standing in front of a shelf filled with \u2026 flats. Which I am supposed to, in theory, put on my feet. To say that I am a heels girl is an understatement. And my deep, passionate love of heels wasn&amp;#039;t born from trying to build up my height\u2014I&amp;#039;m five foot eight, which is completely respectable in this day and age\u2014it&amp;#039;s just that I feel better in heels. More commanding. More leggy. More \u2026 more. Even my sneakers have wedges in them (merci bien, Isabel Marant, it&amp;#039;s like you really get me). Now, I&amp;#039;ve always admired &amp;quot;the gamines,&amp;quot; as I call them, who run around town in their perfect skinny jeans and flat flats, cut with just a little toe cleavage, maybe a wee point, and mostly by Lanvin or Ala\u00EFa. Ladies like the shoe designer and stylist Tabitha Simmons, model (and sometime shoe designer) In\u00E8s de la Fressange, and style minx Alexa Chung. All girls on the go, and I mean that quite literally. I was seduced by that look for a moment a few years ago, thinking that I too could bring a little Hep-burn (Audrey, though Katharine had her brogue-ish charms) to work. As I bounced into the office\u2014flats are helpful for that, plus movement generally\u2014a fellow editor stopped me in surprise: &amp;quot;Oh! You&amp;#039;re not that tall! I had no idea.&amp;quot; I replied, &amp;quot;We shall never speak of this again.&amp;quot; But I had to\u2014because I had to write this story. So the flats start tiptoeing into my office. A pair of super-pointy Marc Jacobs in a polite shade of beige, while getting immediate Instagram approval, make me feel like a witch without any magic. Givenchy&amp;#039;s flat this season is a chunky black sandal with a giant gold buckle, which looked fantastic on the runway teamed with long, fluid skirts\u2014but on me? Pagan pilgrim. Ivory Chanel sneakers, bedecked with camellias? &amp;quot;Cool!&amp;quot; say those born in the &amp;#039;90s. Following those, a pair of glossy patent blue Diors. These I like because they conjure up dolphins, and that makes me feel free. Not to mention that they come with Raf Simons&amp;#039;s cool stamped into the sole. These could work, I think, my mood lifting a few inches. Then, like a punk Fred Astaire, some Saint Laurent oxfords, covered in small silver studs. They&amp;#039;re really rather jazzy (and given that my only motivation to wear flats is easy movement and danceability) and persuasive. But then\u2014voil\u00E0! Flats designed by one of the gamines herself, Tabitha Simmons. Blue-and-white-striped with a colorful Peruvian detail, they are witty and pretty in equal measure. As I headed out of town to Utah, I decide to spirit them away to scoot around my hotel. They not only look good in the desert, but they fit beautifully and make my feet look like the sole of chic. (See what I did there?) So, dear Tabithas, I will have you, even though you may only be worn on national holidays, eclipses, and trips out of town. Whenever I look down, I smile\u2014even though the ground is a lot closer than it should be. Feeling flat? Brown&amp;#039;s dilemma. \u00CAtre C\u00E9cile T-shirt. Dior shoes.  "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/features/a1438/laura-brown-life-0214/>