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I am a flats girl. My steady shoe rotation includes loafers, ballet flats, sandals, Mary Janes, Chelsea and riding boots. I reserve a heel for only the formal-est of occasions, and even then, I often skew kitten. Regardless, my heels are always planted firmly on the ground, save the occasional tiny block. My eye gravitates toward dainty, slim, flat shoes—incidentally with very little support. But lately something has changed. Everyday ensembles finished with stylish high heels have taken up residence in my head, slowly carving out more and more space. And the call is coming from inside the office; my coworkers are my greatest inspiration.
Bazaar‘s fashion news director Brooke Bobb is more often in heels than flats at the office: Vintage square-toe Prada pumps, new Chanel cap-toe slingbacks, gold strappy heeled sandals. Our executive digital director Lynette Nylander wears her Dario Versace printed pumps or Maryam Nassir Zadeh Olympia wedges like a star. Our editor-in-chief Samira Nasr caught my eye wearing the kitten-heeled Phoebe Philo Tide sandals the other day. And every time our commerce editor Michella Ore wears her metallic Nomasei heeled sandals, I ask her, yet again, where they’re from.
Fashion editors are notorious for their love of high heels, so much so that The Devil Wears Prada referred to magazine employees as “clackers” because of the noise their stilettos made in the marble lobby. One of our directors recounts an office uniform of 90mm—even sometimes 105mm—Manolo Blahnik BB pumps well into the 2010s. This highly cultivated space is an extreme representation of the larger consumer relationship with footwear. As fashion largely shifted away from the superfluous a decade ago in the era of normcore, even fashion editors swapped stilettos for New Balance sneakers and Birkenstock sandals—even if they were from the Proenza Schouler collaboration.
Now, we’re in a moment where pretty much anything goes, whether you work at a fashion magazine or not. Sneakers, exposed toes, platforms—all fine at the Bazaar office in 2026. On our half of the 25th floor, I’ve seen Vibram FiveFingers, leopard-print Birkenstocks, heeled flip-flops, regular flip-flops, and more. In this world of infinite options, wearing heels to work has become a deliberate choice rather than a requirement. It’s all about how you wear them—and that’s where things get interesting.
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Wearing a heel adds a bit of femininity, a certain put-together-ness, to your outfit, which then gives you permission to skew the other direction with the rest of what you’re wearing. In the past year here, I’ve seen heels worn with sports jerseys, cargo pants, sweatpants, lace capris, basketball shorts, rugby shirts, and more. The other day, our editor-in-chief wore her kitten-heeled sandals with wide-leg denim, a T-shirt, and a blazer. Our fashion news director styles her Chanel pumps with army-green barrel-leg trousers and colorful knits. Our executive digital director pairs her Versace heels with the matching pencil skirt and a graphic tee. Everyone strikes such an interesting balance between fancy and casual, unconventional and relatable. The outfits feel real, not overly styled, like I could achieve something almost as cool if I tried.
In my own search for the perfect starter heel, I selected a pair of Manolo Blahnik’s Callamu from the RealReal. They are a strappy, open-toe mule in snake-print leather with a two-inch heel. The print means they don’t really go with anything, but they also don’t not go with anything. Channeling my colleagues’ je ne sais quoi ensembles, I styled my new shoes with a red silk floral-print top from an early-2000s Prada collection, white denim Bermuda shorts, and little pearl drop earrings on their first outing. I made it through the whole day with a boost of confidence and only a tiny blister—unrelated to the high-heel aspect. I received a few compliments, so I think my coworkers approved. Here’s hoping.
