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Coffee Break: Nigella Flats

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woman wears black pointy toed flats and blue jeans

Last year, when we rounded up extremely comfortable business casual shoes that readers liked, a number of readers said they loved Boden’s flats… and true to form, the store has a TON of cute ones at the moment.

My favorite, I think, are these pointy-toed flats… the seam down the middle of the vamp gave me pause, but ultimately I think I like it as an interesting feature. I also like the way the leather texture changes at a similar seam at the back of the heel.

(I also like these ruched Mary Jane ballet flats and these “flexi” loafers.)

The Nigella flats are available in sizes 36-42 in four colors; they’re $190 but you can take 10% off today with code.

Sales of note for 10/16

  • Ann Taylor – 50% off + free shipping on everything!
  • Brooklinen – Friends & Family – 20% off sitewide and 50% off select bundles
  • J.Crew – Extra 50% off 3+ sale styles with code – includes lots of suiting, sweaters, and pants
  • J.Crew Factory – Friends & Family, extra 15% off your purchase
  • M.M.LaFleur – October Sale Event, best prices of the season (Try code CORPORETTE15 for 15% off on other items)
  • Nordstrom – 5840+ new markdowns for women, up to 40% off
  • Talbots – Friends and family, 30% off your entire purchase
  • Theory – End of season sale is on with extra savings (new prices are marked)

65 Comments

  1. I think I’m finished trying and failing to buy shoes online. I’m going to DSW today with the pants I need to wear, socks, and just trying things on until something works. I’m tired of the “will it fit” game.

      1. the shoe section at Nordstrom is so small and sad. I’m inclined to order shoes directly to the store since it’s a PITA to return shoes anyway.

    3. I almost never shop in person for anything anymore, but last night I went out and purchased a mattress at a mattress store. I learned my lesson.

    4. I have gotten really tired of buying and returning online orders. I have started doing more in person shopping and even with fewer choices, I’m happier with what I’ve purchased. Fabric, in particular, has become such a guessing game. There are things I have bought online that wouldn’t have gotten a second glance in person.

    5. I wish I could try on shoes in person, but nobody carries narrow sizes in store. Nordstrom used to, sigh.

      1. I think Saks does.

        My daughter is a 9 narrow. Shoes are very difficult so we went in person to Saks to try on first. They had some narrows and we ordered the preferred color.

      1. My feet would be sweaty in under a minute. Plus the narrowness of the toe would rub my pinky toe badly.

        1. This. I can’t stand shoes like this. They might be flats, but they hurt in a different way.

          1. Same. The low-key, all-day pressure across the toe box is excruciating.

            Besides, on every pair of pointy shoes I have owned the tip gets utterly destroyed with one misstep on a staircase, sidewalk, threshold, grate, puff of air, etc.

      2. After about 45, I started looking at shoes differently. Turns out grandma was correct…wearing shoes that accommodate feet is important to long term foot health.

    4. It depends. You can wear that to a outdoor concert, especially an outdoor festival, if you are 27 or younger. I see that the description says hiking, climbing, or off trail exploring. I would not wear that on any remotely serious trail unless you want to look like a gumby. You can wear it to a National Park with your family if you’ll be going only to the easily accessible scenic spots and taking pictures with other tourists around. You will look like a gumby but it will be okay.

      1. What is a “gumby”? And are people really standing in a National Park – some of the most beautiful lands in our country – and looking around not at the mountains or rivers or forests or canyons but instead what the other tourists are wearing to determine if any of them are “gumbies”? Lord, how sad.
        OP – it’s a cute jacket and I think you can wear it whether you’re 20 or three times that age.

        1. I had the same reaction. Apparently it is what experienced hikers call newbie hikers? I can’t imagine caring about anything less than what experienced hikers think about my clothes.

          1. Not who you are responding to but wow this broke my brain. Like it just occurred to me that in a place where people wear outdoor gear as everyday clothes they are judging everyone based on how legitimate their hiking jacket looks? Meanwhile, I’m side eyeing people wearing those weird tan hiking gear sneakers to get coffee because I cannot imagine ever wearing them in real life.

            Anyway this reads as trendy athleisure to me. It’s chic if you’re 17 or 71 so long as you own it and the rest of your outfit looks current.

            As I age, personally, I’d always rather look like I’m trying too hard than like I didn’t try. Old lady who loves fashion is for whatever reason cooler and more interesting to me than young lady who loves fashion. I can no longer be deemed frivolous. The life I’ve lived is written on my face; I’ll wear a clear jacket with swagger. No one else has to like it, get it or think it’s appropriate. I know this isn’t true of everyone. You might aim to look appropriately subdued as you age. I get that. But if accomplished hiker is the style goal we are operating in completely separate universes.

          2. Man y’all are uptight and also not reading very well. Who knew you’d be cut to the emotional core by hearing an experienced hiker’s perspective on how a particular jacket looks in a particular setting. No one ever said that “accomplished hikers” had to be the style goal. Where does OP want to wear the jacket? She didn’t say.

            To clarify – experienced hikers aren’t paying attention to your clothes, but it’s not difficult to notice when you (royal you, relax) are putting yourself and others at risk by wearing inappropriate gear or carrying too much gear. It has nothing to do with what the jacket looks like, or whether it’s a “cool” brand, or how much it costs, or what the vibe or color is, but whether it can provide appropriate protection from the elements (expected and unexpected) and thermoregulation. Some trendy athleisure can do this, some of the time, but often cannot.

        2. Yes, I judge people who look like they are out to get some Instagram content. They look foolish.

        3. Yours is an overwrought reaction to a tongue in cheek comment. You can google the term “gumby,” and I am sure you understand that someone can incidentally observe other people while focusing on the mountains. It’s not an either-or. And IDK where you’ve been, but most people who go to National Parks are standing around in the paved areas taking pictures of each other and leaving trash behind and tormenting wildlife. It is really sad.

    5. That is a really cute jacket and I would totally wear it over something less revealing than a sports bra.

    6. The jacket or the whole outfit?

      The jacket isn’t limited to any particular age.

      Wearing a bra and shorts as an outfit should be done only while exercising imho, regardless of age.

    7. This looks like the jackets the lady runners of all ages wear on drizzly days on my local rail-to-trail.

    8. OP – just the jacket, ha. just something to wear as a light layer on rainy days if i’m going to the gym basically.

  4. I’m not following the day to day of hearings at the capitol, but my algorithm picked up a few clips from Jack Smith’s testimony today, and more notably Eric Schmitt’s questioning and Katie Britt’s reaction when R’s were trying to gotcha-him and failed miserably after mixing up a college vs NBA team mascot. If you want a little lighthearted entertainment and perhaps another reason to shake your head at the state of our politics today, it’s worth checking out. I genuinely have no additional context for today’s hearing and no opinion about Jack Smith, but man that was funny to watch to this political outsider. How can senators be so bad at their jobs?

    1. Ha, that’s funny. I’m from Iowa but had not seen it.
      But the alleged text the senator read did say he was in Atlanta, which doesn’t make sense for a Maryland-Iowa regular season basketball game. Did the senator doing the questioning make that up? They never showed the actual texts.

      1. The poster with the screenshots was apparently only shown for a few moments, but according to press reports, it did not say anything about Atlanta. It only referenced him being at a basketball game.

        But I am wondering if the entire text message chain said something about “College Park”, which is where the Missouri team plays, but is also a small city in the Atlanta Metropolitan area.

  5. Not sure if this is field-specific, but I present at a lot of conferences, and the number of men who get up onstage with less preparation, more frenetic presentation styles, and generally saying they’re talking nonsense or not qualified, compared to the women who show up generally polished, clearly prepped and rehearsed, and either subtly or explicitly dropping their credentials is wild. It’s not that the women are boring or robotic or reading their slides, either, they are good, engaging presenters!

    I’ve been evaluating my own speaker feedback and decks with AI to improve from just-above-average to off-the-chart high scores.

    It’s irksome because some of the initial feedback comparisons don’t make sense when compared to a male speaker. Example: “speaks fast”… that doesn’t hold up when you compare my rate of speech to some better-scoring men. “It was good, but it was a lot of information, I need time to think on it”… how come the male speakers don’t get that feedback?

    I know gendered feedback and perceptions exist, but good grief. If I went onstage and said, “No idea why they let me up here, I’m just spouting nonsense, but let’s get into my Very Non-Nuanced Opinions and hopefully there’s at least one useful slide in my ridiculous deck!”, I would get pulled from the stage.

    1. nah, they’d just say you were sleeping with someone to get on stage. unless you’re over 50 in which case you must be someone’s mother.

    2. Really? I posted after a conference a few months ago that I was sick of highly qualified women starting off their presentations with “this isn’t my area of expertise so bear with me” or “I’m filling in for a colleague, let me know if it makes sense” and similar. It’s almost always women talking themselves down before they even start.

      1. That is my experience as well. It drives me batty to hear women downplay their skills and expertise before they even get started. Ugh. STOP DOING THAT. Men do it sometimes too, of course, and they should also stop. And the phrase “does that make sense?” should be banned from the English language. It is somehow both condescending to the listener (“are you smart enough to understand me?) and denigrating to the speaker (“am I too stupid to express my option?”). And for the love of all that is good and holy, stop telling me your presentation is boring.

        1. Yes!! I’m so sick of “prepare yourselves, this is going to be a really boring one, teehee” or “I’m sure this is exactly where you want to be right after lunch lol”

      2. Along those lines, PSA to anyone posing for group photos at conferences and other events. Do not bend over like you’re a cheerleader or crook your knees. Let the photographer figure out how to fit everyone in. You never see a guy in a business suit doing any of those crazy poses. Same for any weird arm on hip things. Pose like the grown-up you are.

      3. That is so interesting, it was the exact opposite for the last few conferences I spoke at!

        I’ve seen this more in meetings, but it’s usually more subtle with the women using, “I think”, “Correct me if I’m wrong”, etc. and the men just stating their opinion.

    3. What have you tested to see if “AI”, the way you’ve set it up, is a good way of evaluating your speaker feedback and decks in the first place?

      1. I’m giving it a mix of the verbatim attendee feedback and survey scores that I receive from the conference, copies of my decks, transcripts when possible, and the comments people have made to me.

        I give it the same score information, decks, transcripts, and anecdotal comments that I have for several male speakers.

        I’m friends with several of these speakers, so they’re willing to give me more details on their survey scores as well.

        I also push back on anything the tool says that I don’t think is true. For example, it tried to say that I didn’t have any/enough audience interaction or humor in my opening compared to a male speaker. I told it to go back and read the transcript and point out, specifically, where/what the gap was. It revised the feedback to note that I do have those elements, but only for 2 minutes vs. 5 minutes.

        1. If you read the transcripts yourself, do you agree on its revised 2 min vs 5 min assessment?

          My general rule of thumb is, if I’m using AI for something where I have personal detailed knowledge of the thing, and need to push back on things I know are inaccurate, then I shouldn’t trust its assessment of things that I *don’t* have enough knowledge to evaluate personally (ie. it’s like bugs in software: “I found and fixed 20 bad ones before release” makes me *more* worried about the release, not less)

  6. i was looking for black pants in my closet and realized… i still had maternity pants. from my FIRST pregnancy. 16 years ago. i vaguely remember thinking that the gap bootcuts were so hard to find in my size that i was going to hold on to them, but JAYSUS.

      1. sadly pretty much in general. but i do have a big walk-in closet so they’re not taking up space.

    2. Now that elastic-waist pants are the only thing on the market, you can repurpose them as non-maternity wear.

    3. Haha I raise you platform wedges from 1996! They were too expensive to feel comfortable throwing out (MiuMiu) so they lurk at the back of my wardrobe still. Not sure they’ll be worn again, but I might be buried with them.

      1. ahahah I have a pair of Chloe heels from 2007 that will sit in my closet forever because I was so pleased to get them at such a discount. loved wearing them but I can’t handle four inch heels anymore!

    4. I still wear my nursing bras from pre-pandemic- they are the best combination I’ve found of soft and supportive!

  7. i have a bar association cocktail party after work next week – what would you wear? i haven’t been in a few years

  8. Off topic + URGENT: need advice before tomorrow night if possible but happy to receive it later too. I go to very small, private exclusive gym for free because I have a terminal diagnosis and am a test case, it is part of what has kept me alive and I go at least 4 days a week. New student is an injured nurse who is not working, however, she is asking me repeatedly to text her the results of my doctor visits (inappropriate!) And loudly asks how I am doing so male owner hears it ( so she appears concerned and caring) and when I said fine she followed me to the door and said “are you really?” in front of the owner who i have good relationship with. Tonight, during owners lecture to us, owner nicely joked about me being an attorney when I asked a question, and the non-working nurse made a nasty crack about attorneys to the group of 5 of us. Then when I was leaving she asked how I was doing and I knew she was digging for medical information so I said fine. Then she told me she read a book today that I recommended, then laughed and said she read it because she did not have anything else to read. She keeps trying to give me unwanted medical advice and give her evaluation of my providers advice though her practice area has nothing to do with my disease. Then tonight after class she texted that I seem distant (i wont discuss my condition anymore) and she hopes I will tell her if she has done anything to offend me. She is very aggressive, would try to harm my relationship with owner who is a godsend to me emotionally physically and financially, and I have to see this student for classes three or four days week, and want to have a civil, pleasant relationship (i get along with everyone else at the club) but being honest with her about intrusive questions will not go over well and she is already nasty since I won’t share private medical information as of 3 days ago. PLEASE HELP: need your thoughts, how to smooth this without giving in to a bully, without harming my relationship with owner (he will not want to be involve in this petty situation), even sample language that is positive but clear. thanks so much for any help you can give.

    1. You don’t owe her any explanations for not engaging at the level she’s demanding of you. Blow off her intrusive questions with vague generalities: “Just busy these days!” “Doing fine, thanks!” or whatever. And then walk briskly away to use the bathroom, make a phone call, etc. Any weird follow-ups by her (as you’ve described above) will be perceived by others as weirdness on HER part, not yours.

      But also, why does this comparative stranger have your cell phone number??? Don’t give it out so freely going forward.

      1. thanks for helpful onfo! and yes, gave her a text recommendation for a medicine she asked for and now she harasses me via text, hope I learned my lesson

    2. You absolutely do not need to smooth it at all. Ignore the texts, be breezy but oblivious in person. Just say hello, don’t engage, if she asks about the text just say, Oh I didn’t see it. Do your workout, if she asks about your health, say Fine and comment something like, pushups are getting easier or whatever fits. If she presses, just ignore and go on with your workout. Only respond in terms of the workout. Continue to ignore all texts outside of the gym. Continue to not engage in person. Don’t recommend books, don’t make small talk, just breeze by.

      1. I think you need to be blunt and tell her to stop discussing your medical condition (if that’s the main issuer) and reply to her text rather than ignoring it. This person doesn’t seem to understand she’s a problem and she opened the door for you to provide feedback, so do it. You are going to keep seeing her so you might need to confront this situation a little more directly rather than just acting like nothing is bothering you.

    3. Could you tell her something like, “I realized part of the reason I enjoy the gym so much is that I get a break from worrying about my medical condition and can just focus on my movement (or whatever). Can we keep our gym conversations to lighter topics?” Maybe add if you have to, “I really don’t want to discuss my condition anymore. I have other venues more appropriate for that.” Also consider giving the owner a heads up about this problem if she doesn’t back off, so that it doesn’t end up looking like you’re the problem.

      1. thanks for helpful onfo! and yes, gave her a text recommendation for a medicine she asked for and now she harasses me via text, hope I learned my lesson

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