Hermes Oran Sandal Women Swift Calfskin Bleu Glacier H202230Z 18360

Some colours flatter the wearer and some flatter the season; bleu glacier manages both. It is a pale, slightly grey blue that sits between ice and sky, and here it runs unbroken: across the swift calfskin upper, the leather edge, and the lambskin used for lining and insole. Nothing interrupts the tone, so the sandal looks like one piece of cool colour sitting under the H cut-out.

The details on record: sole of natural leather, reference H202230Z 18360, Italian production. In numbers, the back of the shoe lifts you about a centimetre and the front sits five millimetres lower, which is the sort of proportion you feel as balance rather than height. Womens fitting covers 36 to 41. Swift is the soft, quick-to-relax sort of calfskin, and it took my feet a single afternoon to settle in.

The scene I remember is a slow lunch at a garden restaurant in early June, tables under an old tree, gravel paths, a walk along a canal afterwards. Cool blue kept the outfit from looking overheated, and it worked with the pale grey dress I had on in a way that warmer sandals do not; against stone-coloured tailoring it was even better. This is also the pair I pack when a trip mixes business with leisure, calm enough for a meeting, light enough for the terrace afterwards.

One caution, and it is the only one: an upper this pale keeps a record of everywhere it has been. Wet grass leaves a shadow at the toe, dust settles into the cut-out, and sunscreen is best kept away entirely. Wipe with a dry cloth before they go back in the bag, treat the leather once at the start of the season, and the colour stays even.