Hermes Oasis Sandal Women High Heel Sandal in Epsom Heritage Calfskin Black

The Oasis heel is short enough to forget and tall enough to matter — five centimetres at the back, dropping four and a half to the front, so a long dress clears the pavement without a lift. My black pair has covered more city ground than anything else in the cupboard. They are the pair I wear when I have to stand through a long ceremony and then walk to lunch.

Epsom Heritage calfskin gives the sandal its architecture: embossed, dense, and slow to scuff when a heel meets a kerb. On the black version the whole shoe is one colour — sole, edge, heel, lambskin lining — so the H cut-out reads as a shadow rather than an emblem. Sizes 36 through 41, from Italy.

I wear them from April to October with tailoring, jeans and summer dresses. The block heel is broad enough to cross a pavement grate without wobbling, and because the cut-out sits at the widest part of the foot rather than the flex point, they stay put when I walk quickly. Two or three short wears soften the Epsom across the instep; a single long first day is a mistake I made once. The lambskin lining is also why they can be worn without socks from the first day, with no rubbing at the top edge.

Worth knowing: the dark sole edge scuffs to light grey over time. A dab of black cream on the welt restores it in a minute, but if any visible wear bothers you, choose a lighter colourway instead.