I swear to God, I had these exact shoes in primary school. In fact, everyone I knew had them.

I didn’t choose them for myself, I hasten to add. They were chosen by my parents as the “practical” choice of shoe to wear with my school uniform, and man, but I hated those shoes. They were everything my much-younger self didn’t want to wear (I used to dream of the day my feet would grow to size 3, because in my innocence I believed that ALL shoes of that size and above were high heels, and that my parents would therefore have no choice but to either let me wear them, or force me to go barefoot*), and as far as I was concerned, they were the absolute antithesis of “style”. I still see schoolgirls walking around Edinburgh wearing the same kind of shoes now, and I’d imagine they hate them every bit as much as I did. Or maybe not. Because these shoes don’t come from some “sensible” shoe shop, the type your mother would drag you into, kicking and screaming, as a child. No, they come from Topshop, the UK’s foremost fashion chain, famed for its runway-influenced, designer-led clothing.

This makes me want to cry.

Are sensible shoes becoming fashionable? Are we making a return to schoolgirl style, possibly with pleated tartan skirts and chunky blazers to compliment the tasseled loafres? It would seem so. And don’t get me wrong: I’m all for comfort. (Well, kinda.) I get that not everyone wants to (or is able to) wear heels, and that sometimes flats have to be the order of the day. I just don’t think I’m going to be able to reconcile myself to wearing the same shoes as an adult that I wore as an 11-year-old.

What about you, though? Assuming you don’t have those horrible “school shoe” associations, what do you think of these? And how would you wear them?

(They’re £5o at Topshop, if you want to buy them, by the way.)

* My parents would have gone with the “barefoot” option. I know it.