10 Comfy-Chic Shoes to Wear at Home Now (and Outside Again Soon)

You are home. Even if your city is not under quarantine, you are being urged to stay in the house or, if you are going out, to literally keep your distance. But here is what you must do: Stop lolling around in your pajamas and get dressed! (As I write this, I am barefoot in my nightie, but it’s only 11 a.m.) And we don’t mean your sad jogging pants, we mean jeans, dresses—real clothes! But what to put on your feet? Serious shoes may feel slightly ridiculous when you are spending your time lying on the couch (but you are on your computer—working, right?) Which is why fresh new slippers suddenly seem like an indispensable item.

But maybe you are not convinced that you want to spend your money on these, which you fear no one but your grumpy significant other (tell this person to get dressed too!) will ever see? It’s a corollary of the old riddle: If a tree falls in the forest and there is no one to hear it, does it make a sound? If you are wearing jaunty slippers and there are no admirers to compliment you, are they still adorable?

Mindful of this conundrum, we have selected slippers that will be ready, willing, and able to go outside—to the beach! to the shops! to cafés!—when this all ends. And it will, it will! So consider the iconic furry Gucci slip-ons that you always wanted (already have them?—get another pair!); or velvet Friulane slippers from The Row named in honor of the shoes gondoliers wear (we will go to Venice again!); or silver Birkenstocks ready to stand for 10 hours in the broiling sun at a festival (save them for a rescheduled Coachella!). We have even uncovered a pair of Soludos chambray espadrilles, embroidered with an airplane—because we know that if we just hang on, and follow the guidelines, we will back be in the air, off to places sunny and beautiful, with a new appreciation of how lovely and special our lives are, and how lucky we are.