These shoes have been cool for 800 years

Plus swag secrets from Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy and BIG earrings for fall & beyond

Welcome to Concorde, a bimonthly edition of the sletter where Erin takes the lead. You could call it a women’s vertical, but the insights, intel and “cute swag information” transcend gender. The full archive lives here.

The B.L.I.S.S. List — our comprehensive guide to Beautiful Life-Improving Spyplane Staples — is here.

The Global Intel Travel Chat Room is here, featuring earth-spanning GOAT-locale recommendations.

Peep our list of the world’s 35 slappiest shops, where Spyfriends have added a ton of gems in the comments.

— Erin & Jonah

What’s up! It’s Erin & Concorde is back with you. Today we’ve got:

• The party-outfit hack you’ve been looking for: Earrings so big and rowdy they’ll knock you on your a**!!

• A Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy MYSTERY OUTFIT — and the swag-unlocking secret weapon it contains.

But first —

• A reader question about a jawn as close to timeless as it gets — and a FLOTILLA of great examples from some of our favorite designers…

We’re of course talking about…

Clogs! I stupidly gave away an art-chic Bosabo black pair I bought in 2013 (had I only known about the B.I.G B.U.C.S mindset then). Now I don’t know whether to jump back in the pool, even though the Lauren Manoogian clogs and rosa mosa clogs (the gold ones!) keep winking at me. What’s the Concorde take?
— Vinny Chachra

If you ask me, clogs are a near-platonic B.I.G. B.U.C.S. closet staple. I file them in the “classic workwear” column: designed initially for function, they have retained utility despite being put to “fashion” purposes, too. Yes, they will be more or less “in” at any given time, but they’ve proven themselves to carry an eternal baseline level of swag…

From a trend perspective, we’re in more of a ladylike shoe moment right now… I’m talking about delicate pumps, pancake-soled ballet flats and petite Mary Janes. Concorde Predicts™ that the vogue moving into spring will be for shoes that get you to as close to barefoot as possible, like flip-flops, transparent water shoes and strappy sandals… shoes that feel closer to the idea of a shoe than actual shoes.

In other words, the opposite of a clog. BUT while I’m often seduced by images of ethereal, barely-shoe shoes — and while I admit to owning a pair of The Row’s fairy slippers — I do not possess the narrow and perfectly flat doll’s feet (nor do I have the low-step-count car-to-dinner-and-back lifestyle) that make that sort of footwear feasible. If I want to walk everywhere — and I do! — I need sturdy equipment to get me around. I need a hard-soled shoe with arch support and I’m not alone… which is why the classic clog has been kicking around so long!!

The best clogs nail 7 (if not 8) of Dieter Rams’ 10 Design Principles. They’ve looked good as hell on the feet of artists, workers, and Marilyn Monroe — as seen in the rare 1954 photo above… It’s hard to argue with a jawn that humanity has kept in its rotation since the 13th century.

However! Not all clogs are created equal: