The Unexpected Trick to Making Your Sandals Look Fabulous and Comfortable Every Time

I love shoes!

The way they make you feel, give you confidence and in my case height!

They can give a different style even to a single outfit. Think about it, you only need to change shoes, bag and a few accessories to go from casual to evening attire.

How cool is that!

But for someone like me, that has had painful, blistered and now ugly feet due to her ballerina career, the only thing I want my shoes to be is comfortable.

I’m always on the lookout for pretty and comfy shoes, and if they don’t fit both criteria I won’t buy them as they’ll stay in my closet until the day I give them away.

Last year I bought a pair of wedge sandals that I ended up wearing only a few times.

They are a sand color which doesn't really go with my skin tone, but I wanted something neutral and that didn’t cost a fortune.

One specific thing kept putting me off from wearing them, and every time I would put them on I’d immediately take them off: laces.

The Art of Wrapping Ballet Shoe Ribbons and Protecting Your Lower Body

Ballerina here! I wore ribbons around my ankles for about 30 years of my life. Dancing is no joke and something I've soon learned is that my lower body plays a huge role in my career and in my everyday life. If you get injured at work, you cannot do simple tasks like walking to the grocery store or climbing stairs.

Ballet shoes, pointe shoes especially, have a beautiful way to wrap around the ankle and yes, there is a technique for wrapping them properly too.

The ribbons never go above the ankle onto the calves, even if many paintings and pictures show some horrific bows, they are made of satin to match the shoe and they are tightly secured with a knot that is either tucked behind the achilles or in the gap of the ankle bone on the side.

I know you want to know what this has got to do with sandals.

I’m getting there and you’ll be amazed about the discovery you’ll make to feel more comfortable and secure in your shoes, just like a confident ballerina on stage.

Innovative Solutions,Transforming Your Sandals and Wrapping Techniques

As I mentioned ribbons are made of satin, a beautiful shiny material that has no give when you pull it. Unfortunately it took many years and many injured ballerinas across the globe for the companies to change things in the ballet shoes industry. As pretty as they were, satin ribbons were harmful to the achilles tendons, and generated many lower legs problems before these companies came out with a new solution.

Ballerinas work their foot like clay, the movement of every muscle and bone in the feet, ankles, calves, knees is meticulous and free. For that to happen we strengthen with specific exercises, and our shoes, or anything wrapped around the ankle has to work with us, not against.

I went through many injuries myself, unfortunately that’s the nature of our job, but one in particular became chronic: Achilles tendonitis. 

I had cortisone injections, rehab, postural and alignment sessions, but one constant never changed: those bloody ribbons.

Towards the end of my career pointe shoes companies started rolling out “ new technology” pointe shoes that could help prevent those injuries, AAAAND new types of ribbons. Elasticated ones. 

Whaaaaat?

I guess someone like me had enough of the pain and decided to take that problem in their hands, and very soon satin ribbons were history.

The so-called “new technology” consisted in either having the full ribbon elasticated or an elasticated segment in between two pieces of ribbons. I opted for the second one because I liked it better. It still enjoyed the prettiness of the satin with the perks of the “new-technology”.

This was a game changer. Every movement was free, didn’t squash the achilles, felt safer, and it didn’t hurt or make my ankles become cankles.

How incredible!

Now I’m going to get to the point, and my new way of wearing sandals.

We all know that we women are pretty clumsy when walking around the city. I am. I tend to trip over every two steps because I look at the sky.

Finding Comfort in the Summer Heat. Cankles and Sandal Struggles.

When I got my new sandals last year I felt so wobbly and this sense of yuckiness when I wrapped around those laces.

Mind you it’s hot in Italy and the first thing that happens is my feet and ankle swell up. And you would too when it’s 38 degrees!

The shoe kept slipping and laces were losing up and falling off. The more I tightened them the more I felt that injury inflaming again.

I had an idea.

What if I changed those boring laces with something cooler and more comfortable?

I started looking around for lycra or microfiber materials that could be wrapped around in a stylish way.

I knew I could turn those basic color sandals into something fancy, give it character and color for every outfit and make them safe.

This is what came out. And I’m always searching for new pieces of elasticated material to add to the collection.

How to Feel Secure in Your Sandals with Ballerina Wrapping Techniques

The sandal now feels safe and sustained, it keeps my ankle stable and gives me confidence when I walk. If I stumble I don’t get hurt because the shoe falls weirdly, instead it feels secure like a pointe shoe and I could burst into a dance at any moment.

This video shows you how I wrap those ribbons around, and if you are curious, this is what I did as a ballerina, and you can see the elasticated ribbons that changed my life.

Let me know if you are going to try this method too and remember to let me know how it feels with this new trick.

I'll keep posting new colours and outfits on social media, let's see how many we can pull off.

Love
Alessia 💕