Dear Manolo: Shoes to Set an Old Flame Aflame

Dear Manolo:

I'm about to have lunch with an ex I haven't seen in 15 years. Since then, I've started a successful business and learned how to dress well. I'm thinking of wearing a floaty little black skirt that would work for lunch and a stroll in the park. What should I wear on my feet?
—NORA

MANOLO SAYS, here is one of the surprisingly common problems of the modern age, how to induce in the former flame the complicated feelings of remorse, regret and desire using only conversation, feetwear and floaty black skirts.

As it is often the case, it is best to take as your model the Audrey Hepburn, whose ethereal beauty and floaty-skirt-wearing ways drove many men to distraction. Her secret for this was not only in her looks, but in the detached and bemused manner in which she seemed to regard her potential suitors. Such cool indifference, feigned or otherwise, causes men's emotions to roil and flare, and this is the always point of meeting the old flame, is it not?

What better way to express your inner Audrey than with the Jeweltones from the Stuart Weitzman ($265, zappos.com). Not only are they beautiful, but they have the sturdy low heel so that you will not topple to the ground while pretending to be indifferent in the park.

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Photo courtesy zappos.com