The early mornings are for padding along silently.
When the sun’s barely risen and the house is as cool and serene as a Buddhist temple, it would feel wrong to clatter through it in hard-heeled shoes – but at that hour, the floor’s too cold for your bed-warmed bare feet.
To wander through the house without a sound, you’ll want some soft, snugly contoured slippers. We’ve been in love with this softest of footwear since at least 1478 (the earliest recorded use of the word in English), but in recent years slippers have tended towards parody – great fluffy acres of them, the wider, (mock-)furrier and sillier the better.
Now, slipper fashion has come to its senses again. Take the calming, svelte lines of Acorn‘s Quilted Eco Scuff Slippers (at Planet Shoes): the “Ivory” variety (shown) is made from natural hemp and organic cotton, while the “Earth” is hemp, wool and yak down. Both types use CFC-free polyurethane to form a soft sole that’ll keep you gliding silently through your waking home. Alternately, if you don’t live as far north as I do and your floors aren’t as cold, wiggle your toes deliciously in a pair of Acorn Eco Wraps.