While some diehards continue to stagger around in high heels, a grassroots movement is afoot. It isn’t just that the catwalk has decreed that flats will be the principal shoe for next summer, but also that several stylish women are publicly embracing flat, from Sofia Coppola to Holly Dunlap, the creator of Hollywould, the American range of cult ballet pumps.

The latest to add substance to the cause is Maloles Miracosta-Antignac, a 31-year-old former PR and Spanish Vogue stylist. Since launching her eponymous line less than a year ago, she has been inundated with orders from Barneys in New York, Printemps in Paris and Selfridges, Liberty and Matches in the UK. “It’s growing so fast, it’s a bit shocking,” she confesses.

No one else is surprised. As a child Maloles raided her grandmother’s shoe closet, progressing to buying 1920s tap shoes in the flea market “just for the pleasure of looking at them”.

As she was raised in Alicante, the heart of the Spanish shoe industry, the rest was inevitable. She served an apprenticeship with David Meyer, a traditional Paris-based shoe designer off the fashion track, and another unofficial apprenticeship as a dedicated wearer of Christian Louboutin, Marc Jacobs and Alexandra Neel shoes.

”Cut and structure are hugely important to me,” she says, “and being able to find a low heel. That’s partly why I set up, because flats were a dying breed.” Now, she notes with satisfaction, “they’re back, and it looks fresh to wear them with anything and everything. You just need the right attitude.” And the right legs, she could add. But she’s not aiming for a complete conversion: “I love flats at night, but not everyone’s going to wear them then. You need confidence. A safer option would be to save them for day; that way heels have more impact at night.”

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