I think I am the only person I know who can’t pronounce the word Havaianas properly. I resolutely seem to refer to them as ‘Havanas’ which is not only a type of cigar but, more to the point, absolutely not what they are called.

I wear my trusty gold skinny pair almost daily and have had them for years.

Instead of thinking of them as shoes (which I do, they are rarely off my feet by day), I’ve recently come to the revelation that flip flops need to be treated as the Singapore equivalent of the English winter-time staple: the Ugg boot.

Like Uggs they are incredibly comfy and perfect for the weather, they are brilliant for wearing at home but do have a habit of making you (or me at any rate) feel horribly sloppy.  I even walk lazily in them – yup that’s me you can hear dragging my feet…

Cue the Aussie label Holster who have more or less solved my problem I think, possibly due to the ten pairs of shoes they dropped off with me last weekend that I’ve been working my way through this week.

Their cute jelly-style shoes which are quite structured, embellished with glass or metal studs, have just hit Singapore and really are – joy of joys – flip flops in heavy disguise, albeit in a more shoe-like form: extremely comfortable, perfect in the heat yet really not embrasassing to be caught wearing in Paragon.

My favourite is the pewter San Tropez silver stud (above; they’ve been wiped out of this same shoe in the champagne colourway, it’s so popular).   I love its platted straps and the fact that when you buckle it up, the back strap has quite a bit of give.

We have no air con in the downstairs part of our house and when I am wrestling on a pair of shoes before going out, I hate it when the strap won’t yield to my ugly-sister sized feet which do seem to fluctuate in size depending on the temperature (I had some gold snake skin shoes made for me in Hong Kong and I get in to a sweat just thinking about trying to buckle them up; below).

I also like this white and metal flip flop too which, yes, is a flip flop technically but has a structure to it which somehow does make it more shoe-like – and less Ugg-like – and quite passable for evenings (even more so on the basis that living here means you almost always kick your shoes off at the door if you’re going to someone’s house for dinner).

They come in back or white and will be selling in August for the introductory price of $39.90 if there are enough requests for the style.

They have great names too: here’s the Supermodel Stud (also in picture no. 2) that I’m wearing with a batik dress bought from Alun Alun in Jakarta:

All shoes were courtesy of Holster.  Holster can be bought from Not Too Big in Forum #02-06/07.  There isn’t a Holster Singapore website yet (coming July 2013).

Image of gold Havaianas courtesy of shooclub