I love love love my two black St. Agni mules (the Saul Babouche and the Paris woven mules—see these reviews for an intro of this Australian brand) so I decided to try two very different brown mules from them as well. I purchased this about 2 months ago (right before the shelter-in-place began) from the RealReal. But I haven’t reviewed it until now because, well do we really care about shoes right now? Lol, but then again both of these pairs look like indoor shoes so it might not be a bad thing to review them right now after all. But I’m getting ahead of myself because one of these shoes is much better than the other (IMHO). So without further ado here is the review:
posing with Emi’s campfire toy
The Desi Knit Loafer
This one is my favorite out of the two. But full disclosure, I still ended up returning it. I honestly kind of regret it, but I returned it because I had just purchased a lot (this was back in early March). But the shoe itself is great. First a note on sizing. I ordered this in a 39, a size up from my usual size 8 because I found that this is my usual size for St. Agni. Their sizing definitely runs small, especially for knit and woven leather styles. And the 39s in this knit loafer fit perfectly. I loved this shoe because even though the knit is a fabric-knit material, it’s coated with a clear polymer so it’s water and stain resistant. And yet it’s still really pliable and comfortable to wear. The insole is padded like all St. Agni mules, which makes it a dream to walk in. I had no issues with it falling off my feet when I walked around in them. The sole was on the tad heavy side, so it did make quite a bit of noise when I was walking around on the hardwood floor. But in the end, like I said, I returned it. I just wasn’t too sure about it: is it an outdoor shoe or an indoor shoe? Would it be weird if I walked around in those outside? But I definitely don’t wear shoes inside the house so there’s no point in buying an indoor shoe.
The Lita Loafer
Of the two, this was by far my lesser favorite. Actually it’s my least favorite out of all the St. Agni shoes I’ve tried. And that’s because this was the only one that hurt when I wore it. The top part of the shoe pulls at the top of my feet with every step. The leather on the Lita loafer is super stiff with very little give. I do have a somewhat high profile foot so that probably has something to do with it. I also got these in a 39 and they were a tad big, though I’m pretty sure a 38 would have been too small. Also I’m not sure I love the square-toe look. I’m usually a fan of the pointed toe because it helps elongate my short legs, so the square toe looks a bit odd to me. Anyway this was an easy decision to return because it was so uncomfortable.
So it looks like I’ve tried two mules from St. Agni that are a winner, one so-so and one clearly a fail. Since this Australian brand is kind of hit-or-miss with the sizing, I would recommend trying them out from domestic retailers like Bloomingdales or The Dreslyn. Or if you want them secondhand, I can usually find some great deals on the RealReal (a lot of which looks brand new like the ones I tried on here).
P.S. As I finished up writing this I wanted to check if Bloomies still sold St. Agni, so I went to their site and ended up purchasing another pair lol. Oops, but it came out to 50% off retail (due to a promo code and a sale combined). Plus I had a gift card so I only paid $40 out of pocket. I got the Ciao woven mules here. They’re pretty much out of sizes but the darker color version of these Ciao mules still has quite a few sizes left. You can find my St. Agni Ciao mules review here.