I’ve never considered myself a boot person, but living in Moscow a good pair of boots is a necessity. Today I went for a walk in a new pair of boots and felt like a different person.

My new boots are very modest by Moscow standards. They’re black, the most popular boot color, and they do have heels, but thickish heels only about two or two and a half inches tall. Fashionable boots would have four-inch stilettos. They’re only mid-calf height instead of to the knee and are lined with synthetic fur. That makes them warm and toasty, but also much bulkier than the skin-tight patent-leather that girls here are so fond of.

But it’s easy to forget all of the ways in which my boots fall short the moment I begin to walk in them because these boots do something my other boots will never be capable of: they click when I walk. It’s a beautiful sound. Powerful, feminine, confident. It helps me understand how Russian girls can put up with their footwear. I’m not ready to give up comfortable footwear, but at least I can understand why so many people here do.