All Small Feet Don’t Want to Walk Tall

Question: As you can imagine, it’s difficult to find Size 4 shoes with any degree of sophistication. Also, shoe designers seem to assume that if your feet are small you want to look as tall as possible. High heels are, therefore, the rule. Please help me find flat- or nearly flat-heel shoes suitable for wear with daytime suits. I would prefer black but will accept gray.

Answer: The low-heel sling-backs illustrated here are from Beene Bag. They are offered in Sizes 4-6 M and 5 1/2 to 6 1/2 AA (half sizes are available) for $74. Colors include gray, taupe and black kidskin with snake toes and heels. These shoes, as well as flats by Liz Claiborne and Enzo Angiolini, are part of a collection of shoes for small sizes featured at Giordano’s Shoes, 1118 1st Ave., New York, N.Y. 10021.

Q: My husband and I will be going to Mexico next month, where we will spend time in cities as well as in the smaller villages. I know it will probably be very warm, and I’m concerned about what type of clothes to take. I love sport clothes but would they be appropriate in the city? Will I need dressy clothes? What do you recommend?--M.N.

A: You’re going on a safari of sorts, so why not wear safari clothes made of cool-wearing cotton? Thanks to the movie “Out of Africa,” the look is now as big in the concrete jungles as it is on the Kalahari. The Banana Republic has long pioneered the safari look and offers all-cotton safari dresses at $56, Egyptian cotton safari skirts at $59 and Egyptian cotton safari pants at $49, all in Sizes 4-16. The skirt and/or pants can be worn with Egyptian cotton safari jackets at $89, small, medium and large sizes, and a white cotton two-collar shirt at $29. The conventional club collar buttons off to reveal a finished, collarless neckline.

There’s also an Egyptian cotton traveler’s sport coat with 11 pockets, four of them concealed in the all-cotton lining. It’s a man’s jacket, available in Sizes 38-44 regular and 42-44 long. If you don’t care that the buttons are on the right side instead of the left, both you and your husband can wear the same jacket. There are many more items in the current catalogue that will coordinate with the ones mentioned here.

To order, write to Banana Republic, Box 7737, San Francisco, Calif. 94120, or visit the store in Beverly Hills.

The safari wardrobe will look right for everything but dinner at an elegant restaurant. For that occasion, see the sleeveless cotton-knit tank dress illustrated on Page 20 of the catalogue.

Here’s the way the catalogue describes the dress: “Stuff it in a tote (it resists wrinkling), slip it over a bathing suit, wear it belted for dinner on the terrace and tangoing in the tavern or loose and relaxed for a stretch and a snooze on the plane. And if your next port of call is cooler than anticipated, use it as a thermal slip . . . .”