New Delhi, May 9 -- About a decade ago, when I told one of my aunts about my first job at a news agency, she said, "You will become jhola-chappal wali now". Jhola meant cloth bag, and chappal, Kolhapuris, the cliched Indian journalist's uniform. I did become that person, quite proudly. As the years progressed and salary increased, bags became leather, but Kolhapuris remained a constant. They still are-for being affordable, unfussy and reliably good-looking. More importantly, they have outlasted every passing spring-summer footwear trend.

Breaking in a new pair each time, however, demands patience-just the leather around the toe loop takes about a week to soften.

That wasn't the case when I slipped into Prada's newly launched limited-edi...