As Lena Dunham was photographed filming season three of Girls this week, it became apparent that while some parts of Hannah Horvath’s life seem to be progressing well, other aspects are still chaotic.

Dunham, playing Horvath, sits in a New York restaurant that has white tablecloths on the tables, her once-disastrous Carey Mulligan-inspired do has been smartly blow-dried, she wears lip gloss and earrings and a sweet little top. She’s succeeding at life! But look closer and you’ll easily spot the cracks. A Dictaphone rests on the table, poised for use – she’s becoming a proper writer/journalist perhaps? – and yet she is alone, indicating that whomever she arranged to meet is late or not coming at all. 

Then your eyes wander down to her feet and instead of seeing a pair of smart shoes – I’m not saying I was expecting a pair of Louboutins or Manolos but how about some Swedish Hasbeens? – she’s wearing plimsolls.
 
Plimsolls are not proper shoes. They are odd flimsy pieces of canvas and rubber that might be appropriate footwear if you exist solely in a world of sunshine and smiles like the plimsoll front woman Taylor Swift, but if you live in a place with grime and dog poo and heartbreak and public transport and sleazy bosses, ie in a major city like New York or London, then they are quite clearly not fit for purpose.  

They will become dirty little symbols of how you cannot deal with proper leather and heels and confrontation and spreadsheets like an actual grown-up – yes, new shoes hurt but you will get used to it! Persevere, wear them every second day until the leather softens, buy a packet of plasters, learn to ignore blisters, suck it up, deal with it. Whatever you do, don’t succumb to shoes that seem to scream: ‘I cannot handle adulthood.’

Because there is nothing like a pair of dirty canvas shoes, laces trailing behind you, to put the kibosh on the notion that you have got your sh*t together. God, I love the Girls wardrobe department. 

(If you absolutely must do plimsolls, choose a smart leather pair like those that Chloe Sevigny wore in New York last night. You will have to get a cab everywhere to preserve their pristine whiteness but at least people will take you seriously.)