In a recent Glamour magazine poll, when women were asked “Do you prefer your heels a practical height or sky-high?”, 57% said “1 to 2 inches is plenty”. Which made me wonder why the vast majority of heels in US stores are over 3”? In fact, Glamour reader favorite Jimmy Choo and other brands now consider 3” pumps a “mid-height” heel, and I’ve seen 2” heels described as “kitten heels”!  |
| 4" Alien cage heel by Zanotti |
I long assumed that my D-width foot was the reason 4" heels were a non-starter for me, since at 4" you are walking mainly on your toes and the edge of the ball of your foot - which on me is the widest part of my foot, and generally wide shoes - at least American ones - are rather "orthopedic" looking to begin with. But if the majority of women agree with me, WHY are stores and websites filled to the brim with them?
Not too long ago, 3” heels were reserved for special occasions that didn’t require much walking, and the only place you could find 4” heels was Frederick’s of Hollywood or other specialty stores. Women wore flats or 1-2" heels for everyday wear, because you needed to be able to walk in them without your feet hurting - and European, Asian, and Latin American women disproportionately still do. In the 30's and 40's, shoes frequently had ankle straps and a wider heel base, making them more secure on the foot. Today this style would read as "frumpy" to most fashionistas - unless you're wearing a vintage pair on purpose, as a statement shoe.
Today, instead of being worn as a special-occassion shoe, American women wear high heels all day, every day - something that our mothers and grandmothers, not to mention women in other cultures - would find ridiculous. And the definition of “high heels” has literally inched up to 4” or even higher in a few cases, and the pages of fashion magazines are plastered with photos of these uber-heels, with very few options for the 57% of us looking for fabulous 2”-2.5” heels that are suitable for literally pounding the pavement. In fact, a quick check of one of the more popular shoe brands’ website revealed that 46 styles were classified as “High/Beyond High”, while just ten – TEN - were classified as “Mid Heel” – and that included all the 2-3” heels they offer.
For generations we’ve understood there is a difference between the artistic vision of designers and the ‘ready to wear’ reality into which their vision is translated… except evidently with shoes. A sketch of an anatomically impossible shoe becomes … an anatomically impossible shoe! Women cannot walk on their toes – yet this is precisely what these shoes force us to do… it is beyond painful, it’s physically harmful in a way that no shirt or purse will ever be.
We are coming frighteningly close to coaxing the average woman to wear toe-shoes at this point – something that ballerinas train to do, and do only for a few seconds at a time - and willingly destroy their feet in the process… But you literally have to pass a test to dance in toe shoes if you’re a ballerina, while shoe designers put their customers in the same position without a thought. Take a look at a 4.25" (net) high heel ... Stop looking at the shoe, sexy as it is, and look at where the weight is on her foot...
Toes were not meant to carry our bodyweight, even if you're a size 00! When you show a shoe photographed at the right angle, without a foot in it, 4" looks like a 'doable' height, right? I mean this one, which is also 4.25" - doesn't look that high, due to the way it's photographed. Or how about this beautiful 4.3" Gucci pump for SS/13? It's only really when you see a shoe with a strap or bootie that you can tell something is wrong - the fact they have to be angled severely forward, e.g., these 4.25" stunnners - should be alarming. But without seeing a woman actually walk in it, it's just not. Which brings me to another point...
Have you not noticed how many designer shoe advertisements these days feature the model sitting down? It may not be intentional, but the message is they aren’t made for actually walking in… Are we really to that point that companies don’t worry about whether shoes can actually function as a shoe?
I love the look of a sexy high heel as much as anyone, but the distance has never been greater between what designers and editors put on the runway and in stores, and what their customers can consume.
CODA: In Brazil, and Germany, and the UK, I can find LOADS of cool shoes with a heel less than 3” high. And when I’m in one of these places on business, I cart home a suitcase full of them. My most recent haul included an incredible pair from Brazil-based Shutz, which were oxblood platform wedge sandals in patent and suede, with a heel cup pieced from different textures of leather in a lotus flower shape – and the net height was under 3”, so they are very comfy to walk in, without sacrificing an ounce of style. Sure there are very-high heels for sale too – but to walk into any shoe store and have a real choice of options in ‘lower’ heels is amazing. It’s shoe nirvana…
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