SOLE SEARCHING

 

 

 

 

Let’s get one thing straight. Stilettos have nothing to do with fashion. The most seriously fashionable women I have ever met – you know the type- the type who call boutiques for the dates of  early deliveries and who have McQueen on speed dial- don’t wear them. Sure, Victoria Beckham has a penchant for them, but let’s face it- if wearing a plastic bag got her on the front page, she would wear it (not exactly fashion icon of the year).

However, if Vogue declared them a faux pas, it would make no difference to women like me, who love them.

 

There’s a scene in the new Cameron Diaz chick flick, In Her Shoes, that spells out the main attraction of a fabulous pair of heels. Diaz’s slim, sexy, party loving character criticises her overweight, workaholic sister (Toni Collette) for having a mouth watering shoe collection which many remain unworn and boxed to perfection.

 

Collette explains her shoe addiction in the words which will no doubt strike a chord in many women: ‘When I feel bad, I like to treat myself. Clothes never look any good, food just makes me fatter – shoes always fit.’

The fact that shoes can work as fashion’s fastest acting anti depressant is not news; it’s the reason thousands of us have an Imelda Marcos style obsession which is. A survey by Virgin Money has highlighted that we are spending more and more on shoes a year, totalling up the value of £830 million a year on designer shoes and bags.

 

{mosimage}What is the ever increasing fetishisation of the high heel which women are going mad for (not to mention in serious debt for) and why are we favouring them over life’s responsibilities, like buying a house?

The answer I believe is found in 6 words: Manolo Blahnik & Sex & the City. Yes, Carrie Bradshaw and her never ending collection of the beautifully crafted shoes graced our scenes for the last 10 years. The programme not only put Sarah Jessica Parker, empowered women, Mr.Big and Cosmopolitan cocktails in our vocabularies, but also Blahnik’s reputation as the shoe God.

 

{mosimage}Blahnik has become the Da Vinci of the high heels: his shoes are not only exquisitely beautiful, but the feats of engineering, which combine elaborate design with the barest, most vertiginous structure. And Blahnik understands that ultimately, the power of shoes is in the mind of the wearer- it isn’t physical, it is  mental. “When women ask me about heels, I say, try a pair on. If you don’t see the magic, stick to Reeboks.” Ouch.

 

Some would say the magic is all about sex. There is no doubt that wearing high shoes has a shamelessly sexualising effect on the female form. The pelvis has to be tilted, causing the back to arch and breast and bottom to jolt. The stiletto wearer is made more aware of her posture, and so of her body; she finds herself throwing her weight to one foots, exaggerating the shape of her hips.

The sexual associations of stilettos are reflected in their design. This is never more true than at the hand of Blahnik himself, who sculpts every curve of the heel and whittles every whip-thin ankle strap until his shoes make you want to blush.. But stilettos are as much about lifestyle as they are about sex – which makes it very apt that they have become the mascot of SATC, a show that purports to be about sex but is really about lifestyle – and what a good lifestyle it is!

 

{mosimage}The iconic image of the stiletto wearer is not a Helmut Newton fantasy but Carrie Bradshaw on the kerb, chin up, hand aloft, hailing a taxi because 3 blocks is a long way in four inch heels (trust me, I have been there, it hurts!) There must have been more to it than just sex, because it is not just the high heels that are fetishised – it is expensive high heels. Rarely is there a reference to a pair of high heels in Sex & the City without it being mentioned, in passing, that these are $300 shoes. Anyone who has seen the episode when Carrie calculates that she has spent $15,000 on shoes, will know what I am talking about. The price tag is compounded by the expensive lifestyle that impractical shoes necessitate. 

 

What were once called ‘Winkle pickers’ or ‘F*ck me shoes’ are know better known as ‘tax shoes’ or ‘Carrie shoes’. Sex & the City may be a show of zeitgeist, but the association of beautiful shoes with a privileged lifestyle of money and leisure has been around for ever. In the book, ‘Shoes: A Lexicon of Style’,  by fashion historian Valerie Steele, she points out that shiny, unbundled boots were originally a status symbol associated with knights on horseback. The precise click-clack of new heels is a time honoured method of ensuring that one’s entrance does not go unnoticed; the phrase ‘down – at – heel’ refers to worn heels that have gone unreplaced.

 

Pretty as they are, there is also a dark side to the high heels too. The Italian shoe makers who created them in the early 1950’s did so by inserting a metal pin into a high, slim heel to keep it from snapping; they named their invention after a narrow bladed knife favoured by Renaissance assassins. The undertones of power and danger cut both ways: a woman in high heels is taller, more imposing, and wearing what could potentially be a dangerous weapon; on the other hand, odalisques in the harem of the Turkish sultan were once made to wear high, precarious sandals to prevent them from fleeing. What’s more, high heels are not supposed to be very good for you, with the killjoy mutterings of it damaging your back and risks of falling over.

 

However, I am sure, even though stilettos are supposed to be dangerous and that ballet pumps are ‘in’ this season, you won’t see Elizabeth Hurley or Scarlet Johansson sporting them. They know the value of the 4 inch heel. It is rumoured that Marilyn Monroe had one heel filed shorter then the other so that she would totter with a signature bottom wiggling movement.

 

Heels also have the power to make legs look longer and thinner, so it is of no surprise that many will be flocking to buy the new book, ‘Blahnik By Boman: A Photographic Conversation. This book celebrates the designers work through pictures taken by fashion photographer Eric Boman. Taking the lead from Blahnik’s extravagant and often playful designs, a crocodile shoe is photographed lurking in  swamp; a furry slipper is caught snagged in a mouse trap. A beautiful coffee table book for all those shoe fashionistas. If you love this, you will also love ‘Stiletto: By Caroline Cox, who also has a love for the spiky shoes and tells all in her book. Long live the stiletto!

 

SHOE DESIGNER GUIDE – 6 OF THE BEST

 

Ÿ         Christian Laboutin  – 0207 245 6510

Ÿ         Jimmy Choo – 0207 823 1051

Ÿ         Rickard Shah – www.rickardshah.com

Ÿ         Rupert Sanderson – www.rupertsanderson.co.uk

Ÿ         Gil Carvalho – 0207 262 2658

Ÿ         Terry Havilland – www.terrydehavilland.com