HEAD OVER HEELS

    IT HAPPENED in Milan at a 2008 Prada fashion show. 111 was having
a panic attack, my hands were shaking, " a runway model recalls.
Some of the girls were crying backstage, they were so scared." Why
the dramatics-An act of terrorism? An explosion? Had the prime
minister been assassinated? No. These women were fearful of walking
down the runway in the season's extremely high heels. Two models
tripped and fell; they were helped to their feet by members of the
audience. One was so badly shaken she went backstage and never
reemerged. The other finished her walk carrying her shoes and
received a standing ovation.
    Since that day, models in strappy five-inch heels have stumbled at
fashion shows presented by the designers Gucci, Miu Miu, Herve
Leger by Max Azria, Emilio Pucci, Dsquared, and Rodarte. At a
2009 Brian Reyes show in New York, the pointy Manalo Blahnik

pumps the models wore caused so many topples and were so uncomfortable
that by the finale, every model was walking barefoot. 2 According
to Harper's Bazaar, ~~the runways looked like an episode of ER. "3 In
1994, Naomi Campbell fell wearing nine-inch-heeled shoes during
a fashion show of punk British designer Vivienne Westwood. But that
had been a onetime event. Fifteen years later, models were dropping
like flies. Meanwhile, models who rationally renounce menacing
footwear pay a professional price. In 2009, several world-famous
models refused to wear stilettos with ten-inch heels down an Alexander
McQueen runway and were cut from the show.
    If fashion models, who are paid to wear the creations of designers,
cannot wear extreme heels, who can? Well, many ordinary women
have been making a go at it over the last decade. Shoes with heels of
five, six, even seven inches and bondage-themed straps are marketed
to us as of-the-moment, edgy, and fashionable. These "bad" shoes are
in the stores, and women are actually wearing them, not only in the
evening when they go out to dinner, a party, or a show-but all day
long. "Over the last several years," observes Jessica Morgan, who
chronicles celebrity fashion faux pas on the Go Fug Yourself website,
11we've seen designers creating increasingly crazy heels-shoes that
runway models can barely walk in, and that we're scared to even wear
out of the house for fear of taking a tumble at an inopportune time
(like, say, in front of a bus). Regardless of the insanity of some of these
shoes, we've still seen women whipped into a frenzy for them."
    InJune 2009, Vogue editor Andre Leon Talley, a regular frontrow
guest at designer fashion shows, demanded an end to the madness.
After considering the ubiquitous 'owering torture chambers,
often poorly designed for the well-being of the foot," he declared,
1'1, for one, am over the mania for the high, high heel. Too many
career women look like a herd of fashion beasts, aping one another
in impractical shoes." Talley pointed out that women in previous
generations knew how to look elegant without martyring their feet,
and said that women today should reject designers' creations. ~~I do
like to see women who know how to glide gracefully along on a sensible
low heel. "
    There is no denying the fact that when a woman is wearing 11bad"
shoes she gains sex appeal. Heels change your posture, making the
body look more curvaceous because the pelvis and bust are forced to
tilt forward to compensate for the shift in balance. Your legs seem
longer, and your gait, sexier. There's a reason that sex symbols always
wear heels.
    Many women, at least some of the time, want to be sexually
appraised. They want to feel sexy and they want others to judge them
as sexy. Sometimes when they walk twenty city blocks to work, or push
a stroller, or dash to the market for groceries, or enter a conference
room, they imagine they are strutting down a runway. Life may be
messy and hectic, but a little bit of appreciative physical attention can
go a long way in boosting a battered self-image. High-heeled shoes
are not comfortable. They are not practicaL Often, they are not
affordable. But a good pair of high heels can make a girl feel like a
rock star.
    And they had better. Any woman who has soaked her feet after a
day's work, or bandaged up her bloodied heel, knows: stumbling is
just one of the consequences of high-heeled shoes. They hurt.
Sometimes, they hurt bad. What every woman doesn't know, however,
is what I'm concerned about, and the reason I wrote this book. It's a
fact: When worn on a regular basis, any shoe with a pointed toe and
a heel over one and a half inches-let alone five-can cause foot
deformity. In this type of shoe, the wearer is forced to walk on the
balls of her feet, which leads to misalignment of the structure of the
foot. In time, gorgeous shoes will create ugly feet, not to mention
pain that shoots from the foot to the knee to the hip to the back.
    In this book I explore the phenomenon of women choosing to
wear 11bad" shoes. Women love them despite the fact that medical evidence
is unequivocal: they are physically damaging. And this is nothing
new. Women in the West have been wearing 11bad" shoes on and
off for over five hundred years, while women in the East have been
seduced by 1'bad" shoes for even longer. Trying to have a rational discussion
with shoe-loving women, that they really ought to make more
sensible footwear choices, is nearly always futile. But I'm here to make
a plea. Feet are important. They will carry you around for the rest of
your life. You need to take care of them.
    To the reader who loves her high heels: My fervent hope is that
when you finish reading this book, you will choose to reduce the
amount of time you spend standing and walking in them. I'm not
telling you to stop wearing them. I wear Hbad" shoes too-but in
moderation. Be smart about how often you wear them and for how
long. If you wear them too much, you will end up with disfigured
feet. And no one will give you a standing ovation for that.