Why We Love the Shoes That Hurt Us

[Driver8]

Huge NY Times piece with 279 comments. My apologies if this was already posted.

If the spring fashion shows in Paris this week are any indicator, we haven’t hit the apex, or nadir, of what women might wear on their feet. But history has produced a lot of extreme shoes. Why do women wear them?

http://roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/08/why-we-love-the-shoes-that-hurt-us/

[M-a]

Thanks for posting Will read it right away.

[Histiletto]

I saw the extreme examples of the Paris footwear presented and they made me cringe. They reminded me of the far-eastern foot-binding practice that literally destroyed the feet of the women who engaged in the activity. Especially the footwear that accentuates the wearer's feet by distortedly hiding the form of their feet in pom-poms or bubble-like shapes. Although I'm not particularly in favor of ballet heels, they have a style and grace that that the extreme Paris fashion examples seems to loose.

[danielp6406]

Fortunately, no woman will really wear those heels in real life. But I was amazed by reading the story of this 5 years old little girl wearing 2" heels. The sad part is that it is for real... Wondering what her mother was thinking ... (Maybe she was not thinking after all)

[dww]

My little grandaughter had 17 pairs of shoes before she was born, (no heels of course) I love her to bits, my little chicken.