Shoe Power

[Magickman]

The Sacramento (California) Bee newspaper will be publishing an article about Shoe Power this coming Sunday, Nov. 6. Check it out on-line.

SUNDAY

Scene - Shoe power

One should never underestimate the deep bond between a woman and her footwear. The Bee's Leigh Grogan tells you why Cinderella had it right: Shoes can be potent symbols of a woman's stability, pizzazz, sexiness and, yes, even her power.

[sscotty727]

I saw this new comercial lastnight for DHL. This guy was walking around picking up heels and looking them over. He wife and others were giving him advice on heels, etc "Kitten heels will be big this year (yuk)", but anyway, it was an ad for shipping weight (or something). Anyway, the end of the comercial, he is sitting in a shoe shop beside this woman trying on shoes. As he reaches for the box the woman slames her foot in the box and gives him a dirty look as he jumps back in horror. The message, don't mess with a woman and her shoes;)

[BobHH]

Style.com says platforms are back!

[Magickman]

Here is the funny shoe article that appeared in the Sacramento Bee

Fancy feet

From stilettos to slingbacks, shoes serve as powerful symbols for women

By Leigh Grogan -- Bee Fashion Writer

Published 2:15 am PST Sunday, November 6, 2005

Story appeared in Scene section, Page L1

One should never underestimate the deep bond between a woman and her footwear.

As a fairy-tale feminist, Cinderella was always a step ahead - no glass ceilings for her, just a pair of dainty, breakable slip-ons.

Sure, she snagged a prince and a palace. But her transformation from a girl of servitude into a woman of strength is the real lesson. Or so author Susan Reynolds believes.

Cinderella's shoes were free, given to her by her fairy godmother. In real life, U.S. women spent close to $20 billion on shoes last year. Female footwear fanatics filled their closets with everything from $16.99 Highlights from Payless to $900 Christian Louboutin platforms from Paris, many without really knowing why they are drawn to them.

Cinderella, Reynolds says, holds the answer.

"Cinderella is one of those archtypal images you can't forget. She appears in more than 700 cultures dating back to the ninth century in China," she says. "Her shoes play such a big part in the story because they're a symbol of her realizing who she is."

If you change your shoes, can you really change your attitude, your personality?

Reynolds believes the theory so much that she wrote a book on the subject. "Change Your Shoes, Change Your Life" (Polka Dot Press, $14.95, 231 pages) illustrates how shoes can be potent symbols of a woman's stability, pizazz, sexiness and, yes, even her power.

Cinderella's solemates

In real life, Cinderella's modern-day solemates are women who are truly enamored of shoes.

The more down-to-earth ones get a lift simply by shoe shopping at T.J. Maxx. The more extravagant hop planes to shoe shop in New York, Los Angeles and Miami. They display their prized possessions in enormous closets fit for a queen.

Elizabeth Scott Warren, 35, of Richmond, Va., is among the more extravagant.

"I have a couple hundred pairs. And once a week I usually get a new pair," says Warren, who works for a technology consulting firm and has been encouraged by friends to one day open a shoe museum.

Her most expensive pair? "They're Dolce & Gabbana open-toed crocodile pumps, which cost me $1,200 and which don't fit," she says.

"I wear a size 8 1/2, and they're 10s. I stuff (the shoes) to keep from walking out of them."

Her favorite pair? "Too tough to pick. Maybe my pink velvet slingbacks with crystals. Then again, I get butterflies when I wear my Puccis."

Warren admits to being somewhat embarrassed by her shoe empire, but she doesn't blink at flying to the Bahamas or other fashion destinations to shop.

"I'm a nut, I admit it," she says. "But Gwyneth Paltrow and I once bought the same pair of Balenciagas at the same store in New York. How cool is that?"

Are you a shoe addict?

How do you know when your shoes are walking all over your life? What does it mean when you feel guilty and never take the shoes out of the box?

Clinical psychologist Nicole Tobias says she's never met a person with a shoe addiction. Tobias is director of counseling and disability services at the Art Institute of California in San Francisco where fashion design is a daily focus.

"Obsessiveness (about shoes) doesn't have to be a bad thing," she says. "If I were a person who shops for shoes often, it wouldn't necessarily mean I had a problem."

Tobias says to look at your whole life picture:

* Is buying lots of shoes causing a problem financially? In other words, do you have shoes but you can't pay PG&E?

* Is there something missing in your life, and shoes are the panacea?

* Is your life full and rich in other areas? Or are shoes a dominating force?

For some women, they are. Consider that 54 percent of single women (mostly in their 30s) surveyed by soundinvesting.org said they were likely to accumulate 30 pairs of shoes before accumulating $30,000 in retirement savings.

"The thing is though, men collect things too," Tobias says. "It's probably something more like stamps or coins rather than shoes, but we don't pathologize those hobbies."

True shoe addiction might be rare, but author Reynolds offers some telltale signs to determine whether you're a "shoe-a-holic." For example:

* You still own your first pair of black patent Mary Janes.

* You had your wedding shoes picked out by age 14.

* You've moved at least five times and have never thrown a pair of shoes away.

* You consider shoe shopping a religious experience.

* Your friends cringe when you ask them to go shoe shopping.

* You buy plain pumps at regular prices.

* You own a pair of yellow shoes.

* You check out other women's feet/legs/ankles more than your boyfriend/husband does.

* You have a closetful of shoes and only three outfits to go with them.

* You gave your mother designer shoes for Christmas.

* Your friends gave you a pillow with "Imelda Marcos Wannabe" embroidered on it.

Pop culture's influence

Shoe labels have become nouns, i.e., "Manolos" and "Jimmy Choos," with credit going to shoe-obsessed TV characters such as Carrie Bradshaw of "Sex and the City."

Bill Boettge, president of the National Shoe Retailers Association in Columbia, Md., says that TV show in particular has had a tremendous influence on women's shoe-buying habits.

"Wearing sexy shoes made a comeback after a decade (1990s) of casual styles," he says, "because women had had enough of comfort."

Boettge points to MTV as another major influence in shoe trends, with a strong impact on younger (teens and 20-something) shoppers.

"With shoes, when a woman sees what she wants she'll do whatever she has to," he says.

The NPD Group, which tracks consumer spending, confirms women are spending more on fashionable footwear rather than sensible shoes. For example, sales of stiletto and kitten-heel shoes were up 18 percent and 9 percent, respectively, last year over plain old block-heeled shoes.

Not only did "Sex and the City" expand the shoe horizon for the average woman, it bolstered the careers of some of the world's best shoe designers. Their sales took off because somehow owning the shoes was more important than the fit, the comfort or the price tag.

" 'I don't give a damn about the cost' is basically what women were saying," says Brandin Baron, also on the faculty at the Art Institute of California. "On that show, shoes were equated with a better way of life, with optimism, with success."

Carrie Bradshaw and her shoe collection transcended traditional fashion roles. "But I don't know how realistic that fashion lifestyle is," Baron adds.

They'll cost you

The price of a pair of Jimmy Choo evening pumps festooned with a Swarovski brooch? $950. For the more reasonable shoe lover: At Target, Mossimo's Purple Pricilla faux croc pumps are $19.99.

When it comes to shoe behavior, Tricia Tequida, 53, of Greenhaven would have to be on the more reasonable side. She says she never pays full price and loves T.J. Maxx because "you never know what you'll find."

"I still have a seasonal wardrobe, but I just got rid of 50 pair," she says. "I hung on to one polka-dot pair that I really love."

Like other devout shoe shoppers, Heidi Leathers of Roseville splits her time between high-end and bargain stores. You'll just as easily find her at the Nordstrom Rack in Sacramento as at a boutique in Soho.

Leathers, 40, travels the country for business and makes shopping for shoes a priority - no matter where she lands. She even has a special shoe bag on wheels that holds 10 pairs.

"I love coming back to Northern California and having women stop and ask me where I got my shoes," she says.

Leathers organizes her shoes by season. Her favorites are the pointy-toed variety, often the most painful of styles. She owns one pair of tennis shoes.

"I'll only wear ill-fitting shoes or uncomfortable ones to a restaurant," she says. "You look good walking in and out, and then you sit in-between."

Friends often ask to borrow her shoes. So much so that Leathers is considering a check-out list - sort of like a library card - so she can get the shoes back in a timely manner.

She doesn't want to be away from them too long.

As designer Manolo Blahnik once said of his sexy stilettos: "I'm not a psychoanalyst (but) I always knew there was an element of desire in shoes. The quick fix is in the high heel. It's instant."

About the writer:

The Bee's Leigh Grogan can be reached at (916) 321-1129 or lgrogan@sacbee.com.

[BobHH]

The same article was in today's Orange County Register. Why is it funny?