Wedding Shoe Shopping Tips

Next to the search for the wedding dress, looking for your wedding shoes are one of the hardest things on your to do list. You might have to sacrifice comfort for style. You might have to choose comfort over style. You might have to choose price over comfort. Or you can go on the quest for comfort, style and price as most brides do. Expect to do a lot of shopping and expect a lot of frustration.

Wedding shoes are a once in a lifetime purchase. They are part of your wedding attire and will show when you take off your garter, so you want them to complete your look. Remember to budget in wedding shoes so you don't think of them as an additional afterthought expense.

Why are wedding shoes so hard to find?

Most retail stores don't stock them, they order them because its expensive to stock a lot of shoes that will go out of style or may discolor if they sit on their shelf for long periods of time. Most shoes will not discolor, but if they are cheap shoes with glued on satin, the glue may yellow and give the shoes a yellowish color.

Wedding shoes are special occasion shoes and the demand isn't the same as a flip flop or pair of cute boots.

Wedding shoe buying tips:

Shop early and keep your options open. Shop so that you have your shoes in time for alterations because your hem length on your dress is dependent on the size of your shoe heel. You may need to buy the shoes before you order your wedding dress if you are having your dress ordered with your hem length.

Some brides decide to wear a color to match the accent on their wedding dress. If you decide to do color, make sure you wear color accents in your jewelry to tie it all together.

Don't rule out leather shoes. There is no rule that your wedding shoes have to be fabric. Fabric shoes don't breathe like leather and don't stretch like leather.

Look for a shoe that supports your foot and ankle and that you can stand and dance in for long periods of time.

If you choose a heel, look for a shoe that has padding in the ball of the foot so your feet don't start to burn and hurt.

Strappy shoes can cut into your feet after standing a long time and cause blisters.

Feet will swell as the day goes on. Buy them large enough to accommodate dancing and happy feet. You can put in a comfort gel pad and take it out as your feet swell.

Buy shoes that you can wear all day. Taking off your shoes at the reception looks tacky and will make your dress too long. You risk falling or tripping if your dress is too long, not to mention having your feet stepped on with your dance partner.

There is a huge difference in quality in wedding shoes. Price doesn't always indicate quality. Sometimes you are paying for the designers name. Sometimes you are paying for silk shoes versus satin or polyester fabric. Some of the same shoes that are unaffordable in silk can be ordered in a less expensive fabric so you have the same look at a more affordable price.

If the shoe rubs your foot, pinches or feels like it won't bend, don't buy it.

If the shoe is too big at the heel of the shoe, see if adding a heel pad will make a difference or try a shoe size down. If you walk out of the shoe, don't buy it.

If the shoe is too narrow, don't buy it, you will be miserable. Some wedding shoes come in wide widths, some don't. If you wear a very narrow width, it may be unavailable except in the most expensive custom shoes. Consider buying a leather shoe if your foot is very narrow.

After you buy your shoes, make sure you break them in. Wear them around the house with a pair of socks to make them comfortable. If they have a leather sole, make sure you take them to a shoe shop to have a non skid pad put on the bottom so you don't fall. Bring along some self adhesive moleskin to the reception that can be applied to the part of the shoe that is rubbing so you don't get blisters.

The Cone Heel Is Back for Fall—Meet Its Inventor, Maud Frizon

The fulcrum of this fall’s trendiest footwear isn’t a chunky platform or a rakish stiletto, but a throwback cone heel. This upwardly swelling support, revived by Anthony Vaccarello at Saint Laurent and Isabel Marant, was first popularized in the 1980s by Maud Frizon, a French shoe designer whose sophisticated creations and personal glamour made her an all-round style star.

Though Frizon and her husband sold their namesake company in 1999, the legacy of the brand is still active on many levels. Sarah Jessica Parker cited Frizon as an inspiration for developing her own label, and the French woman’s designer roller skates predate this season’s YSL novelties by decades. The outsize careers of Manolo Blahnik and Christian Louboutin also largely adhere to the template set by Frizon’s runaway success, of which some of the markers were a castle in the Loire Valley, a Deco-filled Manhattan pied-à-terre with wraparound windows, and a helicopter license—all catnip for journalists. “Not since Cinderella has a woman caused as much to-do about shoes as Maud Frizon. Not even Imelda Marcos,” gushed The Miami Herald in 1986. Five years earlier, in 1981, Andy Warhol dedicated a diary entry to stalking Cher at Frizon’s Upper East Side boutique, a popular outpost of the era’s “get set.”

Danielle Maud Frizon’s shoe story began in 1941, when she was born in Paris, to a French father and English mother, with a special attribute: “I have,” Frizon once explained, “a perfect foot.” From a young age Frizon was shoe obsessed. “It’s a sickness,” she told People in 1980, “and I’ve never been cured.” A tall brunette with sculpted cheekbones, Frizon started modeling after high school, parading for the likes of Christian Dior, Jean Patou, and André Courrèges. She also showed shoes for André Perugia, the famous bottier for whom her first husband, François Villon de Benveniste, worked. On the phone from France earlier this week, Frizon explained that it was while touring shoe factories that she thought she could do her own collection. “My inspiration was really to see the workmanship and how they made the shoes,” she said.

Concept became reality in 1969 when, on the Rue des Saints-Pères, Frizon and her second husband, Italian shoe manufacturer Luigi “Gigi” de Marco, launched their namesake line of handcrafted shoes. Brigitte Bardot is said to have been a fan of Frizon’s high red leather boots that worked so well with leg-baring minis. From the start, color and materials were central to Frizon’s aesthetic. “I have no rules about shoe design,” Frizon said in a 1979 interview. “I just love everything bright. I feel the same way about dressing. There should be no rules. Everything is so much more fun when you mix.” Perhaps it was this open attitude that attracted fellow Left Bank habitué Sonia Rykiel to ask Frizon to design runway shoes for her collections. Claude Montana, Azzedine Alaïa, and others would follow suit, making Frizon’s label closely associated with fashion and trends. “Having been a model for the haute couture in Paris,” Frizon told me, “I had this background of couture, if I may say.”

As magical and eye-catching as Frizon’s shoes were, they were never frivolous despite their decorative aspects. Although the designer said that an interesting shoe must have “something a little bit crazy about it,” she was fixated on craftsmanship. “For me, shoes are an architecture,” said Frizon. “I have always had with all my shoes a preference for the heel. [And] the cone heel for me was really something interesting. It was like an architectural project. With a classic pump [the cone heel] is perfect, because it takes all the importance.”

5 Tips for High-Heel Lovers This Fall

Fall fashion has made its way from the runway to the streets. Sky-high heels that were part of Fashion Week are now trending as today’s look. There is no doubt that heels can complete an outfit, but what about the pain? There is an old adage that without pain one cannot achieve beauty. I think our feet may disagree on this one.

Whether it is to complete work attire or for fashion, heels make legs look longer and leaner and boost a woman’s height. High heels change standing posture by causing an increased arch of the back, pushing the pelvis forward. This causes the calf muscles to tighten and shorten. Some of the catwalk movements are actually the body trying to compensate for the changes in gait your body needs to make during the walking cycle.

According to the American Podiatric Medical Association, wearing heels three inches or above on a regular basis can contribute to shortening of the Achilles tendon, the tendon in the back of the leg, causing tightness and chronic pain in the calves. Other issues such as neuromas, hammertoes and bunions can also result from long-term wear. Gait changes may also lead to knee, hip, and back pain and can even accelerate arthritis in these joints. With that knowledge, still some cannot ditch the heels, so what can be done?

1. Choose the right size shoe. As simple as it sounds, the shoe needs to fit. Make sure there’s some space from the longest toe and the shoe. When shoe shopping, buy at the end of the day when your feet are already swollen. Also, look at your width of your feet. I see too many women with wide feet cramming into a narrow shoe. This will help avoid bony changes and damage that can lead to bunions, neuromas and hammertoes.

2. Break them in. Wear socks at home while wearing shoes for a few hours, or use shoe stretchers. Wear shoes that give, that are made of leather rather than synthetic, so they can stretch.

3. Cushion inside the shoe. A gel cushion in ball of the foot (also known as metatarsal padding) can do wonders! Moleskin can also be used on bony areas of the foot to protect from friction. Unfortunately, this discomfort won’t do anything to alleviate the calf, knee, or back pain that results from posture changes caused by wearing heels.

4. Switch it up. Change your shoes throughout the day. Wear heels only for periods of time and give your feet a break.

5. Wear a platform and find shoes with a thin rubber sole. Choose wedges over stilettos, a lower heel over sky-high, and one that encompasses the ankle, allowing for more support.

For the time, heels are here to stay. The good news for women is that the physics of high heels are now being more closely studied. Biomechanics as well as gait changes are finally being considered in shoe development. Let’s hope this will lead to a shoe that looks killer on the runway, but that does not kill our feet!

How to Repair High Heel Shoes at Home

There is no need to visit a shoe repair shop the next time the heel breaks on one of your pairs of stylish pumps. And there's no need to prematurely toss your high heels into the dustbin either! Most broken heels can be satisfactorily repaired in the comfort of your own home with just a few simple tools at hand.

The first step is to gather your materials. You will need glue and some shoe nails. Make sure to use one of the following types of glue: Krazy Glue, Super Glue, shoe glue (Shoe Goo is a well-known brand) or Elmer's Carpenter's Wood Glue. Super Glue is great for a quick fix because it dries so quickly; but glue specifically for shoes will give you the best long-term results. Shoe nails can be purchased at a shoe repair shop and may also be carried by shoe and hardware stores. Often you can reuse the nails that were originally used to hold the heel in place.

Broken heels can be classified into two categories: heels that have broken completely off the shoe and heels that have broken into two pieces. If a heel has completely broken off the shoe, the first thing you will need to do is glue the heel back in place. Nails alone are not sufficient to securely anchor the heel. Coat the sole of the shoe with one of the above mentioned glues.

After carefully aligning the detached heel, press the detached heel to the sole of the shoe and hold it there. Allow the glue to dry. (The amount of time necessary will depend on the type of glue you use, so be sure to read the glue's instructions.) Once the glue is dry, carefully tap the nails back into their original holes. It is important to coat the nails with glue before hammering them in place. This will ensure that the nails stay put. You may want to insert a few additional nails for added stability.

If a heel has broken into two pieces, use one of the above mentioned glues to rejoin the broken pieces together. You should carefully hammer in a few additional nails in order to reinforce the heel at its breaking point. Remember: never insert the nails until the glue is fully dry.

Most of the time glues and shoe nails do the trick! If the heel breaks again it may be a sign that you do in fact need to visit the shoe repairman (or invest in a new pair of shoes)!