Designer shoes: why I'm afraid of heights

My feet are killing me: Kylie Minogue sports a pair of Christian Louboutins. Photograph: Brian J Ritchie/Hotsauce/Rex Features
Shall we talk about shoes? Shall we? And then can we talk about handbags and stuff too? A few weeks ago, I mentioned idiotically high shoes and said they were over. I ever so slightly fibbed. There are still shoes for next season that will require mounting blocks and full medical insurance. There are two shoe trends that worry me – one is the "tapered wedge" (© Invisible Woman) and the other is the overlong toe. The "tapered wedge" is what I'm calling a shoe that, when you stand up in it, occupies about the same floor space as a postage stamp. If you're on sabbatical from Cirque du Soleil, you might even be able to walk in them. I can only recommend them if you invest in a pair of matching crutches – that way you'll be one step ahead (ahem).
Personally, I have never really got on with Louboutin – every pair I have ever tried have been excruciating and he will persist in designing idiotically high shoes for idiotically high prices. Although, to be fair to M Louboutin, I will admit to serially trying on his shoes just to see if my tiny hooves can be taught to tolerate them. I yearn for a red instep but I just don't have Louboutin feet. On my last visit to the shop I was almost seduced by a pair of foxy tartan jobbies had it not been for the price, and the height. So, in fact, I rest my case.
The second shoe trend – the overlong toe – is something you're likely to encounter in what initially seems to be a good idea: flat shoes or shoes with a kitten heel. I'm not a fan of kitten heels on the basis that they force you to walk like a duck and if the toes are overlong they trip you up at a ratio of approximately one trip to every three steps. They catch in, on, between or underneath almost anything. They are very nearly as much of a death trap as the tapered wedge and, frankly, my hips are fine just the way they are. I rather like the mid-height chunky heel, though, and not just because I already have a pair in my shoe stash from a couple of years ago. You know where you are with a chunky heel … safe.
Handbags, it seems, are much the same as they ever were and have evolved very little – except that this is where I could work in the metallic trend if I wished. I was a bit smitten with Burberry's leather bowling bag in "cowslip" and I'll be looking out for something similar with a smaller price tag. There's also the smart practicality of the "trapeze" shape, which seems an altogether sensible idea. Speaking of which, I had always thought clear Perspex bags were stupid until I saw a clever Charlotte Olympia one and they suddenly made sense. But I hate swapping bags – or I did until I started keeping stuff in little zipper bags, which makes switching that much easier and opens up all sorts of possibilities for chopping and changing.
And finally, there is good news on the makeup front, with minimal looks being much to the fore, which suits those of us with older skin very well indeed. Keep it looking as bare as you can – a tinted moisturiser is best. If you use powder then make sure you brush off the excess – a dusty face is not a good thing, ever. Cobalt blue is still The Colour but not, alas, a colour I am fond of wearing, and blue shadow is awfully hard to pull off without looking a bit Baby Jane. However, I would use it as a smudged line of blue beneath the eye in the same way Zandra Rhodes does. If you're looking for new lippy, I really liked the mixed-up pink and orange lip seen at MAC. It's a look I can easily adapt as long as I remember that less is more and will remain so for ever and ever now I'm past 50. Amen.

Are High Heels Dead?

A funny thing has happened in fashion lately: Unfashionable footwear is suddenly à la mode.
Running shoes, Birkenstocks, Teva-type hiking sandals and Adidas-style slides were among the low shoes with a high profile during the recent spring fashion shows on the runway—and in the audience. Wide, flat footbeds, toe room, cushiony soles. Slaves to fashion have never been so comfortable.
This is a golden opportunity for the likes of Dr. Scholl’s: After Marc Jacobs sent a crushed velvet version for spring down the runway, Vogue named it “best accessory” of the day. But it presents an essential dilemma to consumers and other designers who must decide whether to adopt the look that Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen and Heidi Klum wear so adroitly: Are the orthopedic shoe and other clunky flats here to stay?
It wouldn’t be the first time that a fad dovetailed so thoroughly with a cultural shift that it became a classic wardrobe staple. Bikinis were once considered a radical experiment in swimwear. Formerly relegated to the working classes, denim is now suitable for the president. The motorcycle jacket, once cult, is approaching classic status. And how many times has someone erroneously predicted the death of skinny jeans? As our eyes adjusted to them, these fashions took on important roles in shoppers’ wardrobes, sometimes pushing aside hallowed fashion rules. On “Miami Vice” in 1984, Don Johnson shocked the status quo by wearing T-shirts under his tailored jackets. The necktie never fully recovered.
Only time will tell if this is more than a fad, but designers who built their repute on gravity-defying heels suddenly find themselves with showrooms full of heels that feel a little last-season. “I know this isn’t [the] fashion right now,” conceded Christopher Suarez, president of the Nicholas Kirkwood shoe label, last month in Paris. He was surveying Mr. Kirkwood’s spring 2015 collection—dozens of vividly colorful, artfully shaped high heels inspired by Japanese poster art.
A revolution in women's shoes has women doffing heels for flats and wearing them places flats were once rarely seen. WSJ's Christina Binkley and Tanya Rivero discuss. Photo: Marc Jacobs
Mr. Kirkwood’s towering platform heels made him a fast-rising star with his own stores in London, New York, and Las Vegas and a controlling-stake investment from LVMH. But he says he is now fending off demands from luxury retailers that he launch spongy-soled running shoes—the antithesis of any design he has ever done. He says he is resisting the pressure for fear that sneakers would overtake the shoes he is known for.
There was a time, just a few seasons ago, when high fashion in shoes meant platform heels. Designers like Mr. Kirkwood and Alexander McQueen “inverted the platforms,” experimenting with the sort of cantilevering used by construction engineers to balance shoes on a platform under the toe. Francesco Russo, then at Sergio Rossi, built his reputation on pitching celebrities’ feet at impossible angles while revealing ample toe cleavage on the red carpet.
Christian Louboutin’s spike heels looked sadistically sexy. But women were soon wearing them to work and to dinner, and growing accustomed to an extra 4- or 5-inch boost in height. The flimsy, support-free ballet flats many women wore for walking were hardly better than heels. Fashion footwear was a podiatrist’s cash cow.
Flat shoes with toe room looked frumpy by comparison. It seemed sexy hookup shoes had become the norm for dressy women’s footwear. But when they fell, they fell hard.
The revolution, like so many, started with several small fires. Isabel Marant popularized wedge-heeled basketball shoes, their springy rubber heels a bicultural crossover between sporty and sexy. Then Phoebe Philo put a few pairs of fur-lined Birkenstocks on her spring 2013 runway. To many of the platform-heeled editors in the audience, it was like viewing a cool mountain stream after a long desert trek with an empty canteen.
At roughly the same time, an Yves Saint Laurent exhibition in Paris was stoking the desires of many designers to re-explore Le Smoking, Mr. Saint Laurent ’s gender-bending poke at women’s evening wear. This led to more masculine looks for women, such as tuxedos, pressed white shirts, creased trousers. Along came shoes to match—wing tips, oxfords, brogues. Prada did thick-soled “brothel creepers”—a masculine shoe with thick crepe soles—for women.
Then, this year, came “norm core,” more a mood than a style, marked by a sudden fascination with the sort of clothing non-fashionistas consider normal: chino pants, denim jackets, and the Nike Air Max. Such clothing is anything but normal to the fashion-obsessed. Hence it is rebellious and exciting. To eyes adjusted to the studded Birkenstock and the alligator tassel-toe Oxford, it wasn’t a particularly far leap to the $695 Balenciaga metallic running shoe.
These days, Christian Louboutin, so recently king of the towering heel, is rolling out high-top sneakers embellished with python or calf hair. Pierre Hardy has trimmed his sneakers in fur. Fausto Puglisi, a rising Italian fashion star, put bejeweled Adidas slides on his Spring runway. Prada put the wingtip in the design blender with athletic shoes and came up with the ultimate ugly-chic crossover: the “wingtip brogue platform sneaker.”
Prices for these shoes aren’t lower than the heels that preceded them. Louboutin’s crystal-studded high-tops will set the buyer back $2,595 at Barneys New York. Comme des Garcons’ playful take on Chuck Taylors are a relative bargain at $140.
For now, flats appear to be settling in for the long haul. High-end stores are building sprawling collections of high-fashion sneakers, hiking sandals and other orthopedic-look footwear.
Even the heel-obsessed are weighing a change. Watching front-row denizens such as Vogue’s Sally Singer, cult retailer Ikram Goldman, street-style star Anna Dello Russo, and Leandra Medine of the blog Man Repeller pad by with comfy feet during last month’s shows was tempting for high-heel stalwarts. Cindi Leive, the 5-foot-2-inch editor in chief of Glamour magazine, said she was weighing the possibilities. She has taken to wearing high-top sneakers on weekends and brogues to drop her children off at school.

But there is one place flat shoes won’t take her—and it suggests there will continue to be a place for the high heel. “I totally and completely endorse the sneaker trend. I think it’s chic and also just good for womankind,” Ms. Leive said this week. “But I like to assume my work height for the office.”

High Heel Shoes: Know the best colour to suit outfit

Most women feel comfortable when in high heeled shoes, especially when attending special events. Such shoes come in different colours and often are matched with attires, belts or bags.

The prices of some of these shoes are however on the high side, the question which easily comes to mind is how young ladies who’ve developed taste for such shoes manage to afford them.

Another issue which pops up is the health danger posed by the continues use of such shoes on the feet.

Regarding colour, red high heel shoes have a great way to spice up causal outfits and can best be paired with black, white and navy blue attires. It is advisable to avoid pairing red high heels with red outfit or matching it with red belt or bag since red on red is an overkill.

Black high heel shoes are the regular colour most women prefer as they can be paired with any outfit irrespective of the colour of the bag or belt.

Yellow high heel shoes can go with blue, black, green and white outfits whiles purple and silver high heel shoes match with pink, green, black and white outfits.

Advices On How To Take Care Of Your High Heels

I believe that all the ladies love high heels, and own a lot of pairs of high heels, different types, different colors. Many girls bought new shoes are do not know how to maintain a good pair of high heels, here are some advices to you.

First, you have better not to wear the new buying shoes immediately, because most of the new shoes has a layer of wax above, you can go to shoes shop to have opening wax treatment, and then on the maintenance, good maintenance of the shoes, open wax is generally 2 dollars, but not all shoes need to do open-wax treatment, generally better shoes, such as christian louboutin outlet need to do to open the wax.

Second, shoes to often on shoe polish, generally about three days to play a shoeshine, dry climate, 1-2 days needed, if you much patience and care about your high heels, it is best to have your shoe polish more often keeping doing this, you will find that no matter how long have your shoes been wear it will be relatively new.

Three, many girls like to go outside to have their high-heeled shoes maintenance, the best places to go not to go to the street vendors, because they use hard basic kind of shoe brush, though it was bright at that time, but the leather is basically also are zoned almost, if you look carefully you will be able to find all your leather have kind of scratch, The right shoe polish method: First with a wet cloth to wipe off the dust and mud in the shoes face then marked with maintenance fluid or maintenance of milk, about a minute later with a soft, dry cloth to wipe clean, and again on the shoe polish, two minutes later, with shoe polish dry and cloth to wipe clean your high heels.If you wear your high heels on rainy day, or walk a muddy road, it have to be dry immediately then do maintenance treatment.

Four, when the season changed the shoes have to maintain again, keep them in dark and dry place, the best to replace the shoes propped up to keep the shoes are not deformed, before maintenance, be sure to clean the oil thoroughly.