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A Fall From Grace?
By Christopher Muther
It was an off-the-cuff comment, the kind that is intended as an aside during an interview about broader subjects. Nonetheless, shoe designer Nicholas Kirkwood confessed to Style.com last month that "I'm pretty much over the 5-inch-high platform and girls tripping all over the place. Granted, I've been responsible for some of that." Happy holidays, ladies. This means that in a year or so your weary feet may finally catch a break from the stilts disguised as high heels that designers have been sending your way. Kirkwood was responsible for many of the stilettos and architecturally impossible spikes that sent willowy runway models tumbling down to the catwalk last fall. Sure, we all enjoyed watching those models wobble on YouTube, but as you may suspect, those gorgeous 4- and 5-inch heels have been doing your feet no favors. "When you're walking in high heels, you're not able to bear that weight on the back of your foot, so all the weight is forced on the forefoot," says Dr. Johanna Youner, a Park Avenue podiatrist who has treated hundreds of women who have damaged their feet in gravity-defying heels. "That's when all the bad stuff starts: Bunions, hammertoes, and stress fractures." You know that any ailment that rhymes with "onions" can't be good. According to Youner, wearing 4-inch Manolos for a couple of hours won't cause too much damage, but walking around the city all day in heels is probably going to result in some problems. "A 3-inch heel will thrust your calves out, it will arch the lower back so you'll push your butt out and thrust out your chest," she says. "It literally changes the entire spine." Strange, I know a lot of women who would wear a shoe purposefully because it will push out their behind or accentuate their calves. When I told Melissa O'Shea, local president of the Hello Stiletto Shoe Club, that Kirkwood is talking about reducing the height of his heels, she let out an audible gasp. "I'm definitely not over heels. I still really love a good 4-inch heel," said O'Shea, whose club now boasts about 8,500 members across the country. "I don't wear a lot of what other people would consider comfort shoes." What I learned as I talked to women about shoes is that a lot of them don't want to give up their heels. Despite the complaints about sore feet - and if I had a nickel for every complaint I've heard about sore feet I'd have enough to buy Rod Blagojevich a decent haircut - women are not ready to trade their stilettos for kitten heels. When I called Kirkwood to talk to him about his Style.com interview, he said that he is designing flats, but said he is also continuing to work on high heels, although he says these heels will be easier to walk in. Don't worry ladies, it doesn't appear that the high heel has made the endangered list. When I got in touch with Dan and Dean Caten, the twin brothers/designers behind Dsquared{+2}, they said although they like flats, they don't think that the heel is about to disappear. "We think women will always know they look at their best on those heels, that's why they will keep buying them," Dean Caten said. Given the high numbers of models falling on the runway, Valerie Steele, director of the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York and author of "Shoes: A Lexicon of Style," said she's not exactly shocked to hear that Kirkwood is working on his first pairs of flats. She said the new, lower direction has nothing to do with the bad economy. The truth is, heels simply can't get much taller. "Neither hemlines nor heels fall in a bad economy," explained Steele. "That's your standard pendulum effect in fashion. It goes up as high as it can, and then it goes right down again." Historically, she compares the trend to petticoats. There was a time when crinolines were so large that women could no longer fit into their opera seats. Eventually, they shrank to more manageable levels. "When someone who's a professional fashion model starts falling down all over the place in these shoes, then you know you've probably reached your limit," she said. So the return of the flat - or at least the kitten heel - may not have been on your Christmas list, but cheer up. Your bunions will thank you in the new year. Christopher Muther can be reached at muther@globe.com.
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