Fendi peep-toes, $795, about six inches. Photograph by: Marie-France Coallier, The Gazette.
*This article was on Most Read list of The National Post and the Montreal Gazette. It also appeared, in full or in part, in The Vancouver Sun, Ottawa Citizen, Global TV Edmonton, Windsor Star, dose.ca, and more.
Last month, my boyfriend and I were strolling on New York’s Upper East Side when a thwack of thunder sent us running for shelter at Orsay, a posh bistro. Cocktails!
As our drinks made their way across the floor, so did a pair of six-inch black stiletto pumps — jaw-dropping in their height — followed closely by a tiny pair of patent Mary Janes.
The pumps were worn by a sleek-looking, petite mommy accompanied by her smartly dressed daughter. They were soon joined by another decked-out duo.
A play date over tuna tartar and six-inch heels?
I’m so happy we could finally get together,” said one woman as she kiss-kissed the other hello.
The toddlers took off squealing through the bistro.
Through rainstorms and recessions, heels have been soaring to absurdly decadent heights — from four-inch stilettos to six-plus inch pumps.
To add extra height, toe areas are stacked with platforms measuring anywhere from one-to-two-inches, which are either exposed in tiers or hidden with fabric.
And while one might expect skyscraper heels in Manhattan, they’ve also been kicking it in Canada.
The over-the-top trend is not coming down anytime soon — even though critics of the look are aplenty. (Vogue’s editor-at-large, Andre Leon Talley, has called high high heels towering torture chambers.)
“A woman just came in and bought three pairs of (our highest) shoes,” said Ivry Rosenstein, surrounded by tissue paper.
Rosenstein is one of the owners of Rosenstein Paris on Mountain St. in Montreal, an official Louboutin outlet. Rosenstein’s highest pairs feature stilettos that range from 5.5 inches to 5.9 inches (large-sized shoes have higher heels); though on christianlouboutin.com, Louboutin offers fall-season heels at 6.3 inches.
“You would’ve never guessed it when she walked in.”
Rosenstein points out that it’s often tastefully dressed women 45-years old and older, such as business executives and married women with teenagers, who buy his 5.5-inch Louboutins; probably because they can afford them at $850 a pair. These women are all about wearing statement shoes — that is, sexy heels that turn heads the way luxury sports cars do for some men. And while they cost far less than a V12 engine, shoe collections can be just as loud.
“When we started in 2004, people thought this was really high,” said Rosenstein, holding up a 4-inch Christian Louboutin pump. “Then, in fall 2005, we got the first almost-five-inch heel with a stacked platform base. Now, people say, ‘That’s so low; I want something higher.”
Enter the six-inch stiletto, which comes with multiple stacked platforms at the toe end.
“It really started this summer. They are super-extreme,” Rosenstein said. (Incidentally, stripper shoes can reach eight inches and cost about $40. They’re usually made of synthetic materials and feature shoddy workmanship, hence the cheap price.)
Luxury brands such as Yves Saint Laurent and Fendi have been churning out their own take on mega heels from gladiators to wedges.
This fall, Gucci will release a thigh-high boot that comes with a 5.9-inch stiletto and a platform of 1.7 inches. Part of the platform tiers are embedded in fabric, while part is exposed. They’ll be available at Holt Renfrew flagship stores across Canada, costing $3,350.
“We would never buy 100 pairs (of the Gucci boot) for Canada,” said Christian Lavergne, senior buyer for Holts Canada shoes, putting matters into perspective.
Rather, Lavergne said, Holts will start offering more styles at mid-heel heights, around three inches, catering to the average customer who can’t walk in sky-high stilettos; and who doesn’t buy wildly expensive shoes. “In our fall inventory, above 105 mm (4.1 inches) is very small.”
Lavergne predicts that statement shoes will no longer require killer-high stilettos to make an impact, and that mid-sized heels will come back into style. But he said some women will continue to wear heels no matter what the trend forecast said. “Some of our customers will go grocery shopping in four-plus inches minimum. She barely knows how to walk with a flat.”
A lifetime in heels
One such customer is Tina Moyse, mother of five, and dedicated Holt Renfrew shopper. A few weeks ago, she was strutting around the store in a fitted black shirt dress and 5-inch YSL black patent mules. The shoes aren’t very high by her standards. “Heels are like an extension of myself,” Moyse said.
She wore them throughout a two-week trip to Europe, walking daily.
In Paris, she noticed many women were sporting boyfriend loafers rather than heels.
Not Moyse, however. “It’s just my comfort zone,” she said. “The higher the better.”
Moyse said she’s been wearing heels since she was a teen and has never suffered any accidents or foot problems as a result. “My 22-year-old daughter wears them, too. I think it’s genetic,” she said.
The genetic factor was echoed by virtually everyone I spoke to who walks effortlessly in high heels.
An ultra-fashionable McGill professor was sporting high Prada heels on her way to lunch. “One of my daughters wears them, too; one doesn’t,” she said, preferring to remain anonymous. Like Moyse, the professor also wore a simple shirt dress and considered her daytime heels not so extreme.
Younger dames who wear heels admit, however, that they rarely wear anything greater than four inches without some trickery — that is, some major stacked-platform action.
“I have some (heels) that are higher with the platform, but the ‘pitch’ (the height of the heel minus the platform) is never more than four inches,” said Julia Brownstein, senior women’s buyer at Browns shoes.
At Browns, the average customer wears a three-inch heel.
Brownstein said her grandmother, Bernice Brownstein, will almost never wear a flat. Her mother, Therese Brownstein, “wears all kinds of heels, flat and high. She loves rocking any kind of shoe.”
Raised by fashionable women in heels, plus being surrounded by shoes everyday, Brownstein couldn’t resist purchasing a few pairs with a pitch higher than four inches. “But (they’re) too high for me; they just end up sitting in my closet.”
Brownstein explained that heels make her feel sexy and confident. Plus, it doesn’t hurt that she’s five-foot-one and her husband is six-foot-one. “He knows I’m small, and likes me that way, but I feel better when I’m taller.”
It’s my party
Julie Etienne, 32, is the five-foot-three director of Au Pain Dore. After doing classical ballet for 15 years, Etienne is one of those rare women who has pushed her natural pitch capacity well past four inches.
“Everybody knows me from my heels. When I visit the (Pain Dore) stores, I walk in and they all look down — ‘What colour?’ ‘What style?’ they ask.”
Etienne said her collection ranges from designer shoes to Aldos. While heels make her feel sexy and confident, she knows when to draw the line. “I do wear Louboutin to work sometimes — but the 6-inch ones at night only. I just have a passion for fashion, and I’m a shoe addict,” she confesses.
“I want to be fun, but not over-the-top. Classy with an edge.”
Fun-loving gals and their signature stilettos can’t help but garner attention. “I fell down at a (gala) last summer. On the dance floor. In a gown.” Etienne said.
Down on the floor, Etienne saw the hilarity of the moment. “Everyone thought I was drunk, but I was just dying of laughter.” Did she fall because of the shoes? “Big time. They were five-inch patent peep-toe Louboutins. I twisted my ankle and had to go to the doctor.”
Heel experts
Glenn Hebert is a podiatrist in Montreal and also a professor at the Universite du Quebec’s podiatry program. He said about 50 per cent of the women coming into his office have problems directly related to heels.
“As soon as you get over three inches, you’re going to see more pathology,” he said. Problems include corns, hammer toes, bunions and neuroma (a nerve that’s being compressed). Then there are problems with the back.
The whole posterior muscle is at a disadvantage, because the centre of gravity is changed,” he said.
In terms of four-inch heels, Herbert said it’s okay to wear them for a limited time only. “Maybe a few hours at a restaurant if you’ll be sitting most of the time.”
Wearing them to work should be avoided, he said.
But what about these women who swear that heels feel natural?
“The Achilles tendon in the back is either genetically very tight and short, or it’s become acquired somehow,” Herbert explained.
Wearing heels for long periods of time (or doing ballet for years, like Etienne did) can change the foot’s anatomy. What about those who can’t even stand up in two-inch heels?
“The balance comes from the foot. Some are able to get centre of gravity, some are not.”
Jackie Yermus is the creative director and shoe designer of Modern Vintage shoes, based in Montreal. She explained that her company goes to great lengths to ensure that the wearer’s bone and muscle structure are considered when it designs five-plus inch heels.
“We have to. The higher the shoes, the more the toes need to spread to support your weight,” Yermus said. “So you need to make a more of a technical shoe with lot of different components.”
Modern Vintage factories have three full-time fit girls who try on shoes all day, plus 10 to 15 technicians constantly improving fits, “Though, we aspire to make shoes that are wearable day and night, so we don’t design that many five-plus inch heels,” Yermus said.
Rather, like most edgy shoe companies, Modern Vintage makes most of its heels just under four inches. She said her highest pairs are sold in the south, in cities where many people drive, like in Miami and Los Angeles, but also Charlotte, N.C., and Birmingham, Ala. The northeast is less heel-happy, particularly in walking cities like Boston and Philadelphia.
“Lower heels and wedges make it easier to traverse the cobblestone roads and run around during the day,” said Yermus, which explains why dames in Paris are wearing loafers, while ladies who lunch in New York are sitting pretty in six-inch heels.