the 07/23/2008

Sexy stiletto outweighs staid shoes for women, no matter the cost

Sexy stiletto outweighs staid shoes for women, no matter the cost

Sexy stiletto outweighs staid shoes for women, no matter the cost

3 hours ago

TORONTO — They're impractical and often painful but despitehundreds of years of horror stories women continue to wearhigh-heeled shoes.

Experts agree the fear of blisters, corns and calluses can'tcompete with the sexy status of high heels and fashion designerskeep taking the shoe to ever more dizzying heights.

"They make our legs look long and beautiful," explained FayeMarkowitz, the women's buyer at Davids Footware in Toronto. "Theymake us look thinner and women will do anything to look thinner andtaller, sexier."

The phenomenon isn't new.

The Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto displays hundreds of shoes worn bywomen around the world through the ages in the quest for height,status and beauty.

There are foot-high sandals worn by women of the Ottoman Empire tokeep their feet dry in bathhouses and chopine platforms first wornby Venetian prostitutes and then adopted by European aristocratsstarting as early as the 1400s.

Museum director Emanuele Lepri said the elaborately decoratedplatforms offered both status and height to the wearer.

"If you are taller, of course your figure shows better especiallyif you have long dresses and ... you could show the opulence ofyour dresses," he said.

The highly decorated velvet shoes are prominently on display at themuseum's Chronicles of Riches exhibition, along with a pair ofgolden, jewel-encrusted slippers that were stolen from the museumtwo years ago only to be returned, unharmed, a month later.

Many shoes in the museum had a useful purpose, such as the chestnutcrushers - aptly named for their function - which are avicious-looking marriage between a pair of golf shoes and razorwire.

The purpose of others on display is less than practical.

Modern women might be able to sympathize with the gurus in ancientIndia, who teetered around on padukas, a shoe similar to today'sflip-flop sandals but with heavy platforms made of metal or woodand a single post with a bump on the end to fit between the toes.

"We'll you had to develop your toe muscles," laughed Lepri as heexplained how gurus wore the sandals for ceremonies. "They conveysome sort of sacrifice that you are making while you are walking.So it's the idea of selflessness."

The sacrifice may be similar to women who teeter atop of the lateststrappy stiletto in the name of fashion.

"You would think that you would move towards more function in shoesand yet year after year, especially on the cat walk, you see heelsthat seem to get higher and higher," said Alison Matthews David, anassistant professor in Ryerson University's School of Fashion."People, especially women, are still willing often to make thatsacrifice."

But Matthews David also understands the psychology aroundfashionable shoes.

"It's a way of celebrating fantasy. Because you can become someoneelse if you put on a different pair of shoes. People have theirdifferent identities that they have through their shoes."

There was a time when wearing ornate and expensive shoes identifiedthe wearer as someone who didn't have to walk through the muddy,horse-tracked streets of the 18th century.

Matthews David believes little has changed, despite paved streetsand sidewalks.

"It shows that you're taking a limo, your taking a cab," she said.

Some of 16th century shoes reached stilt-like proportions of morethan two feet tall. Despite falls, broken bones and the risk ofpermanent damage to the toe, not much has changed there, either.

Matthews David said women continue to wear the shoes for one mainreason: "Obviously high heels give you a sexy walk," she chuckled.