High Heels...For Children

They're cute.
They're pink or animal print.
They're (wait for it...) high heels for children!
We learn about the world at a young age.
How we dress, how we treat others, how we feel about ourselves can all be traced back to what we learned at the hands of our caregivers.
And today's little girls are learning that the shoes that are appropriate for them are high heels...
What ever happened to sneakers or the little shoes that look like ballet flats, but aren't?
Sure these children probably don't care what ends up on their feet as long as it can eventually become a toy to be chewed on, but what do these - very adult heels - say about the society to which they belong and why is it necessary for a 2 year old to have gender defining shoes?
Should mothers be outraged or happy knowing that their children can bloom into miniature fashionistas before cutting all of their teeth?
What do you think?
Is it cute to put little girls in high heels or are we just teaching them to forever walk on their tip toes?
ANM

Photo: Google Images

Shoe 11: Disco's Back

Ok, stilettos have been around for a while and they are obviously still being worn or designers would have picked up on the much more comfortable flat and opted out of designing shoes that make the streets of Manhattan into the leaning tower, or more appropriately the teetering pathway, of women.
But they haven't so the question is, what ever happened to plain black high heeled shoes?
Classy, not overly high, business appropriate, and on a scale of uncomfortable from 1 (being the least uncomfortable) and 10 (being the most uncomfortable) hitting a solid tolerable comfort range of 4.
Case and point the dancing queen six inch stilettos that are now available for a weekend on the town.
You can jingle while walking down the street to your favorite tunes from the 70's, but don't forget the skin tight white bell bottoms -you want to make Mr. Travolta proud.
What do you think? Would you slip on these six inch stilettos for a night out with the girls or do a sequined pair of silver flats sound much more comfortable?
ANM
Photo Google Images

High Heels...For Men

The New York Daily News has released an article about the rise of high heels for men entitled "High heels for men go beyond drag shows and hit the street." Let's not even get started on the derogatory title and head right to the main point...
That's right ladies high heels are becoming a male fashion statement too and guess how well the male New York Daily News's readers are taking it?
As of right now:
17% of their male readers think that high heels for men are on trend and look great
8% think that they may give them a chance if more 'average' men started wearing then
and...
75% say No. Nope. Never!
But what do you think? Are heels for men here to stay or are they only a permanent fixture for women and for the so dubbed 'fashion forward' men?
ANM

Photo

Marc Jacobs Speaks About Wearing High Heels

According to the New York Daily News designer Marc Jacobs wears a pair of his own high heels during runway fittings which can take up to 36 hours.
But why wear stilettos?
"I do it because I want to show that I’m not some misogynist designer designing these torturous shoes for women. The heels are there as a choice and if you want to wear them all the time, some of the time or never, it’s your choice." Or so Jacobs says of his tradition.
And isn't that what it comes down to?
Choice?
But are the choices the same for men and women?
Sure for a couple of days Mr. Jacobs wears stilettos, and his team laughs at him for it even though he does it every year, or at least every year that high heels show up in his collection...
It's not funny for women to wear stiletto's though, it's the norm. An expected accessory to a suit, a ball gown, or even jeans on date night.
Sure women could chose to wear flats or flip flops or sneakers, but when they are looked at condescendingly, as if their choice is wrong, what then? Is it still their choice that they pick the heels or is it a choice made for them?
What do you think?
ANM

Photo: Google Images

Shoe 10: I'm an Robot...In Stilettos

Next Halloween when you're deciding what to wear to the big party and you're tired of being a cat or a nurse, be a robot.
Why else would you wear these eccentric stilettos that scream costume?
These multi colored sky high heels that not only protect your ankles from road burn, but also allow you to put on that bright yellow rain jacket and for the first time match.
But hey, to each her own.
Besides you could always break them out again for the Transformers 3 premier...
ANM

Picture: Google Images

I'm Ready For My Close Up

Lady GaGa is known for her eclectic attire so it comes as no surprise that she would wear shoes directly from the runway in her everyday life or, as the photograph depicts, for work.
But what is it about celebrity women that they choose to wear high heels even when going out to get a cup of coffee.
Have we created a world for them in which they always have to be ready to impress, always have to be dressed according to their status as influential women?
Are high heels part of a costume that women wear, a part that they play day after day because they want to be taken seriously and know that that requires following the rules?
How many pairs of high heels do you own? Do you wear them to the mall, to the park, while walking your dog?
Are you always ready for your own close up?
ANM
Photo Property of Photobucket

What would you do for your heels?

You love your high heels. You love how you look in them, the way people stare at you when you step into the room on towering platforms, the comments from your girlfriends about how much they envy you the shoes you're able to pull off.
The pain?
Well it comes with the territory - you know how to look good, how to be respected as a professional woman.
The pain is worth it. Right?
But would you have surgery so that you could wear high heels all the time, so that you could always be taken seriously and looked at with admiration?
The Times of India are reporting that; "It has been observed that women are undergoing filler injections to plump up the underside of their feet, thus filling them out and providing padding inside the foot to relieve the pain that comes from wearing high heels," said Satish Bhatia, dermatologist and skin surgeon, Lady Ratan Tata Medical and Research Centre.
The good news is that the pain of wearing your favorite pair of stilettos almost disappears. The bad news is - the injections only lasts 6 months or so.
That means you only need surgery twice a year.
So the only question remaining is what would you do for your favorite pair of killer high heels?
Plump up the soles of your feet or trade them in for a nice safe pair of flats?
ANM

Shoe 9: High Without The Heel

Antonio Bernardi's $1,800 platform heels are missing one of their essential pieces - the heel.
The woman who chooses to wear these shoes has to have a perfect sense of balance so as not to go teetering over while attempting to move from point A to point B.
Don't worry though the ankle straps make it so she won't lose her very expensive designer pumps when she inevitably tries to walk using her whole foot and fails...
What do you think? Do you have the balance or the daring to pull these shoes without heels off?
ANM

Shoe 8: Christian Louboutin Suede Over-the-Knee Boots

Look mom! No pants.
Woman can now double their shoe fund because they no longer have to wear full pants just shorts or a skirt or a long top...
Its fine though because the independent woman who chooses to wear these shoes can now go exploring and not worry about cuts showing up on her legs, or shaving, or.... hiking boots (Gasp)!
She may break a heel though.
What do you think? Have boots become the new, much more expensive, legging?
ANM


Shoe Information:
Designer: Christian Louboutin
Price: $1,995.00
Heel Height: 4 inches
Website: http://www.saksfifthavenue.com

To Heel

'Heel' is a command given by people to control their dogs. It means sit or stay. In other words, it is a means of saying obey me...
Who are you obeying when you slip on a pair of heels?
Are you obeying the unspoken social contract that we all enter into as part of society or are you just trying to quiet your inner fashionista?
ANM


Photo property of getty images

Stiletto Car

Looks like Dorthy's red slippers didn't make it back to Kansas after all. They also weren't gifted to either the good witch or the wicked witch, but were instead made into a car - for the munchkins...
Why anybody would want to drive around in a stiletto car is beyond me, but I'm sure its more comfortable to sit in then to walk on and probably much, much faster.
What do you think in this red stiletto pump part of a pair?
ANM

Picture Thanks to Google Images

Shoe 7: Faithful Bootie

There is now no need to hop on the back of a motorcycle to live the dangerous life - you just have to throw on a pair Faithful Booties straight out of Alexander McQueen's ready to wear shoe collection.
These 4 and a 1/2 inch stilettos allow all the possible accidents of a motorcycle crash without leaving the ground.
These shoes can absolutely be called booties, but faithful? If it is meant as a 'I refuse to ever come off of your foot even when you fall' type of faithful then yes, they do indeed live up to their name.
With no disrespect meant to the late Alexander McQueen, these heels scream - 'I am too a rebel and I'll prove it!' I'll prove it by dropping over $1000 on a pair of leather shoes that I'll probably only wear once just to prove to the man I'm trying to attract that a good girl can be bad - on occasion...
What do you think? Are leather jackets meant to be worn as shoes?
ANM

Shoe Information:
Designer - Alexander McQueen
Price - $1,155.00
Heel Height - 4 1/2 inches
Website - http://www.alexandermcqueen.com

Elephant Dung Heels Revisited

Apparently somebody has worn INSA's elephant dung heels and apparently they felt the need to wear little else. Art does after all speak for itself - or in this case recycling or maybe animal rights...
When you see this photograph what are you thinking about? The shoes or the woman wearing the shoes? The woman who has no apparent identity and no means of identification other than the fact that she is willingly wearing art on her feet.

Did you know that in woman's studies to fetishize any part of the body (e.g. the feet) without having some way of connecting those feet to the woman they belong to is an act of violence against that woman, a means of demeaning her and her right to be seen as a whole person.
So is that what INSA is doing in his artwork? By only defining women by the shoes they are wearing and, in his work, their predominantly bare legs is he stripping them of importance and using them only to his advantage, only to utilize his needs?
It's true that often shoe catalogs only use the bottom half, or quarter, of their models to showcase the item they are trying to sell, but when does it go from advertising to disrespect?
When do we stop noticing the person inside the stilettos, holding them up, giving them some kind of life so that they will be purchased, so they will be noticed?
And if in the advertisements we notice only the shoe, how long will it be before we refuse to acknowledge the women wearing them even if we meet her on the street, even if we can look her in the eye? Even if you are the women who eventually wears those shoes?
What do you think? Are you willing to lose your identity for art, for the sake of being somebody's muse...
ANM

Shoes 5 and 6: Aminaka Wilmont - London Fashion Week

Wooden heels? Check.
Ribbon? Check.
Being able to walk outdoors? Ummm....
Designer Aminaka Wilmont has taken the high heel and turned it into a torture devise, a means of making women walk around on their tip-toes - permanently - or so long as there wearing what only passes for a shoe because it is somehow attached to the foot (enter the ribbon).
What ever happened to shoes being meant for protection from the basic elements - frost, rain, sharp little rocks?
Not only are women wearing these heels in permanent point position, but the protective casing that shoes are meant to provide is somehow nonexistent.
The bare foot is held at an excruciating angle by a shaped and hopefully smooth, wooden spike and the women are forced to walk along the runway with the grace of a model...
Hopefully Ms. Wilmont is simply making a statement about the contortions that woman's feet go through when wearing a particularly high pair of stilettos because if that were the case she would be making a very strong artistic statement - look at what's going on inside the shoe or, perhaps more importantly, look at what, at who, is wearing the shoe.
However if it's not the case she is simply advocating pain for attention, attention for her shoes and the woman desperate enough to purchase them.
What do you think? Are these shoes an artistic statement or a step back towards foot binding?
ANM

Shoe Information:
Designer - Aminaka Wilmont

Shoe 4: Detachable Shaft Gladiator Sandals

What, besides Russel Crowe, comes to mind when you hear the word gladiator?
Is it men in armor with swords and shields, or raged togas, fighting for their lives in a last ditch effort to secure freedom? In other words, bloody, violent, and so very Roman.
Or do you think of the latest craze in woman's footwear? Strappy metallic sandals that buckle all the way up the calf and scream 'look at me!' 'I like being shackled.'
The thing is, traditionally when we think of gladiator sandals we think of men covered in blood in an arena full of screaming viewers longing for that blood to flow.
Yes, the view is probably more from the current media than an accurate depiction of history, but still gladiator is the equivalent of male. Never mind that that was just the style of shoe, flat and leather, that men, women, and children wore at that time.
Now the gladiator sandal is all about making a statement, but what are they saying?
Are they saying I am strong and independent?
Are they saying I like to be seen so I'm going to wear these shinny shoes that draw your attention to the fact that I'm not wearing much else on the bottom half of my body?
Or are they saying that I'm a women living in a man's arena and by wearing these shoes I'm fighting for my freedom and if that fails at least I'll be dressed and ready to go in the attire of servitude - buckles and chains...
ANM

Shoe Information:
Name - Detachable Shaft Gladiator Sandals
Brand - Belle By Sigerson
Price - $ 250.00
Website - http://www.sigersonmorrison.com
http://www.neimanmarcus.com

Shoe of Shoes by Victoria Fuller

The statue 'Shoe of Shoes' is made of all individual aluminum cast stilettos and then reassembled to make the one large heel. In this way it resembles other large statues that you might see in public parks or university campuses but it also looks like the type of shoe the tin woman would pick up for a night on the town - silver and shinny.

Food for thought: Why did V. Fuller use aluminum casting on all of the heels instead of leaving them as individual representation of the person who may have purchased them and the designers who choose to make them different?
ANM
Photo by William C. Hutton

More on INSA

Looks like INSA (see Shoe 3: Is it or isn't it?) has quite a lot of interest in the stiletto.
Check out his pink graffiti pumps here:

It's interesting how INSA uses just the stiletto and the leg to represent the woman wearing the shoes. In doing so he keeps his model as much of a secret as he keeps his own identity. She seems to be his constant companion - his muse.
This seems quite empowering especially being 'she' is legs covered in stripped stockings and bright pink stilettos.
The pink does make a startling contrast against the grey walls though. It is new in an old place, beauty where it is not expected...
What's really interesting is that even though the source of that beauty is unusual (i.e. graffiti) it is nonetheless conventional female beauty - covered legs and a nice pair of pumps.
ANM

Shoe 3: Is it or isn't it?

Some call it excrement, some call it art.
Whatever you call it these 10 inch platforms are made out of elephant dung.
Yes, dung.
And they were recently on exhibition for all of the world to see at the Tate Britain.
Now I'm guessing that nobody is actually wearing these heels because (a) they are 10 inches high, (b) they were until quite recently behind glass, (c) they're called Anything Comes When It Comes To (S)hoes (yes the 's' is silent and yes that makes it hoes), and (d), if this hasn't already been mentioned, they are made out of animal poop.
If they were however being worn what would that say about the woman wearing them?
That she's gone green, gone crazy, or simply wants to channel her inner giraffe?
That she's brave, trying to make a crazy statement about the world we live in, or simply an attention grabber?
Perhaps the more important question is what does it say about the artist himself? Why would INSA use something so taboo to make something that is suppose to represent women? Is he really making a social statement, trying to push the boundaries of what is considered beautiful, or is he just aware that the more outrageous the material used the more heated the response received?
At the very least he's original, right?
What do you think? Would you have these shoes in your closet or, more appropriately, mounted on your wall?
ANM


Shoe Information:
Name - Anything Comes When It Comes To (S)hoes
Brand - INSA
Heel Height - 10 inches
Website - http://www.greenmuze.com/green-your/fashion/2389-elephant-dung-shoes-.html

Put on some heels...Be a woman

"Olympic medalist Lindsey Vonn has traded in her downhill skis for high heels..." (http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20364524,00.html).
In other words, Ms. Vonn has stepped, quite literally, into the shoes that define her not by her profession, but by her gender. Off of the trails she is the quintessential female - attending events in formal dresses and painful shoes.
And who could blame her?
She works hard and certainly deserves the rewards that she's now receiving. The problem lays not in her extracurricular activities, but in the fact that there is a double standard.
Sure different shoes, like most other attire, have a distinct place in society. There is a time and place to wear heels as opposed to flip flops. Just like wearing a wedding dress to pick up your morning coffee would be quite unacceptable, so too would flip flops in the board room.
But by putting on heels women are morphing themselves into what is expected - that after an afternoon run they can still slip into that little black dress and pumps and be feminine.
Women are not expected to wear multiple hats - it is still impressive when they can be an Olympic medalist and can clean up nice to walk the red carpet, when they can play multiple parts well.
But how often, if ever, are remarks made about a man's transition from work, to the gym, to the red carpet?
Why is it in this, the 21st century, in a country that is consistently referenced because of its stance on equality women are still expected to be less than men?
Its not the pumps themselves, or the Olympic medalist wearing them, its what they stand for - a differentiation of the sexes.
A repetitive mantra: You can be whatever else you want as long as you don't forget that you're first and foremost a woman.
ANM

Shoe 2: Coconut Flower Flats

If these flats could talk they would say 'Hello spring! Let's go for a walk.'
The woman who wears these shoes is young and flirty. She wants you to notice her, why else would she sport a large flower on her toes?
But these flats say I'm confident in my choices in a quiet, understated way - I want you to stand back and take notice, but I'm not going to use bright neon colors to scream at you. Instead I'm going to be innovative and chose a muted color and bold shapes.
I'm going to make you guess why it is that you keep doing a double take. The shoes or the bouncy skirt they're paired with...


Shoe Information:
Name- Coconut Flower Flats
Brand - American Eagle (for Payless)
Price - $19.99
Website - http://www.payless.com

Shoe 1: The Quito

If a woman's shoe collection was organized in alphabetical order you would find the Quito not under 'Q', for Ecuador's capital, but under 'F' for First Date.

Now its pretty common knowledge that the first date is akin to a sales pitch and these shoes say everything...
They say I'm successful, independent, and slightly exotic (hello I'm wearing blue snake skin!). They say I'm willing to dress up to impress i.e. I like to make, at the very least, a decent first impression.
They also cage in the entirety of the foot - stating that the woman wearing them is guarded and unwilling to place herself on the same level as you this first time. They say I don't trust you with my sneakers and sweatpants.
They say I'm wearing these shoes to keep you intrigued and at a distance.
So what does this say about the woman that steps into these shoes? Is she strong and independent or self conscious and guarded?
You decide,
ANM

Shoe Information:

Name - Quito
Brand - Jimmy Choo
Price - $1295.00
Heel Height - 4.7 inches
Website - http://jimmychoo.com

What's on your feet?

Sure they make your legs look great, but let's be honest - women rarely like to wear five inch stilettos.
Why?
Because, despite how good they look on the runways of Paris or even in the latest romantic comedy, they hurt – a lot – and women who tell you otherwise are undeniably lying.
So why does every women own at least one pair of high heeled shoes from whose elevation she can strut her stuff in a whole new way?
In fact, why are most woman’s closets (and entryways and hidden little nooks, like under the couch, or the bed, or the dining room table…) littered with shoes in all shapes, colors, and heights? And what do these shoes say about the women who wear them?
You might be surprised...
ANM