Fashion Slaves Get Kicks From Spike Heels

Mar 1, 1995

Teri Agins

The Wall Street Journal

Combat boots for women were fabulous - last year. This spring, the trendiest shoes are decidedly not made for walking.

Fashion designers are rallying around the new "glamour" look: clingy dresses, Wonderbras and, yes, sexy spike heels. "With the return of glamour, women are looking more vampish and seductive," says Candy Pratts Price, accessories editor of Vogue magazine. "We are talking a high heel."

Vogue's January issue was filled with stilettos. One photo spread featured a $455 pair of red patent-leather sandals with five-inch heels from shoe designer Manolo Blahnik, the high priest of high heels. Mirabella's February issue had a full-page photo of a black patent-leather pump with a six-inch heel from Guido Paquali for Vivienne Westwood. So far, six inches is the maximum heel height.

Most of the new high heels have very pointy toes and reveal a lot of skin, including "toe cleavage," that is, the cracks between the toes; some also feature thin criss-cross or ankle straps. "It never ceases to amaze me how much pain, discomfort and self-destruction women will go through in order to look good for a man," says Laura Schlessinger, a Los Angeles therapist and author of "Ten Things Women Do to Mess Up Their Lives."

Shoe designers know they count on women to sacrifice comfort for vanity. In high heels, women's "legs look longer and thinner, and the heels force them to stand back to keep their balance, which causes them to walk sexier," says shoe designer Kenneth Cole.

Valerie Donati recently bought four new pairs of stilettos (high pumps with dagger-like heels), including a pair of black patent-leather Charles Jourdan shoes with stainless-steel heels. "They make me feel fun and frivolous and really glamorous," says Ms. Donati, a Manhattan writer. "I have more men saying they like my legs but what they are really talking about is my shoes."

And pop culture icons everywhere are wearing what the fashion-industry calls "fast shoes." Witness the boss-seductress played by Demi Moore in the movie "Disclosure." Her character could have been the inspiration for shoe designer Charles David's ad: "If you really must step on someone to get ahead, use a very sharp heel."

But it remains to be seen how many women will jump from prim pumps to sassy stilettos. Many women complain that they don't feel glamorous teetering along on spindly heels, and millions of American women are already suffering from corns, bunions and other foot ailments.

"Women are four times more prone to have foot problems than men due to women's lighter bone structure, the effects of pregnancy and hormonal changes," says Suzanne Levine, a podiatric surgeon in Manhattan. Dr. Levine adds that all foot problems are aggravated by the shoes women wear, especially high heels.

In fact, many women accept sore feet as part of life. A 1993 study of 400 women sponsored by the American Orthopedic Foot and Ankle Society in Seattle found that 56 percent of the women "believed that having bunions is normal," according to Carol Frey, one of the researchers on the study and an orthopedic surgeon at the University of Southern California.

Since Cinderella, women have been lying about the size of their feet. So the Seattle study compared the actual measurements of the women's feet to the shoes they wore and concluded that 88 percent of women were squeezing their feet into shoes that were "significantly smaller" than they should be. However, women's feet are getting bigger from generation to generation. So the stigma about big feet, some say, is beginning to recede.

That so many women may be ready to wear spike heels may be evidence of a trend away from mannish work attire. Boxy suits and silk scarves were de rigueur back in 1982, when Mr. Cole, the shoe designer, introduced his first collection of mostly square-toed, chunky-heeled shoes. "Women were obsessed with being practical and sensible looking," he says, "and the high-heel business seemed to cease to exist."

But nowadays, "That `Working Girl' look is kaput. We now . . . can go to the office and cross our legs in a short skirt and high heels," says Vogue's Ms. Price.

Jennifer Wylie won't be among the new leg-crossers. Firmly grounded in low heels or flats, the 30-year-old Pittsburgh public-relations executive refuses to suffer in spikes. "I'm adamant about being comfortable," she says.

Retailers are hoping Ms. Wylie is the exception rather than the rule. The 45-store Saks Fifth Avenue chain projects half its sales in spring dress shoes will be high heels, up from 30 percent last year.

Shoe makers maintain that today's high heels are more comfortable than the spikes of the early 1960s, when they were last fashionable; today's stilettos are fuller across the toes, more shock-absorbing and better balanced, they say. Mr. Blahnik notes that three women click around his Italian factories, testing his spikes for comfort, "spending an hour or so going up and down steps and things."

But no one will argue that a five-inch heel is the last word in comfort. That's why Dr. Scholl's in 1993 came out with its Toe Squish Preventer, a shoe cushion for spike heels. "It acts like a speed bump for your foot, keeping your toes from getting jammed into the pointed toe," explains Steven LaMonte, vice president of footwear marketing for Schering-Plough Health Care Products.

A number of shoe marketers, including Kenneth Cole and Nine West, concede that there's a limit, even for the fashion-conscious woman these days. Neither company will make a spike heel for spring higher than three inches. "We interpret that stiletto look into a wearable, comfortable shoe with heels that aren't too spindly, that more women can relate to," says Stacy Lastrina, vice president of corporate marketing for Nine West.

More comfortable dress shoes continue to sell, even if they aren't the height of fashion. But even U.S. Shoe Corp.'s Easy Spirit pumps, advertised to "feel like a sneaker," are updated for spring. The new model, called "Legends," features a thinner, tapered two-inch heel, the tallest comfort pumps to date.

And the fact is, for many women, buying shoes is not a practical matter. Even Dr. Levine, the podiatric surgeon, is hardly a role model: She confesses she often wears Manolo Blahnik heels at work. "I know the importance of healthy feet, but as a woman, I understand the psychological damage that can occur when a person is denied fashionable shoes," she says.