A recent Guardian feature asked a number of fashionistas if the comfortable high heel, ‘the holy grail of fashion’ really exists. Oddly, many of the respondents agreed that it does, though there was little consensus as to who actually makes this mythical item. The article featured a bewildering number of shoe designers nominated for the ‘most comfortable heel’ award. One woman was of the view that pain-free high heels cost big bucks, while another argued that you can’t beat good old M&S for comfort in a towering heel.
Oops! Has this woman fallen off her shoe?
I decided that many contributors had to be telling porkies to justify their shoe addiction. In the short term, high heels cause corns, calluses and blisters. They throw the posture out of kilter, stressing joints and forcing weight onto the front of the foot. Prolonged wear shortens calf muscles and Achilles tendons and contributes to bunions and hammer toes. Women are more likely than men to suffer from knee and foot problems in later life.
At this point I must confess that I’ve never really got the whole shoe thing – I think I lack the relevant gene. I live in flat boots and ballet pumps, kitten heels at a push. While I can see that some heels are things of beauty, I find many of the more extreme styles of high heel ugly, ridiculous or downright trashy looking. There is also the small matter of being unable to walk in them.
Victoria Beckham has reportedly already suffered bunions, a painful bone deformity, caused by her obsession with heels. And as for that other killer heel wearing fashion icon, Sarah Jessica Parker – I’ve rarely seen a bandier woman.
Yes yes, I know, heels are sexy and glamorous. But let’s not kid ourselves that they’re actually comfortable, eh ladies?
(Photo by twicepix on Flickr)
Anthea McTeirnan
Croí na Duibhlinn
Aoife Barry
Aoife McLysaght
Arlene Hunt
Attracta McCarthy-McKenna
clairehennessy
Ann Cronin
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Eleanor Fitzsimons
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Anna Carey
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Léan Ní Chuilleanáin
Leigh
Lisa McInerney
Laura Slattery
Maman Poulet
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Clare Kleinedler
Molly
Rosita Boland
Catherine Crichton
Sinéad Gleeson
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siobhandowling
Susan Daly
theantiroom
Nuala Ní Chonchúir
YES!!!!!!! Completely agree with you. High heels are just not worth it. Ever.
Don’t get the heels thing either but then I do have the advantage of being tall.
Over 10 years ago when I was 3 months pregnant I went to M&S in Ealing & bought 2 pairs of flats to wear instead of my customary work court shoes. I have never looked back & now wear a combination of runners and flat boots.
Heels are simply not worth the pain to me!
Oh thank God! I thought it was just me. I don’t get the shoe obsession either. I live in flat boots or flat runners, with a kitten heel for a wedding/big occassion.
My wedding shoes are tiny one-inch heels, simple ivory peeptoes, which I bought before I even had my dress. I looked in one shop and bought them.
My sister, a shoe-a-holic, was HORRIFIED that I hadn’t agonised over the decision for weeks and bought 50 pairs of ‘just in case’ shoes!
Sometimes I feel like I’m not a real girl because I don’t go into raptures over shoes, handbags, clothes or make-up. I don’t have regular facials, manicures, pedicures and I’ve never in my life had a mud-wrap, massage, hot-stone treatmenmt, whatever.
I also sometimes feel like I’m not a real girl; are we the female Pinocchios? I’m not a big fan of shopping, only wear makeup for State Occasions – well, social events – and have never had a facial. But we are real girls – just not girly ones perhaps.
I wear a pretty high platform and heel, the arch is not too severe and I genuinely find them comfy. That said, I’m a short arse and have been wearing them since I was a teenager. It’s like wearing a corset, you just get used to it. And I’d be fibbing if I said it wasn’t a little fetishised. Though I’m pretty sure you’re on the money with the problems suffered in later life.
Nice piece
If I ever wear heels nowadays they’re with a generous platform heel, which helps distribute the weight more evenly (or at least gives the illusion…). Otherwise you’ll see me sporting a good old pair of leather ankle boots, that have about 1.5 inches on it, not technically heels, but makes the difference. I might return to Doc Martins, although I dread the pain of ‘breaking them in’….you can’t beat a classic well-made shoe, there are so many disposable, poorly made, cheap, shoddy shoes out there (Penney’s/Tylers et al). x
Hurray. I always thought I was weird. Have never worn a hugh heel in my life & agree w every word of this post. I’m 6′ tall and so never needed extra inches. I have a 23yo daughter & we have this debate regularly. Cos she dons huge heels which give her a kind of chicken walk! Ridiculous!
Catherine, I think – like me – you should declare an interest here.
As people with lifelong hip problems and recipients of recent hip replacements, I think we have prejudices against heels for very practical reasons. Who cares if shoes look pretty when your hip is in bits, right?
My problem is that I’m the opposite to you: I love heels. I have stared wistfully at some of the most gorgeous shoes but now that they would bugger up my hip if I attempted to walk to the end of my driveway. I would LOVE to be able to wear ridiculously high shoes but my back and my hip would stage a mutiny and go into lockdown.
That said, I don’t get the shoe-coveting fetish of many women. I live in Converse, Campers and ballet pumps with the odd pair of not-too-high heels. I never feel very excited about what is essentially footwear.
I haven’t been able to wear heels since October and I really miss them (for going out).
In a few months, when I’m off the crutch, I’m going to retest the waters and see if it’s any different.
I’m with Sinead here! Haven’t been able to wear heels since my hip replacement and feel like a fat school girl clunking around on blocky shoes. Verrrrrrrrrrrrryyyyy jealous of anyone who can wear heels *and* manage to walk in them for even a few minutes at a time.
You’re right Sinead, I did think while writing the post that I should ‘fess up about my recently acquired metal hip! I guess I really don’t know if that lies at the root of my high heel aversion and general shoe indifference. The only thing I will say in my defence is that I’m similarly immune to the charms of handbags. I own two battered ones (one brown, one black) one of which has a paint mark on it that I’ve never bothered to remove! I just can’t get excited about them either and my upper body is fully functioning. I did get a Chrismas present of a third one – maybe someone trying to tell me something?
Also jealous of both of your metal hips! Mine is plastic and concrete (Roadstone cement probably) as was the shitebag health offering during our prosperous boom. These only last ten years so the op is now around the corner all over again, so it’s a double ‘no’ to high heels for the future. Darn!
I too have a bockety hip to declare. Flat Shoe Society?!
True; but I’m a lifelong comfy-flattie and still discovered a bunion, to my pained astonishment.
I am genuinely surprised when women think they are unusual for not wearing heels. Nearly all the women I know occasionally wear heels to go out in, but wear low heels or flats for work. I never know where this mythical world is in which women habitually wear high heels, and women who wear flats feel like they’re the odd ones out!
I know most women wear flat shoes a lot of the time. But as you say, most women wear heels to go out in, and we are repeatedly told that some outfits just don’t work without them. I don’t own a single pair and never have done – even before my hip problem (mentioned above) became an issue. I also get sick of hearing about how ALL women love shoes – we don’t!!
But don’t most people take the “this outfit only works with…” stuff with a huge pinch of salt?
I mean, I totally agree about how annoying that kind of marketing is, and I’m not saying that the whole beauty industry doesn’t have a real effect on how people behave and think about themselves. I just don’t see much evidence of the ubiquity of high heels in Real Life: the “oh, we all wear heels all the time” magazine world just seems imaginary to me. I also have two good friends with disabilities who literally have never worn high heels, and both of them take the piss out of me a bit if/when I do wear heels, but in terms of fashion/beauty standards that are ubiquitous and which they feel pressured to join in with, high heels don’t really come into it.
On the other hand, I suppose a significant number of my female friends are queer, so maybe the dominance of high heels is more of a straight woman thing!
That’s IT!! *truth slowly dawns* How have I got through the last 45 years without realising I’m queer?
Sent from my iPhone
There’s a reason the phrase “ladies in sensible shoes” exists…
Not sure this famous lesbian couple would agree with you Mary! http://tinyurl.com/5rff74b
Point 1: next time you go into a shoe shop full of towering stilettos, do a quick scan to see how many women browsing there are wearing flats. My guess? 80%.
Point 2: best advice ever on wearing heels came from a fashion writer (sorry, the name is long gone) who advised sorting your shoes into “8 hour shoes” “4 hour shoes” and “2 hour shoes” (i.e. how long each pair could comfortably be worn). All styles are doable if you do this – and call a taxi when you’re wearing the 2-hour pair!
Next time I go into a shoe shop will be the next time I am forced to buy a new pair for a special occasion or because a trusty old pair has finally worn out. I don’t browse shoes (much happier in a bookshop) and they don’t need sorting because I don’t own enough of the things to make it worth my while!
I have too many shoes but I think most of mt problem is in trying to find a couple of pairs of actually comfortable shoes. I like a bit of a heel as I have flat feet and flats are excruciatingly painful for me but I don’t like high heels and Irish shops seem to only offer the extremes!
I remember an argument with my Dad when I was about 19 and begging to be driven to the shopping centre to buy a new pair of very high heeled boots to wear to a party that night. He said that high heels weaken your ankles. My stepmother piped in in the most bored voice ever, ‘Life weakens your ankles’. I agree with her. I love high heels, I feel more confident when I’m wearing them, I prefer the shape of my legs in them, I dance better in them. I hate walking in them. Cue the large handbag containing a tiny pair of gold pumps. I don’t wear heels as often anymore because I don’t get out as much and I find I suffer more with burny sole and creaky knee syndrome the next day than I used to but it’s nothing a brisk walk in runners doesn’t sort out.
I do like Kate’s categories, must go up and devise a new organisation system for mine.
I’m too into comfort to wear heels. What I call my ‘high heels’ are minnows compared to the big fish.
Grand for the bedroom, not practical in rainy, walk everywhere Ireland.
And seeing girls who can’t walk in them – who are clearly in pain – boggles my mind.
Mega-heels do seem to be particularly ‘in’ at the moment don’t they? Especially since the advent of Sex and the City, Laboutins, gladiator heels etc.
Which is why the girl I used work with seemed even more curious. Years before they were de rigeur, she wore nothing else, ever, except impossibly high, teetering heels. People used to joke that she must have had high heel wellies at home..
On a flatter note, one day last summer, while on holidays, I developed a sudden and frankly horrific-looking purple rash on my legs. I’d share a photo but would hate to turn readers off. A pharmacist I showed it to suggested it was a (not uncommon) result of wearing towering heels for a prolonged period? (I had been wearing flip flops all day). She herself, a professed heel lover, said she had succumbed to it – on more than one occasion?! Now that is definitely what I call suffering for beauty…. has anyone else suffered from/heard of this phenomenon?
I wear mostly flat shoes. I have a job which I’m on my feet every minute of the day and lift heavy stuff so it’s practical. I don’t own a car either so I have to walk, cycle or take the bus. For the sake of practicality, I wear flat shoes.
However I love wearing heels for special occasions and days when I know I’ll be sitting around doing nothing. I find a well-designed pair of leather heels very comfortable. I can run and walk in heels as well but I prefer being able to get places as quickly as possible.
Got to admit I’ve worn shoes that have almost crippled me because they were SO pretty. I don’t like skyhigh ones though and wouldn’t go to the extent of actually causing lasting damage to my feet.
High heels that are comfortable are pure gold; I’ve one old pair of purple peep toe heels that I can run in – they’re high and fantastically comfortable.
Mind you, am just under 5’5″ so could do with the added height.
I used to love heels. Then I *had* to wear them to work, standing for eight or nine hours a day in them and all the fun went out of it. Nothing looked as good as slipping my burning soles into padded trainers felt at the end of the day.
Also I was attacked a few years ago (although not while wearing heels) and suddenly became aware how vulnerable I felt when wearing heels. I occasionally wear high heeled boots, but rarely shoes unless I have to. And the most expensive pair of heels I’ve got are the comfiest I own (possibly because I actually paid £15 for them instead of £400 on Ebay and smugness will comfort anything!)
Wedge heels aren’t uncomfortable. At least mine aren’t.
This post read my mind this week! I glimpsed a friends shoe wardrobe recently and her rows and rows (and more rows!) of shoes. I was amazed, of my six pairs of shoes three are high heels, and all over three years old. I never buy them, the decision is usually made for me in the shop as my feet are always too narrow. I spent an hour in Schuh (sp?) the other day, and just gave up. I decided to accept the situation and becoming a heel-total.
My french friend can’t understand Irish women in heels all day, she never wears them.
I love high heels. I love the added height they give me and I just couldn’t imagine teaming some of my work outfits with a pair of flat shoes – it just wouldn’t work.
Flat shoes make me feel a bit frumpy whereas heels make me feel taller and, even though it sounds silly, happier. I’m wearing heels today but I spend most of the day at my desk so it’s not like they’re uncomfortable to be in all day.
I own a pair of comfortable trainers but I only ever wear them for running and wouldn’t dream of wearing them for a trip into town or a day out shopping the way some people do without giving it any thought. I definitely put ‘style’ or vanity above my comfort and I realise it’s ridiculous, especially as I’m an outspoken feminist, but there you go.
There’s a ridiculous picture of me visiting the Burren in Co.Clare wearing a pair of heels some years back. I can safely say I wouldn’t do that again.
Has anyone noticed that in the (awful) Disney Channel Mickey Mouse show (which seems to be on constantly, my niece is addiced, and I sure anyone with 0-5yr old will know it) the only two female characters, Minnie and Daisy Duck, both wear high heels!! I mean one of them is a duck! Imagine the pain. I think heels will be around at least one more generation.
I live in boots with a teeny wedge, or shoes with less than a two inch heel, to the continued bemusement of my mother. Despite being a couple of inches shorter at 5’2″ she towers over me in what to me seem torturous shoes, never less than four inches high.
I do understand that in her job she wants to feel a sense of authority, and that height gives her that – I always feel less invisible on the rare occasions when I walk around in heels (though it may be because these – http://needsupply.com/womens/brands/jeffrey-campbell/99-zip-wedge.html – are my fallbacks, and for some reason make me feel like a manga superheroine..)
I can see the reasoning behind the most comfortable heel award, I think.
I do love the look of heels too, but for practical reasons pretty much live in ballet flats (which do not make me look anything to do with ballet) and Converse, and the ugly but comfortable FitFlop come summer. I like to think I could bolt if I needed to. It’s so comforting to know you could run with the crowd if the revolution started while you were out, or walk the 10 miles home if there was a sudden bus, train, tram and taxi strike. You know how frequently this happens.
I long to link to Heelarious again but that’s a different rant and I’d just be shoehorning it in because of the word “heel”.
at last sense wins out; these instruments of mass body deforment (is there such a word, well there is now) are the western world’s equivalent of Chinese foot-binding…..