High Heels and the High Life

 

Every pair of shoes is a walk. Every walk is a different conception of the world.

Nanni Moretti – director of Bianca, 1983. 

Did you know that approximately 20 Billion pairs of shoes are made every year? It may not surprise you to know that women typically own more pairs than men, but on average each person has roughly 19 pairs of shoes. 

The Stiletto

It’s true that every age of fashion has its own iconic shoes. At the moment, it has to be all about the Stiletto. Nearly every female celebrity and star wear them for dramatic effect and many movies show this passion for fashion in their wardrobe choices. 

Carrie Bradshaw in Sex and the City had a closet full of Manolo Blahnik’s and more recently Cate Blanchett’s glass slippers in Kenneth Branagh’s latest interpretation of Cinderella were key to the movie’s style and success. 

Marilyn Monroe once said that “I don’t know who invented high heels, but all women owe him a lot”. The science is simple, obviously, they give you extra height, which gives extra confidence, but they also improve your silhouette lifting your posture to a more aesthetic outline. But be warned, continued use of high heels can have its drawbacks. 

According to a survey done by the Spine Health Institute, 72% of all women will wear high heels at some point in their lifetime and 49% of 18-24-year-olds and 34% of women over 50 wear them daily. Let’s face it, high heels are sexy and with Valentine’s Day just around the corner, now is a great time to kick up your heels and find the perfect pair on uppersole.com.

Designer of Dreams

Now a major exhibition in London, Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams (until Sunday, 14 July 2019) has just opened at the Victoria & Albert museum following on from 2016’s, Shoes: Pleasure & Pain, also at the same venue. While the exhibition features many of Dior’s classic outfits a big part of the show is undoubtedly the designer’s passionate love affair with shoes. His obsession with shoes began at an early age and in the Little Dictionary of Fashion, Christian Dior said: “Heels go with everything”. 

The Armadillo

Taking of fashion icons, in 2009 Alexander McQueen (who was also the star of an iconic V&A exhibition, Savage Beauty in 2015) put together his final fashion creation, The Armadillo, 12-inch heels that were impossible to wear but which still created a huge stir.  Never in fashion had a shoe ever eclipsed the rest of the collection so dramatically. Many of the models who wore them fell over on the catwalk.  The shoes were made of wood and python leather, but because of McQueen’s tragic death, the shoes were never commercially sold. Interestingly, in 2015 Lady Gaga spent £190,000 on three pairs of McQueen’s Armadillo at an auction by Christie’s in London with the proceedings going to UNICEF. 

Even on a small budget, high heels can still turn heads and raise temperatures, even without such the big price tag. 

Flush the Fashion

Editor of Flush the Fashion and Flush Magazine. I love music, art, film, travel, food, tech and cars. Basically, everything this site is about.