So we're eight more years into the future now and how is it that no one has taken up the cause of utilitarian sexiness? Is it really too much to ask, in our era of high tech everything, to have comfy, cushioned shoes that are still sexbomb screamers? Granted there are the occasional Cole Haan pumps with Nike air soles and a Stuart Weizman heel with bendable rubber bottom, but, come on. That's what, like a sliver of a percentage of the market's output? Technology allows us to control our home's temperature from our cell phones, and it can't create fierce, fashionable, truly comfortable shoes?
Our categorical winner has been Prada Sport's wedge ankle boot. And, no, we're not paid advertisers -- (the competition is far from staunch) -- we're just a couple modern women with good size feet, an even larger size walking habit, and a dream... A conceptually simple dream at that, one shared for and by too many generations: the intersection of form and function. Though secondary to the elicitation of Sarah Palin rage, this phenomenon of selling immobility as the ultimate in feminine sexiness is straight up cookoo-bananas-crazy!
Who is it you really notice in a room: the woman with the highest heels and machine-like movements or the woman who can breeze, nay, float through a room with confidence, her attire highlighting yet still secondary to her presence/poise/character?
Of course the stiletto can be sexy and fun on occasion, but seriously, it's just not walkable for anyone. And when we say walkable, we don't mean that tender semi-shuffle around the gala dinner table, across the red carpet or to the taxi door, we mean actually walkable in a "we have more on our mind than trying to maintain balance" kinda way. We've got things to do, streets to traverse and days to conquer. We know we're not alone in taking walkable to mean literally walkable, in the walkable sense, so then how is it that the Prada Sports are the exception and not the rule!?
Finally, though we consume our fashion in two dimensions, we go through the world in three. So just because a person photographed in 6+ inch heels might look elegant, lean-limbed, and smiling on the page, let us remember that it is a singular moment captured. The moments after, of moving through space (going head to head with a wildcard staircase) are assuredly far less graceful. And let us argue that grace is our favorite accessory for fall '08, spring '09 and forever!
Side Note: Martin Margiela's nail heel pump is the one interesting and political shoe engaged in any kind of intelligent conversation re: all this. As such, it gets the season's pass.
Andrea Longacre-White of White-Starr
Maison Martin Margiela Fall '08