Shoe Whore

Since I saw these shoes, I've been slightly obsessed with them. Especially the Fetish Ballerina shoes by Louboutin.

My initial thoughts were 'is this a joke?' 

There are several different variations of women: nice-underwear women, bath-products women, handbag women and shoe-women. I am a bath-products woman. But even then my attitude to this is slightly lax. I personally feel that in a rush, essential beauty products would include hair-wax, mascara and a spritz of perfume (my current favourite is Deep Night, Ghost). Oh, and don't forget sunglasses...

Shoes... I don't understand the appeal. 

I don't ''do'' heels. I can't wear them and owing to having ridiculously big feet, it used to be tough for me to find heels in my size. I'd spend my limited amounts of cash as a younger-twenty-something on gorgeous shoes that I could barely stand up in, feet scrunched up, rubbed, red, blistered, pinched in. I don't care what anyone says, they are NOT comfortable. You can't walk in them, dance in them, run for a taxi in the rain in them - they serve no purpose whatsoever. Except to look pretty. 

I realised a few years ago the stupidity of it and basically surrendered. I'm definitely not a shoe-whore.

So, I'm wondering - what's the point of these shoes? They have absolutely no practical merit. Indeed, they stretch the point of wearing heels to ridiculousness, don't they? 

Why do women even wear heeled shoes? Isn't it to do with appearing to make the legs look longer, to appear more alluring to the opposite sex? I don't really have a lot of patience for this. I don't see men busting a gut trying to keep upright in shoes that make no sense trying to impress me. I don't believe that men worry about how women think they'll look in their brogues or suits or ties, I doubt if they're anxious that we will find them less attractive or masculine, or that they haven't 'made an effort'. (This reminds me of my 'why nice underwear is a waste of money theory'... I'll share it sometime.)

The pale pink pair  were worn by Lady GaGa, whose outfits are ridiculed by the press and err on the side of buffoonery. Whether or not this is intentional is another thing. But then isn't that the whole point of fashion? Dressing up? Appearing a certain way on a certain day for a certain occasion? Finding something to wear that demonstrates who you are today? Caitlin Moran writes amazingly about this in her book How To Be A Woman, by the way. You should all read it. It's hilarious and groundbreaking.

Anyway - back to the topic at hand...These shoes must be a form of art. Modern art, perhaps? The high price tag would certainly indicate this. After all, since when is good art cheap? I suspect that this is why some people spend hundreds - or thousands - on fashion items and describe them as 'investment pieces'. 

But then again, maybe these aren't examples of good art. Maybe that's just what we've been told.The trouble is, modern art is divisive simply because taste is subjective.

Which reminds me of a quote by Oscar Wilde: ''Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months.'' 

So who gets to decide what is or is not beautiful?

The people who decide which shoes - clothes - bags - are exceptionally beautiful are of course the ones who design them.These shoes are only worth thousands because the designer knows that there are circles of people who will happily spend that amount on them, as though inflated prices were a guarantee of better quality... and when something is scarce, its value increases. The fact that most of these shoes serve absolutely no purpose is irrelevant to the buyer.

However, maybe I'm the wrong person to discuss high end fashion. I buy my clothes from Primark.


What I'm listening to:
Paramore – Grow Up