Quote:
Originally Posted by JeffB  I'm something of a traditionalist when it comes to women's shoes, especially pumps, and shoes like these with all that toe cleavage are a complete turn-off and don't look the slightest bit attractive to me. But hey! I'm not judgemental, to each their own! |
Ditto. How ugly!
Besides, the toes were never meant by God to support the forward slide of the foot in a high-heeled shoes. Long-term attempts at this results in deformity of the toes, bunions, corns, hammer-toe, and all sorts of other problems.
Properly-designed high-heel footwear incorporates restraints across the instep or around the ankle which prevent this from happening. They also may include a slight elevation in the footbed ahead of the ball of one's foot. The latter is only successful, though, with a properly designed instep restraint, or at the very least, wider straps across the base of the toes which ensure the wearer's ball of their feet meet squarely with the restraint.
My current favorite heels are the ones I'm wearing today, my Franco Sarto Nolans. I'd prefer a narrower, quieter heel, but the rest of the shoe is sublime, including leather uppers which do all the restraining I need to keep my toes from permanent deformation.
And of course they look wonderful! I walked through the Frankfurt Airport two weeks ago to pick up a colleague, and no one batted an eye at them beneath my long jeans. Back in the car, my colleague noticed, and he was quiet for a while, wondering what he was getting into or what to think, but a few ice-breaking comments later, he was asking me to both recommend and join him at the nearest good pub. I think he wanted to see how the crowd reacted, and when they didn't, he didn't either.
That was two weeks ago, and as I sponsored him in, I've had frequent contact with both him and his wife. They're both very cool with it.