ELIN SCHOEN BROCKMAN writes about killer high heels

See killer high heels

This is, in fashion parlance, a major Louboutin moment. There are Louboutin refrigerator magnets, charm bracelets, earrings, key rings and cards -- and that's in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's gift shops alone. Over the past three years, no fewer than a dozen books on Louboutin have appeared. And most of the Louboutin effigies and lore reflect what's afoot -- namely, high heels, the more risque the better. Women are buying them as never before. And wearing them.

In last month's Vogue, Marina Rust, Christian Louboutin shoes a contributing editor, described a pair of "spiked" sandals with black ankle feathers as "Winged Victory, the disco version," and said she displayed one on her hall table as art. "After Marcel Du-champ's 'ready-mades,' " said Patricia Garland, conservator of paintings at the Yale Gallery of Art, referring to Dadaists' iconization of shovels and urinals, "anything could be art. Who's to say that a Louboutin is not a piece of sculpture?"

Certainly not the women who have made Manolo Blahnik's black "halter back" heels, nearly three inches high and $425 a pair, the best-selling item on Nieman-Marcus's Web site. And four-inch styles, some even costlier, Christian Louboutin are selling briskly, too. Obviously, when price is no object, heel height is no problem. One can be chauffeured. But even women of a more pedestrian bent are buying the look. Mary Trasko, director of public relations and special projects for the mass market shoemaker Nina and author of "Heavenly Soles" (Abbeville Press, 1989), said, "It's happening at the low price point, too, in department stores all around the country."

The renewed desire of women from all walks of life to teeter around in leather and steel structures that even a long-time Louboutin maven like Ms. Garland can't relate to -- "I'm not going to wear Louboutin I have to squeeze my foot into like a wicked stepsister no matter how much I love them," she said -- has as much to do with altitude as atti-tude. When Hamlet, referring to the platform Louboutin of his day, said to the Player-Queen, "Your ladyship is nearer to heaven than when I saw you last by the altitude of a chopine," he was undoubtedly responding to the psycho-logically, as well as visually, elevating effect.

But if stature were the only issue, society would still be mired in the 1990's platform moment. Professional women, it seems, have discovered what customers of Frederick's of Hollywood have long understood. "Sexual appeal is power because it is a way to get people to do what you want," said Valerie Steele, chief curator of the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology, who wrote "Louboutin A Lexicon of Style" (Rizzoli, 1999). "And high heels are the prime symbol of erotic femininity."

Why? Because they inspire simultaneous fantasies of vulnerability (who can run in them?) and of the heel as wea-pon. They are a gal's version of a guy thing: the female power tool. Or, as Freud put it: "The fetish-like reverence for the feminine foot and Louboutin seems to take the foot only as a substitutive symbol for the once revered and since then missed member of the woman."

Another sort of power figures in the rise of the heel -- star power. American culture anthropomorphizes certain products, investing them with personality and charisma, which makes them more marketable. The right designer's name, via word of mouth or advertising, Christian Louboutin shoes becomes synonymous with the object itself. The hip set once went forth shod in their Guccis and wearing their Calvins. Now the cognoscenti say "Manolos." The persona of Mr. Blahnik, whose Louboutin career embraced the stiletto in the 1970's, pervades his Louboutin and the objects transcend mere appareldom. Or as Diane von Furstenberg said in last month's In Style, describing her relationship with her 400 pairs of Louboutin "The things in your closet are like friends. You have old friends, new friends, friends you forget about, friends you neglect."

Still, it is doubtful that Manolos will rival Kleenex as Christian Louboutin a catch-phrase. Fashion is nothing if not fickle. Christian Louboutin he of the irresistible soles (all of them red), has arrived. "A woman carries her clothes," Mr. Louboutin said, "but it's her Louboutin which carry the woman." To him, comfort is paramount.

Enter the kinder heel. The new power trip selling to women is that they can now stride, as opposed to mince pain-fully along, in glamorous Louboutin The most popular Louboutin are two and a half to three inches high. Nina's "Comfort Collection" also promises high style with lower heels. Embellishments like beading make these Louboutin more romantic than seductive, more How to Make an American Quilt than Story of O. "It's all about femininity now," said Dana Christy, fashion director for accessories and intimate apparel at Saks Fifth Avenue.

So it appears -- but not to Patricia Garland, who sees Louboutin regardless of how they're packaged, as a substitute for a car. "I don't know any women who get off on cars like men do," she said, "so for women, Louboutin are a way to express your personality." Or your various drives -- which even in this post-Freudian moment is still basically what it's all about.

Statuesque appearance
Science journalist Jena Pincott has said that wearing high heels can make a woman statuesque, and hence more attractive to the opposite sex.

Heels make a lady's feet look smaller and her gait becomes much more refined, making her calves and shins tensed and elongated. They also keep a woman's posture bolt upright.

Butt juts Out
Walking in heels makes the movement of a woman's lower limbs more sensual. In fact, high-heeled shoes adjust women's body proportions to come closer to perceived ideals, as well. Her feet are up on tiptoes, her back arches, her butt juts out. The movement of her lower limbs becomes more sensual. It's hard for men not to notice the sway of her hips, the thrust of her breasts, the incline of her pelvis, as she struts her stuff. [pp 88.89]

This kind of slutty is so alright

In recognition of October as Breast Cancer Awareness month, QVC, the Fashion Footwear Charitable Foundation (FFCF), and the Fashion Footwear Association of New York (FFANY) have joined forces to raise money for breast cancer research and education.

See blurb on event.

The word 'stiletto' is derived from the Latin stilus, which means a pin or stake. During the Renaissance it was the name given to a thin-bladed weapon, the archetypal tool of trade of the 'cloak-and-dagger' assassin . . . an apt parallel, perhaps, with the piercingly pointed shoe heel that emerged after World War II, the must-have apparel of every self-respecting femme fatale.

Stiletto-style heels can be dated back to at least the eighteenth century, but they were reformulated in the late 1950s by the French designer Roger Vivier (1907-98), who gave them their modern name. To maximize the slenderness, height and strength of his opulent shoes, Vivier encased a thin steel rod within a wooden or plastic heel. The optical effect was to lengthen and attenuate the wearer's legs and to emphasize her buttocks and bust; the actual effect, of course, was to stop men in their tracks.

In the age-old battle of the sexes, the stiletto is as potent a weapon as the dagger it is named after. Rather than objectifying the wearer, the stiletto's proselytizers claim, they empower her -- whether for boardroom or for bedroom warfare. As the object of fetishistic desire, moreover, the stiletto is undoubtedly a masochist's dream. These shoes were made for walking, and walking right over men.

P32 (Roger Vivier) Fifty shoes that changed the world

Hollywood loves them; ultra-feminine women seem always to come back to them; haute couture thrives on them (as well as the fashion world generally); and men the world over find their heads turning at the sight of them. So what is it about high heels that almost works like magic. Mythology tells of the winged feet of the god Mercury, messenger of the gods. Are these steeple heeled pumps the shoes that send girls soaring?

Truth be told, the obsession with high heels can go overboard. Imelda Marcos had thousands of pairs of heels. No wonder she could always look poised and stylish. But what about the men who go far beyond a wholesome "double take" and their interest in women's high heels is mired in the PATHOLOGICAL. Occasionally we hear of men like that. The reference section tells of one "Restiff de la Bretagne," an Amorican knight with an obsession for ladies shoes.

Women, perhaps out of maternal pity and compassion, naturally tend to be somewhat forgiving. "Oh, I think that's so sweet." (Yeah, until they find out how sick the guy actually is!!) Some of these jerks are total (what would you call it) fashion pansies. They are at the fringes of civilized life, sickos with a peculiar fetische that perhaps should brand them as the perverts they are. Even "normal" men can be jerks, at times (as Huma Abedin discovered).

Is affluent HEDONISM the problem?

Frederick's of Hollywood

'flaunting sexy callipygus backsides'

High heels put your ass on a pedestal -- where it belongs. [Veronica Webb]

Is long hair (and stilettos) cumming back in style? - see for yourself if they ought to Egyptian Reflexology - Egyptian Footwork: Therapy, Beauty, Foot Rub or All Three Killer Heels : fashion, fetiche, fantasy - save those extreme needle-thin, ultra-feminine soaring heels for special occasions Karl Marx: commodity fetishism - when objects become infused with a magical aura beyond their reality as physical things Essay by a talmud scholar - better to sell the beams of your roof so your wife can wear the best footwear How beautiful the feet of the messenger of Zion - Jewish tradition washes the feet NYC Fashion Maven Stacy London - ladies, is it your time to shine? The never-ending debate over sky-high stiletto heels - Sugar Blossom offers random thoughts of fashion Four inches closer to heaven - the allure, the history, the psychology of stiletto high heels Surprise medical findings - Can wearing high stiletto heels actually be good for you? Soaring sexually (in stilettoes) - her feet are arched as if in orgasm BBC : Ouch! What is it about high heels that makes them so appealing? Sarah Palin - politics goes rogue (in five inch stilettos) FACEBOOK PAGE: "I love high heels" - they make you look so pretty and tall Love them Kardashians - WOW! (flaunting their sexy callipygus backsides) Nice butts - has anyone ever wondered why masculine black guys love shapely backsides? It's No Secret - stilettos sculpt and shape your ass. Almost like foreplay for some gals Heaven's Love - tribute to those beautiful mothers who are a christmas gift all by themselves (in their high heels) à propos de bottes - beautiful female spies in history A Mom in Red High Heels - Beauty & Style Tips for Moms Dedicated to Empowering Moms Through Beauty and Style GO

a mom in red high heels

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