André Leon Talley Declares Death to High Heels

From New York Magazine:

After spring 2009, it seemed heels couldn’t get any taller. But then came the fall 2009 shows and with them, heels of twelve inches or higher. Well, André Leon Talley has had enough. He’s tired of watching his Vogue colleagues suffer for fashion in the torture chambers designers call shoes. He says only one Vogue staffer wears flats regularly: style director Alexandra Kotur, who, incidentally, wears the same thing to work every day. Writes Talley:

Designers with an obsession for towering torture chambers, often poorly designed for the well-being of the foot, must get a reality check. I, for one, am over the mania for the high, high heel. Too many career women look like a herd of fashion beasts, aping one another in impractical shoes.

Yet Talley has noticed perhaps a shift toward more comfortable footwear. Vogue’s Lauren Santo Domingo still wears high heels, but wore a pair recently with “sensible rounded-toe fronts.” The world’s most famous fashion icon at the moment, Michelle Obama, wears flats or kitten heels. Also, Calvin Klein showed flat shoes in the 2010 resort show (as did Ports 1961, Marc by Marc Jacobs, and Vena Cava, among others). Talley forced Kotur to try out the Calvin booties. At first she didn’t like them because she felt they didn’t have enough support, bless her practical heart, but then she “grew into” them. Talley also notes that in a new book with a forward written by Diane Von Furstenberg the designer writes, “I never go out in something that I am uncomfortable in, well, except shoes, and they’re torture. And that’s just something I deal with.”

Interesting that Talley would take up this cause, given that Anna Wintour allegedly made high heels part of the Vogue staffer uniform. Talley isn’t being entirely humanitarian, however; in his Style.com editorial he refers to sky-high heels as defying “not only gravity but elegance.”

There is no doubt that high heels don’t exactly do a body good, but many women take a particular pride in footwear martyrdom. In my advanced age I find myself eschewing the utterly painful options for more foot-friendly choices like Chie Mihara and Te Casan. While I’m not ready to give up the heels altogether, hobbling around on damaged feet 20 years down the line is certainly not an attractive option, either.