Burberry's Spring 2011 fashion show in London last month started steadily enough: Sarah Jessica Parker and Serena Williams squeezed into the front row, motorcycle jackets blanketed the runway, and the crowd went wild. Seemingly, everything proceeded without a hitch—until the final model, a coltish 16-year-old named Nina Porter, took her final spin. Porter wound up flat on her face in a spill that recalled Naomi Campbell's infamous wipeout on the Vivienne Westwood runway in 1993. "Regardless of how ridiculous, or ill fitting, the shoes a Cheap Alexander McQueen womens shoes model has been given to wear, if she falls it can spell the end of her career," wrote The Daily Mail the day after the Burberry show.
That same week, Daphne Guinness—the fashion icon famous for braving some of couture's most impossible designs—visited St. Paul's Cathedral for Alexander McQueen's memorial service in towering platforms from his Autumn/ Winter 2009 collection. Although Guinness once told The Daily Beast that McQueen's Armadillo heels were surprisingly easy to walk in, she lost her balance on the cobblestones of the churchyard—and was cast into a sea of fans.
This season, fashion's sky-scraping heels have reached new heights. Take, for example, Lady Gaga's personal favorites: Noritaka Tatehana's 9.1-inch "Night Makers." All platform and no heel, the shoe challenges the laws of physics by throwing the body forward onto the ball of the foot. "The structure it is kind of confidential," Tatehana said of his designs in an email to The Daily Beast. "But I suppose I could say they're made based along natural structure that utilizes the human body's character."
Tatehana's design, and other pieces of hoof architecture—such as McQueen's Armadillos, Guo Pei's geisha-girl platforms, and Olivier Theyskens' 11-inch heelless shoes for Nina Ricci—have set the bar high for the rest of the industry. "Even though the Armadillo was hard to wear, it has created a look and had a trickle-down effect," said one editor at a top fashion magazine. "Crazy heel heights are happening right now. And I don't see [them] coming down."
And they're not just on runways and in magazine editorials—average women are doubling down on "F-Me" heels, as well. "Some of the highest heels yet are what we're seeing this year," said Lonnie Bishop, who has been the Manolo Blahnik specialist at Neiman Marcus in Beverly Hills since 1992. replica Alexander McQueen "And they're selling faster than anything else on the floor."
Comments