A question of shoes.....

For those of you who have gotten to know me better over the last couple of years, you know of my new found delight in purchasing shoes!  I was recently asked.."what's with women and shoes, anyway?".. it got me thinking.  So, what's with women and shoes, and more importantly for me, what's with ME and shoes these days?  Women and shoes; it's a purely psychological thing. Shoes is one of those fashion statements that can change the way you seem to the world, as well as change the way you think about yourself.

A small woman puts on a pair of heels; depending on the ratio of angle between the heel and the toe (women with a smaller size get a dramatic difference with a lower heel) you look 10 to 15 lbs. slimmer! That's a bonus on it's own! The way you walk in heels changes your stride. Leading "heel/toe, heel/toe" makes your body undulate, and when you lead with your chest when you walk it is very attractive to the opposite sex, as it conveys the primal idea that you are an "alpha" female. Stiletto heels force the upper thighs to tighten to keep your body in balance, lifting the "derriere" and making it look higher - there fore more youthful and therefore a better mate (again, body language overrides the conscious brain!).

One of my favorite movies is the British Film "Kinky Boots", and a lot of what I have come to realize about the subject is paraphrasing some of the ideas there.  You can tell a lot about a person by their shoes.  Shoes have character, and they convey what you think about yourself to the world.  Think of a young woman wearing Doc Martins.  Now picture someone wearing Christian Loubouton!  More than expensive jewelery, expensive shoes make a statement about how you feel about yourself. And face it, shoes have connotations; think of the term "the girl in the comfortable shoes", "sensible shoes", "old lady shoes",  "stripper shoes", "office shoes", "baby shoes", "ass kickers", "CFMs", or just simply "heels".  Each one of those titles carries a thought in your brain about "who" the person who wears them really is!  And think about a woman wearing a well tailored grey skirt suit... then add a classy pair of Jimmy Choos or Manolo Blaniks in red and it changes how you look at her! It especially changes how her peers look at her!  It's like that big fat diamond ring that makes a statement about a woman's status to her peers.

From personal experience, well made, butter soft leather beats cheap and cheerful shoes by a mile - mostly because they look good AND they are functional! When you slide into that Italian leather and feel the material wrap around your arch like it was made for you there is NO going back!  We are and can be very vain creatures, and lets face it; Cinderella was most little girl's "favorite" fairy tale!

So many of us have been in "Mom" mode for so long we forget the power of shoes.  Some shoes we wear make us feel worthwhile and rich.  Some allow us to feel strong.  And some just allow us to feel beautiful.  If a shoe reflects all those feelings for me, I'm sold!