In Her Shoes

Shoes are funny. If you stare at people's feet long enough shoes become comical. Why do we wear these covers over our feet? The obvious answer being to protect them of course, but why do we wear the shoes we do?

I have always been kind of a shoe person. Not necessarily in a Carrie Bradshaw kind of way but I always notice what people have on their feet. I am of the opinion that you can tell a lot about a person simply by checking out their footwear. Are they professional or casual? Do they go for comfort or style? Are they American or European? I swear it. I have the peculiar ability to tell what country someone comes from just by glancing down at their feet. European men, for example, tend to wear pointier shoes than American men. Italian men and women have a thing for snake skin shoes and sadly, Americans are pretty much the only people who think a clean pair of white sneakers are cool enough to wear for a night out on the town. I have, in fact, been known to be able to pick out all the Scandinavian men in the club when we are out in New York. What I never admitted before though, is that I often do it by first noticing their shoes.

I think my mind has been on shoes more recently because I just bought two new pairs of high-heels. Seeing as how I am 5'8" and have never felt the necessity to make myself any taller than I already am, I typically don't sport any shoe with more than a one inch heel, if any heel at all. Lately though, I have embraced my tallness and had the urge to learn to walk in more challenging (and inevitably more uncomfortable)shoes. Why you might ask? I'm not sure other than the fact that I see women of all shapes and sizes walking in gorgeous heels everyday and that I have a 6'2" tall boyfriend for the first time in my life. The experience of learning to balance in my seriously stylish kicks has made me pay even more attention to people's shoes around me. I now marvel at the women who walk down the street in strappy four inch stilettos without looking like a wobbly toddler learning to walk and I have a new found respect for runway models who take on the sport of high-heel walking for a living.

They say you can't understand a man until you walk a mile in his shoes. I agree with the statement whole-heartedly, both on a metaphorical and a more literal level because the shoes we wear really do say something about who we are. Go ahead, take a look down at your own feet and think about what your shoes say about you. I think the more modern version of the quote might be, "You'll never understand a woman until you've walked a few city blocks in her Manolos."