We think that has a lot to do with why they’ve become a classic and why women’s footwear hasn’t really changed all that much in the last 50 years...Astounding shoe pics at the link.
But these? We’re sorry, we love Miuccia and her entirely original ideas, but these are just plain ugly to us. Seriously ugly. Aggressively ugly.
September 26, 2012
"The one thing you can say about the standard high-heeled shoe..."
"... in response to entirely reasonable criticisms that they’re painful, physically damaging and ultimately a little sexist, is that they’re aesthetically pleasing."
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66 comments:
Cruel shoes.
Hostile, even.
The high heeled shoe is an anti-gravity device lifting the essentially pear shaped woman skyward.
Butt ugly
Good for peacocking.
They should put springs in those shoes. Then you could run faster and jump higher.
Those are butt ugly clodhoppers.
You gotta love the fact that, after decades of feminist chiding and scolding, women are still wearing stiletto heels in order to elevate their hind ends in a manner that is pleasing to men.
Ok ladies, who felt a tingle looking at those shoes?
This is like a social experiment.
The ugliest place on the leg for a shoe or sock to end is where the tops of these shoes end. The ugliest part of the foot is the toes and these outline and highlight them. The ugliest shoes are platforms and these glorify them. The ugliest and most pedestrian decoration is little 4 or 5 petaled flowers and these are covered with them.
They have succeeded in making the ugliest shoes it is possible to make. Now, we'll can know who the real fashion useful idiots are.
Self-selection.
U. G. L. Y.
Prada ain't got no alibi!
It's just ugly!
(All respect to Fishbone...)
Honestly, how many women are going to be wearing these?
Most of them don't even have the virtue of elevating the heel above the toe, which is the whole idea of stiletto's in the first place.
These are just disturbing. It's like ugly has taken over everything.
Heh. Well, "aggressively ugly" has long been one of Miuccia Prada's things, one of her shticks. She likes to play with and subvert the attractive/ ugly dichotomy. It often seems like she's playing an elaborate prank on fashion, fashion buyers, fashion critics. And part of the fun of a Prada show is to see how she tops herself this time, what twist she puts on that ugly/ attractive Prada thing.
She sure outdid herself on straight-out ugly this time.
I don't find the classic spike-heeled or high-heeld shoe aesthetically pleasing at all. It looks painful, and threatening, with the "spike" heel and the pointed toe.
Cookie, I would imagine that the girls you know wear Birkenstocks!
These shoes are all hideous and only too-wealthy idiots will ever think of buying them.
ST, I hate Birkenstocks, as well!
I don't find the classic spike-heeled or high-heeld shoe aesthetically pleasing at all. It looks painful, and threatening, with the "spike" heel and the pointed toe.
Because if there's one thing that's sexy, it's "safety."
The shoes at the link reminds me of the first time I turned my 13 year old loose at a store. She came home with a pair of pink and white high heeled tennis shoes.
These are ancient old Japanese granny shoes and socks.
"I hate Birkenstocks"
Ooooooh, Strange New Respect time!!!!!
These wouldn't have been hip even in'78.
I divorced my wife for buying a pair of Birkenstocks, had to draw a line.
Very few women can properly walk in spiked heels anymore, lost art.
Must be my age, but there's nothing sexier in public than a gal wearing opague hose d Weejuns.
The high heeled shoe is an anti-gravity device lifting the essentially pear shaped woman skyward.
A mechanism (and allure) well illustrated by this photo.
A mechanism (and allure) well illustrated by this photo.
Muy caliente!
High heels are pretty ridiculous. No man would wear them due to their astounding impraticality. They do present the ass nicely, though.
Me, I prefer my women barefoot ... and unmangled by ill-fitting shoes.
"I divorced my wife for buying a pair of Birkenstocks, had to draw a line."
Wearing those are good grounds to do so. I'd do the same for her wearing pantyhose, mom jeans, granny panties, or one of those clear plastic thingies on the head that ties around the chin to keep the rain off.
U. G. L. Y.
Prada ain't got no alibi!
Hee. These aren't real shoes, are they? They seem like OTT runway stuff that gets calmed down for the masses (not that the masses will be wearing the calmed down version either - but then who knew so many people would buy Tom's?)
Why would women wear fashion designed by men who "don't like" girls?
Don't get the anti-Birk movement here. They are the opposite of high heels -- practical and comfortable. I still have a pair from 25 years ago, worn down well into the cor.. My high school daughter found my wife's 20+ old pair in the basement and wears them to school. They've come back into style for the teens.
Maybe that's a sign . . .
Real heels look good on a woman. These don't.
Regular heels are fantastic. Including stilettos (not the Courtney Stodden kind)
These are mostly stupid shoes,but would look cool as potential hovershoes, if the technology progresses enough.
No self-respecting man this side of "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" would be caught dead in such uncomfortable shoes.
Barry
I'm sure the lovely ladies in your life enjoy the comfort of the Birks, they're just not my cup of tea, the Birk's I mean.
It's just that every woman I ever knew that wore them constantly whined about "how come the word is history and not herstory". Well they also had greasy hair and needed to shave.
A shoe as ugly or even uglier than a Birkenstock, is a Croc. I admit to wearing them daily to work, most of the staff nurses did, easy on the feet and water proof.
The Blonde can only wear Birkies.
Fortunately.
Shouting Thomas said...
Cookie, I would imagine that the girls you know wear Birkenstocks!
Shout, when you say that, SMILE!
I think high heels are are attractive, but, in a world without high heels, love would still find a way. I have seen girls wearing sandals with multi colored toes socks, and they looked plenty attractive.....Women's sexual nature seems to be masochistic. All those punitive clothing and body styles are something they inflict on themselves. It's not something that men are responsible for. Men will fall for anything soft that smells nice. No man would ever think of such horrors as girdles, corsets, foot bindings, and clitorectomies. These are things that women inflict upon themselves in order to magnify either their sex appeal or their respectability. They're welcome to go to it, but one wishes they would stop blaming men for their own dumb choices.
Inga
I'm sure you don't miss the days when nurses actually looked like nurses, starch hat and all. I miss it.
I also, miss nuns not looking like bag ladies.
Crocs are the new Birkenstock.
While I agree about pumps in general, I think the super high shoes of the last decade are actually unattractive. You can't tilt a woman's leg any more than it will tilt, at which point platforms are added to zero increased sexual effect.
William
Most of that is true, women costume for each other. I'm just a sucker for any woman that can slow dance.
I don't recall hearing that clitorectomies or female genital mutilation is chosen by women. It's forced onto young girls by a culture ruled by men and one in which women that are no more than property.
McTriumph, no didn't miss it at all. It was scrubs and crocs, which were stripped off the minute I walked in the door and thrown in the washer. With MRSA and VRE, I never walked past my washer which was in my washroom next the back door.
The last time I wore a nurse's cap was at my nursing school graduation.
Inga; See the Ali Hirst book. In those countries where clitorectomies are performed, it is the older women of the tribe who make the young girls have this operation....Why would any man possibly want a woman to have a clitorectomy? Foot bindings, clitorectomies, and navel piercings are things that women have inflicted on themselves. It gives you a heightened sense of suffering to pretend that it is a male inflicted thing, but that just supports my contention that masochism is the root cause of this behavior.
William, the women who force it upon young girls are ruled by men. The reason men want it done is because they think their daughters or wives would be wanton or promiscuous, without it. It's a way to control their women. The man in that culture doesn't care if his partner experiences pleasure during sex.
I should say woman, not partner, nothing equal about it.
Ah, now I recall who Ali Hirsi is, her father's attitude was not typical, as I recall.
Well, look at that! Inga is a certified Islamophobe! Welcome to the club.
Nomen, and when was I ever an admirer of Mideasterners or Islam?
If they put some wheels and tiny motors in those shoes, then I would stand up and take notice!
I saw a podiatrist today. My x-rays are shocking. The bones are moving around in my foot. The bones at the top of my foot & arch are all smushed down to the bottom of my foot. Damage and deformity. It's numb and tingly/prickly and neurodamaged and there's less motor control. If I didn't have a cut nerve in my leg from surgery, I would be screaming and crying in pain. Sigh.
I wear Birkis...it's all I can wear without pain.
"Don't get the anti-Birk movement here. They are the opposite of high heels -- practical and comfortable."
They're ugly.
Shoes can be both practical and comfortable and attractive.
"A shoe as ugly or even uglier than a Birkenstock, is a Croc."
Actually, I don't find Crocs ugly at all.
What happened to the standard peek-a-boo fuck me pumps? Come on, this is impotence inducing.
Kentucky Liz, you truly have my sympathies, orthopedic pain is horrid.
I still love Crocs, for gardening, but as far as a stylish and comfort I go with Propet, Born, Reef, Clark's, Easy Spirit Cloudwalkers, Softsteps, and some other European brands I forget the name of at the moment.
Women would feel so much better about themselves if their shoes and clothing were designed by straight men instead of gay men and other women.
Women would feel so much better about themselves if their shoes and clothing were designed by straight men instead of gay men and other women.
What would the Manolo say, I wonder.
I point to Mrs. Trollope's visit to America in 1827. At that time women wore floor length hoop skirts, and men chewed tobacco. The men were not overly accurate when they aimed at the spittoon. As a result the women had to either lift their skirts or let them become bedraggled in spittle....There was much about America that Mrs. Trollope objected to. She didn't like slavery and the way low born whites treated her like she was some kind of equal. But what really got her mad was this American habit of spitting on the floor.....Her analysis of the problem led her to believe that it could be solved if men would only stop chewing tobacco. Since gentlemen did not chew tobacco in England, there was no need for Americans to do it here.... I have some sympathy for her problem, and I'm against spitting on the floor. However, I would suggest an alternate solution would be for her to wear her skirts a little higher. I don't think her sense of propriety would ever permit such a solution, but there you have it. Floor length hoop skirts were what decent women wore, and there's an end to it.....I don't know the genesis of floor length hoop skirts, but I just can't imagine any man with a libido so debased as to think up such a garment......Men have their flaws. I think the invention of phallic shaped objects that deliver payloads capable of destroying entire cities is something that comes naturally to a man. But when it comes to uncomfortable garments and various forms of mutilation this is an area at which women excel....The world's an unhappy place, and we all of us, each in our own way, struglle to find ways to make it worse.
CarolMR
That's why I love women attired in Ralph Lauren. designed by Men and Americana.
Well, I liked them. Go figure.
I have always wondered why women are not embarrassed to be clicking and clattering down long echoing corridors in their high heeled shoes. Is the sexual attention they get from wearing high heels worth the pain? If it's sexual attention they won't why don't they just wear a little pin on their blouse pointing out their availability?
Someone wants to make a bundle on split-toed socks.
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