Celebrity Podiatrist?
Manolo says, one of the Manolo’s many internet friends has sent the Manolo the link to the article about the wedges.
They’re edgy. They’re wedgy. And they’re sending fashion-forward women tipping and toppling like Star Skater Barbie.The “wedge” — with cork, wood or woven bamboo elevated soles — is the height of summer footwear. Wedges range from $58 at Nine West to designer Isabel Fiore’s $300 straw platform sandal, which measures in at a staggering 5 inches tall. Women falling for the fad are suffering from sprained ankles and other injuries.
“I’ve had two patients in the last 10 days who have slipped off their wedges,” said Dr. Rock G. Positano, a celebrity podiatrist in New York.
The doctor said both patients were young women who had sustained twisted ankles. He is advising patients who wear the wedge heels to do so for short periods of time, at a pool party or the beach, and not to attempt to stroll for blocks in them.
“And I’m afraid, with vacation time coming up, many women are going to take them for sightseeing. They’re just asking for trouble,” Dr. Positano said. “These shoes affect a person’s ability to know where the ground is. They don’t have that mechanism anymore. There’s no stability.”
“Ayyyyyy!” the media scream, “the beautiful shoes they are too high! The womens they will fall off of their shoes and will break their dangerously fashion-obsessed heads, and all the “celebrity podiatrists” in the world, they will not be able to mend the damage!”
Pah! says the Manolo. Once again, the groundless panic about the shoes of style it has invaded the brains of the reporters during the period of the slow news.
It is obvious to the Manolo that the reporter she does not know the shoes well if she thinks the $300 wedge is most expensive. Here, for the counter example is the slightly more pricey wedge from the Giuseppe Zanotti.
P.S. Manolo says, many thanks to the Manolo’s internet friend the Victor for the link.
July 14th, 2005 at 10:39 am
I have a couple of pairs of 3″ wedges, but they have good ankle straps, and the front of the shoe is flat, not curved up, and is about 1/2″ above the ground, so it actually is more like a 2 1/2″ heel, which I can deal with. I walk quite a bit in them, and they are comfortable. Still, I alternate mine with flats and medium heels. To me anything above 3 1/2″ is too high. It all depends on the design of the shoe. But they are fun, and I love towering over everyone. How does the saying go? “Everthing in moderation. Including moderation.”
July 14th, 2005 at 10:41 am
Remember when Naomi fell on the runway while she was wearing some crazy big ol’ platforms? Ah, the comedy of footwear.
July 14th, 2005 at 10:41 am
My local news channel did an expose on the dangers of flip flops. Like, a multiiple part expose. With warnings to women who should never! wear! flip-flops! They use the same dramatic music for the flip flops as they do for everything else, so it’s nice to know that flipflops rank right up there with the city council members caught in a brothel.
July 14th, 2005 at 10:59 am
Qui plus change, plus ca la meme chose.
The Poppy remembers this very same article from 30+ years ago.
July 14th, 2005 at 11:23 am
Generally speaking, I’m 100 percent behind Manolo in his impatience with the health establishment’s constant hectoring of women who like to wear fashionable high heels instead of the Birkenstocks that are good for us. Last year, when the Washington Post’s usually sane fashion critic Robin Givhan went to the fall Prada shoe show and came away badmouthing (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A1556-2004Aug14.html) the delicious four-inch-high mules in the name of foot health, I mocked her and the rest of the podiatric puritans in Inkwell (http://www.iwf.org/inkwell/default.asp?archiveID=708), the blog I edit for the Independent Women’s Forum.
But I am having some trouble with some beautiful Michael Kors hemp-and-gold 3″ wedgies I couldn’t resist this spring (paying, I’ll admit, a bit more than $300 for them). I’ve worn them only twice, alas, because when I’ve got them on, I can’t keep my balance on the rough brick sidewalks of Washington, D.C., where I live. And when one of our metal-stepped Metro escalators went out of service on my second wearing, I nearly slid off the steps several times as I negotiated my way down clutching the rail for life.
What to do? Throw them out? Try to sell them on e-Bay? Am I unusually klutzy? Or perhaps there really is such a thing as too much of a good thing. Perhaps Manolo can offer some wedge-walking advice.
July 14th, 2005 at 11:33 am
About seven years ago I suffered what is fondly know as the “Platform Shoe Incident” on Robertson Blvd in LA from a pair of Robert Clergerie black suede platform sandals. They were only about 2-3″ platforms.
My right foot rolled over to the right on the bricks in front the Ivy and I broke two metatarsals. The ones attached to my farthest right toes.
The “celebrity” orthopedic surgeon at Cedars-Sinai was amused and had certainly seen it before. And I was not castigated. He said to be careful, knowing the buying of such shoes would continue. And that his wife and three daughters love shoes, too.
So I am thinking that Positano might have gotten slighted by a woman in beautiful shoes at some point. Because such shoes certainly represent a profit center for him, and if he can make a woman feel better… all the better for him.
July 14th, 2005 at 11:59 am
Wow, those Giuseppe Zanotti wedgies look like a tiki lounge for your foot.
As far as getting shoes to stay firmly on your foot, they have to lace or buckle. If you look at the shoes of dancers, whose shoes have to stay on during wild moves, their shoes all lace or buckle. Perhaps a cobbler could attach a matching Mary Jane or a T-strap to The Charlotte’s dear wedgies. The wedgies above look like they have some sort of a chain at the ankle; I hope they are strong enough to stay on the foot if the shod one loses her balance.
July 14th, 2005 at 12:00 pm
The Tia Nieve is dying to know about the dangers of the flipflops! Perhaps the Gryph could enlighten us.
The Tia is well acquainted with the dangers of the wedgies, although it has not stopped the Tia from wearing her pair of rattan slides on a 3″ wedge of faux-cork, as they seem perfectly stable to the Tia and make her footses appear superfantastic, particularly with the Tia’s toenails varnished in the pearlized coral.
But the Tia has never imagined the flipflops, a simple and classic design, could be of the danger to the footses. In these modern times, one cannot step upon the poptop and blow out one’s flipflop, as the poptops they are now obsolete.
July 14th, 2005 at 12:23 pm
The Elvira has five feet and eleven inches of the height. Her boyfriend has only five feet and nine inches of the height. So she merely looks at the platforms, preferring the flipflops, the flats, the low heels, and the occasional pair of CFM high heels. If the shoe makers, they ever produce the platforms for the men, she will start worrying about her darling and his delicate ankles as he totters along trying to appear taller.
July 14th, 2005 at 1:01 pm
As a wild teen, I once walked the entire length of an 18-hole golf course, at night, in the rain, while wearing giant cork-sole platforms. It’s possible that people were drinking. No slips or mishaps for me.
As the Manolo has stated, how well one walks depends not so much on one’s shoes as on one’s carriage.
(The exception would be Birkenstocks - both the original and the ex-wife’s version. These awful pod-wrappers are as helpful as wearing a tough potato for a shoe.)
July 14th, 2005 at 1:08 pm
I’ve seen many children wear some form of wedges, or even tall flip-flops, and they run in them as well. I can’t imagine what the parents were thinking, or if they were at all.
For example: http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B0006ZM818.16._AA260_SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg
July 14th, 2005 at 1:18 pm
Cut the heel, had to cruise on back home.
But there’s booze in the blender…
The Manolo, he may have to start banning as the commentators on the blog of the Manolo as they are beginning to outshine the Manolo in the matter of wit and the making of the very funny jokes.
July 14th, 2005 at 1:23 pm
My lovely Michael Korses do have an ankle strap, so I don’t fear my foot falling off the shoe for an ankle sprain (and indeed, they’re not platforms, just wedgies). They are also most flattering, since I am 5′10″, and I don’t mind in the slightest towering over my 6′0″ husband when I am wearing them. The problem is balance. The wedge soles don’t know what to do when they’re not standing on a perfectly flat surface, so they tip over, and I’m at risk of tumbling onto the sidewalk (uneven brick sidewalks are very common here in Washington).
Since I love the shoes, I plan to wear them only when I don’t have to do a lot of walking and I’m with my husband so I can hold his arm and fall on chivalrous him when I lose my balance.
July 14th, 2005 at 1:34 pm
Like any shoe, tall or otherwise, you shouldn’t wear them if you can’t walk in them. Plain and simple.
July 14th, 2005 at 1:51 pm
Oh, Muffy Wong, I think using my husband as a free crutch and sidewalk cushion is a perfectly fine substitute for being able to walk! After all, what are husbands for?
July 14th, 2005 at 2:14 pm
Very true, The Charlotte Allen. At least you have the smarts to make sure you have support while walking!
July 14th, 2005 at 2:25 pm
I, also, live in DC and yesterday I wore some 3″ Steve Madden wedges around the Dupont Circle area (without a connubial crutch, alas). I managed, but I have to say that the 2 1/2″ heels I’m wearing today feel like bedroom slippers in comparison. My wedges have long straps that are designed to be wrapped and tied around the ankles, so not only did I have to worry about keeping my balance, but I also had to worry about cutting off circulation to my feet!
July 14th, 2005 at 2:35 pm
Ayyyyyy, dillene, Dupont Circle! I’d never even think about it in my wedges! No Georgetown, either! Or Capitol Hill, come to think of it. It’s a pity: Wedges are so cute, but they’re not very flexible. I’m thinking, however, about approaching my cobbler and asking him whether he can glue some rubber soles onto the bottoms of mine to give them a little gripping power at the very least.
July 14th, 2005 at 2:36 pm
The Mimi remembers the very same article that the Poppy does.
It’s all relative. If someone is not graceful, she could walk into a wall, no? Regardless of what is on her feet.
July 14th, 2005 at 2:42 pm
I’ve got say that I kind of agree with the podiatrists. If only because I have owned three pairs of wedge heels in my life, and beyond the fact that they looked godawful and clunky on me, I’ve also never injured myself so terribly as I did in the wedge heels. You should have to possess a license before buying those things.
July 14th, 2005 at 2:58 pm
How funny, the dowdydiva’s wedges are also Michael Kors! But they also have the strong ankle strap.
Actually, I’ve fallen more in flat sandals and boots than I have in ones with heels. I start getting complacent and careless, my wobbly ankles turn, and then it’s all ass-over-teakettle for me.
July 14th, 2005 at 3:14 pm
“The Manolo, he may have to start banning as the commentators on the blog of the Manolo as they are beginning to outshine the Manolo in the matter of wit and the making of the very funny jokes. ”
The Tia blushes that her Jimmy Buffet reference has come to the attention of the Manolo.
She is flattered, but hopes she should not be alarmed. Please, Manolo, you are not considering banning the commentators, we are merely inspired by you, not intent on outshining you!
July 14th, 2005 at 3:17 pm
Oooh, the flip flop! The flip flop is very dangerous on the escalator! The escalator can grab and eat the toe of a flip flop. Yes, it sucks it right in and if you really throw caution to the wind, it might even suck in a toe! Well, at least that’s the overly cautious mother of a friend told us. She also insisted that our wide legged jeans would be gobbled up as well. I’m suprised that my friends and I survived. I think she was just frustrated with the fashions of the 70’s. I shouldn’t make fun of her advice because, well, you know the old saying, “it’s always funny until someone loses and eye.”
The Charlotte Allen’s imagery of her husband as a walking aid is funny!
July 14th, 2005 at 3:19 pm
The Gidget has not worn the platform wedges since 1973, when she twisted the ankle and fell to a very filthy sidewalk while walking to dinner in Philadelphia’s Chinatown. The Gidget was very young and impressionable at the time of this most unfortunate accident, and has remained convinced that the platform wedges should be confined to the deepest darkest recesses of the closet where the other clothes of the ’70s are hidden.
Instead, the Gidget will wear her super fantastic rhinestone embellished gold lame flip-flops. They are never worn while operating the heavy machinery or walking among hazardous substances, and it is impossible for the Gidget to fall from something that flat.
July 14th, 2005 at 3:33 pm
what kind of moron recommends wearing an unstable shoe at the beach.
I assume he doesn’t mean on the actual sand, but the conditions of walking areas around most beaches I’ve visited are less than optimal.
July 14th, 2005 at 3:40 pm
I wonder if the Manolo minds that Charlotte Allen is shamelessly using his website to plug her blog. While the page in question does have a short piece that is somewhat related to the topic here, the vast majority of the articles there are completely unrelated to footwear, which makes me wonder about CA’s real motive in posting the URL.
May we stick to the subject of shoes, please?
July 14th, 2005 at 4:22 pm
The last time I wore wedges was when Famolare was still in business. This summer, I found bliss in a lovely pair of flip flops wedges. Comfortable and they stay on! Although I cannot recommend the fashionable footwear while chasing a toddler.
July 14th, 2005 at 4:27 pm
The jj, she has much sympathy for La Cabrita… the broken metatarsal is quite painful. At least La Cabrita was wearing wearing fabulous sandals at the time, the jj was wearing hideous snowboarding boots.
July 14th, 2005 at 5:04 pm
Ah, Famolare! I have the memory of the Famolare, entered as Exhibit 1, Evidence for the Defense. This was many moons ago, my children, so please excuse the looseness with the facts and dates and so forth…
So the prisoner in the dock, a young-type lady of no obvious fantasticness, had failed to walk the straight line when asked to do so by the nice Arresting Officer. It was agreed by all in the court that indeed, it had happened that way. But never fear! The lady-in-the-dock’s law shark flourished a small box before us, and opened it to reveal a pair of the MOST HIDEOUS “SHOE” OBJECTS I HAD EVER SEEN. Massive plain brown uppers attached to thick shapeless tan plastic “wave wedge” soles, the whole reminding me instantly of a color description from the ancient Pogo comic: “Clay-Brindle Garbage”. Gag. Also, they were old and heavily worn in the sole, or at least the Law Shark’s official position was so. How he knew this I could not tell; it seemed to me that the shoe-like objects could never have posessed an un-worn shape.
Now the story unfolded that the poor lady-in-the-dock had been so unable to walk the silly painted white line because of the “teetering”, that the Nice Officer had naturally assumed that (in the words of a previous commenter) “some people may have been drinking.” (Never mind that silly blood-alcohol number, or the admitted number of beverages consumed. So coldly technical, so *unfashionable*…) Obviously the lady had collapsed on her fanny due to a fault in the shoe-like objects, and no other reason.
The Jury into which I had been dragooned returned a verdict of “We’re not Sure”, so the lady walked (or rather) teetered away to freedom.
Therefore, you ladies of the certain youthful indiscretion type, remember that the Wedge shoe, it can have many uses.
July 14th, 2005 at 5:22 pm
Whoa, J.L.! My “real motive”? Shoes are all that’s on my mind here at Manolo–and how could it be otherwise? Unfortunately the permalink on my blogsite just moves the permalinked item to the top of the page rather than isolating it as some permalinks do. If you’d clicked onto Victor’s blog, you’d have seen that he has the same kind of permalink.
July 14th, 2005 at 5:29 pm
Now don’t be hard on Charlotte Allen. I was introduced to this fabulous website through her link on IWF. So she put a link up where she discussed shoeblogs.com on her site…What’s the big deal? She was sticking to the subject.
July 14th, 2005 at 6:21 pm
“Clay-Brindle Garbage”
Is that another Steve Madden shoe name?
July 14th, 2005 at 6:41 pm
Heck, I’ve managed to twist my ankle while wearing flats! I actually find that wedges are more stable for me than many high heels, as long as the platform under the toes is less than an inch.
July 14th, 2005 at 7:29 pm
My dear Tia Nieve, if there is any justice in the world, you will never be confronted with an aesthetic horror like the courtroom nightmare Famolare. The Pogo, on the other hand, is still essential background reading for those who wish to comprehend the American politics. Plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose…
July 14th, 2005 at 8:28 pm
As soon as I started wearing heels, my dad started referencing his cousin Jodi-the-podiatrist, telling me how she always talked about how terrible heels were and how they ruin feet. I met Cousin Jodi for the first time at a wedding last year, and guess what she was wearing? Not just any heels, but stilettos!
July 14th, 2005 at 9:02 pm
I have myself a pair of white strappy wedges that I bought during the wedge craze 3 years ago (how lucky of me they should come back into season now!) - I love them because I can walk anywhere in them and not worry about the heel sticking in a crack and breaking off, my only criticism is the ankle strap cuts off the shape of my legs and they look about half the length they really are. Without this ankle strap, however, I would find myself back in the physio’s office with ankle injuries. Oh the dilemmas…
July 14th, 2005 at 9:18 pm
Alas, I’m a victim of flip-flop violence. While a pre-teen, I tripped while wearing a pair; ended up lacerating my scalp and giving myself a concussion. My excuse? Being a gangly pre-teen who was incredibly klutzy. I’ve only grown out of the gangly pre-teen part. I seem to do okay in platforms now, however.
My grandfather, who owned a shoe store, always said that it wasn’t high heels that ruined feet, it was wearing the wrong size.
Who am I to argue?
July 14th, 2005 at 9:48 pm
Charlotte Allen has a blog? Excellent! I’m going to check it out right now.
July 14th, 2005 at 10:23 pm
Such nonsense. The Whine Mistress agrees with the Manolo - these are mere scare tactics by those who would force us into sensible footwear. The Whine Mistress was recently shopping with her daughter, the lovely Princessette, who admired the Pirelli shoe. The Whine Mistress smiled secretly, as she herself had owned just such a pair of shoes when she was the age of the Princessette - and amazingly, lives to tell the tale.
July 14th, 2005 at 10:26 pm
Actually, the name of the shoe is Pollini - the Whine Mistress, she is positive that it was Pirelli when she purchased said shoe. ;-)
July 14th, 2005 at 11:06 pm
The Tia wants to tell Fred the Fourth that the Tia, she grew up reading the Pogo comics, and was taught in her cradle by the Papa de Tia to sing “Deck the Hall with Boston Charlie”. The Tia is delighted to meet a similar afficionado of the Pogo, the Albert, the Churhy La Femme.
The Tia has always felt herself to identify with the Mamselle Hepizibah……
July 14th, 2005 at 11:08 pm
The Tia is embarrassed by her misspellings. Of course, she means the Churchy La Femme and Mamselle Hepzibah.
Please forgive the Tia. Sje has had one too many glasses of Viogner this evening.
July 14th, 2005 at 11:43 pm
Ah, wedges. Affectionately known as “the death shoes” since I discovered I’m incapable of wearing them without falling flat on my face. It’s not a problem in any other shoes, but I have to agree with Dr. Positano: the ground is not where you expect it to be. Ever thought there was another step down and discovered the ground far-too-suddenly beneath you?
July 14th, 2005 at 11:47 pm
Manolo,
I saw this article in the NYTimes that would interest you. It might be better for the men’s blog, but reading it made my ‘Fashion Hulk’ green with rage. It is about men wearing dress shoes without socks and how ‘comfortable’ it is. A small exerpt.:
IT seems almost obscene, given the expanses of midriff, thigh and backside that too many people are all too willing to bare today, that the decision to show a little ankle with dress shoes should raise eyebrows. But almost obscene is just how it seems to many.
“It’s the new male cleavage,” said Thom Browne, the men’s wear designer and a professed ankle exhibitionist. “You can’t believe the snickers and comments I get because I’m not wearing socks. It sends people into a tailspin.”
The new male cleavage? I don’t remember anybody wanting to see the old man’s cleavage, commonly known as ‘the plumber’s crack’. Why would we want to see the new man’s cleavage?!
July 15th, 2005 at 10:11 am
Re: the dangers of flip-flops “Dr. Barry Ramo said in a study last year, researchers found that flip-flops cause increased back pain, knee problems and numbing of the toes.” Also, that they will kill you in your sleep, and plan to take over the world.
July 15th, 2005 at 11:19 am
Karen - I’m sorry, I hope that blog did not make you feel too ill. I should have warned you to not eat first. ;)
July 15th, 2005 at 12:49 pm
The Papa de Tia is obviously the gentleman of taste and discrimination. It is oh-so clear both in his fine choice of lullaby (Walla Walla Wash and Kalamazoo…) and also in the resulting good sense of the Tia Herself.
Miss Mamselle Hepzibah…Now there was Class and Quality. Perhaps a teeny bit naive about life in a swamp, though… I wonder what shoes she wore?
July 15th, 2005 at 6:40 pm
[…] High Heels and Low–Both Bad for You If They’re Pretty Manolo has been blogging deliciously (also here) on the podiatric puritans who try to take th […]
July 15th, 2005 at 8:58 pm
JL. don’t worry! The blog made me laugh, but not in the same way one would laugh at the use of a husband as a sidewalk cushion. Just goes to show you, you can’t judge a person by the shoes she wears. :)
July 16th, 2005 at 4:12 am
Any heeled shoes need to be walked in carefully! How hasn’t gotten their heel stuck in dirt or grating or cracks in the sidewalk? Live dangerously! I often find wedgies much more comfortable and less dangerous than regular heels.
July 16th, 2005 at 7:12 am
Devilish Blonde, the Charlotte Allen cannot help but note that your blogsite entry “High Heels and Low–Both Bad for You If They’re Pretty”[http://www.devilishblonde.com/?p=77] was lifted nearly in its entirety–title and all–from this entry of mine on InkWell[http://www.iwf.org/inkwell/default.asp?archiveID=1423]. And indeed, so are many of the other entries on your site, all produced at great creative effort by me and my equally talented co-blogtress, Charlotte Hays. Devilish indeed!
Ah, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. The Charlotte Allen doesn’t know whether to laugh or scream “Ayyyyy!” and call a lawyer. I have duly notified your webring-master at Blogshares, Devilish Blonde, and I intend to craft a highly amusing report of your doings on InkWell. Enough said?
July 18th, 2005 at 9:18 am
The Charlotte Allen is proud to report the Devilish Blonde has gotten the hint and removed from her blog the many items that had been taken without permission or attribution from InkWell, the blog of The Charlotte Allen and her equally talented co-blogstress The Charlotte Hays. Indeed, Devilish Blonde has taken down her entire website[http://www.devilishblonde.com/?p=77]. Dogs and lawyers will be called off.
July 29th, 2005 at 11:51 pm
Manolo, I give credit where it is do. Thanks for this site. Rob D. 7/14/05, Man that is the funniest thing I have ever read. The old male cleavage and the new male cleavage??? The new one I can’t figure out, but the old one!? That is a sight to see! And a good laugh too!!! Kudos to you for bring that out.
August 10th, 2005 at 3:38 pm
Pretty… But, (gasp), SOOO high!
August 19th, 2005 at 10:24 am
“Oooh, the flip flop! The flip flop is very dangerous on the escalator! The escalator can grab and eat the toe of a flip flop. Yes, it sucks it right in and if you really throw caution to the wind, it might even suck in a toe! Well, at least that’s the overly cautious mother of a friend told us.”
This actually happened to someone where I used to work several years ago, but the victim of the escalator was wearing tennis shoes, not flip-flops. The sole of the tennis shoe had begun to separate from the toe of the shoe. The victim was standing on a very crowded escalator (it was “Family Day,” the only day of the year when employees’ families were allowed to tour the building) when the wayward sole got sucked in at the top of the escalator. Two of the victim’s toes were sucked in and ripped off, as well. She ended up a very rich woman after her lawsuit against the company was settled. “Family Day” was officially done away with after the incident.
October 24th, 2005 at 11:54 pm
I am a victim of the new style wedge shoe. I rolled my left ankle and broke my 5th metatarsal in 2 places, not to mention tore ligaments. After being in plaster for 4 weeks now I can definately say I will never wear wedges again. I hope this serves as a warning to anyone considering wedge shoes. They are dangerous.