Enough is Enough! Stop Making Uber-high Heels!

Trying to keep myself in revolving debt I enjoy shopping from the comfort and convinence of my desk.  Who can blame the working women with expendible income and too little personal time to shun the teenie bopper babysitter that is the American mall.  Oh, eluxury!  What a god-send you are.  High end products and no snobby sales associates. 

Truth of the matter. I perfer to buy designer shoes because I find their quality to be outstanding. Since I adher to the philosophy "only the fool pays retail", buying shoes on sale online is very simple in comparison to that micro-distopia known as the shoe sale rack.  For all its simplicity though online shopping is flawed in the abiliity to give accurate size representation.  No, I am not talking about the size of the shoe (I have always fit in a size 7 since I was 14) but the height of the heel.  Much like the crytopzoologist who will take a picture of a house cat and try to pass it off as a panther, heels can not be judged by 2D sight alone. I am starting to think designers and stores know this fact which might explain why so few shoes are photographed while being worn.  Try to determine a 3 inch heel from a 4 incher and you might be surprised how hard is it to guess right.

Why complain about shoe height? Well, I recently discovered every high heel made today is a minimum of 3.5 inches.  On paper it doesn't sound like much but in real life it means you are not going to be walking more than 30 feet before you begin to curse the name of the man who invented high heels.  Since our culture has a more-is-better attitude, it was decided in the collective mind that is haute-couture to make every shoe range from 4 to 8 inches without platforms. Or.. you're walking in a manner previously only seen in ballet russe.  Certainly not for work, and never for a casual stoll in the city.  What caused this absurd trend? Why are women willing to pay so much for something so impractical? 

Until recently the highest shoe you could buy for casual wear was no higher than 3 inches.  Any higher meant your job involved a pole and no fire truck.  The smaller shoes were practical and chic.  You got the extra boost in height but not enough to upset your 5'8" tall (but more like 5'6") boyfriend.  You could walk a few city blocks. Hell, you could even run if you had to.  When did we suddenly decide we enjoy the pain and inconvience of uncomfortable shoes? Was there a vote, and why wasn't I invited to attend the debate? 

Judging from fall fashion previews, we will be stuck with these stilts for awhile, but shoe-gods please hear my prayer.  Make something the average person (aka non-socialite) can wear so they can perform their day-to-day non-trust fund routine.  You might actually turn a profit.