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Mastering the high-heel walk
October 16, 2007
In this occasional series, we reveal the trade secrets, insider intelligence and expert know-how you can use to make your life that much better. Today, how to pull off a seductive stiletto strut.

As both a man and a shoe designer, Victor Chu doesn't like all the sloppy high-heel wearing he sees on the streets of Manhattan. "You have girls with floppy ankles, or they are clutching their thighs and just walking funny. It's supposed to be a sexy thing," says Chu. "Some of them look as though they have never worn them before, and others look like they are marching, but they are leaning too far forward so they look weird. And you see a lot of models with wobbly ankles because they are so skinny and are trying to walk on four inch heels."

When Chu's female friends began appealing to him to design heels that wouldn't kill their feet, it occurred to him that women needed some help in this department, particularly when his research turned up numerous tales of stiletto victims falling down stairs and breaking their legs.

Chu called his friend Kylin Brady for advice. Brady is a Broadway dancer who is currently appearing in The Lion King. She's also danced as a Rockette in the Radio City Christmas Spectacular, for which she had to wear a multitude of high heels in a variety of colours and heights. Brady told him there are a bunch of strengthening exercises and warm-up techniques the dancers use that allow them to do high kicks for two hours without a tumble. "It became very clear to me that most women were missing some important information with regards to wearing heels," says Chu. "There is no formal instruction on wearing high heels, and so the plan was to raise awareness and provide a solution."

Along with Brady and fellow footwear designer Cece Chin, Chu set out to create a high heel fitness workout video. The result, Legwork: The Secret to Sexy Heel Wearing &Fitness, teaches the training routines of professional Broadway dancers and incorporates exercises drawn from ballet and Pilates along with advice from sports medicine specialists and podiatrists. The exercises aim to increase leg tone and lower body strength for greater stability, control and endurance and decrease pain in feet, ankles, legs and lower back. The video also has quick, one-minute instant relief techniques.

"I love heels. You stand a little bit taller, your shoulders go back, your chest comes forward and you feel like a different person," says Brady, who has performed in three-inch heels and worn four-inch ones offstage. "I'm really short and, given the chance to kick it up a notch in four-inch stilettos, I'm there."

But she warns that the higher the heel, the more you need to be in control of your body. "Your centre of gravity is automatically pushed forward when wearing heels," she says. "So you really have to know where to put all of your weight to prevent any snafus if you teeter off a bit."

And while dancers are taught how to align their bodies for heel-dancing, Brady still sees a lot of health problems among her colleagues. "But it's not just dancers. Many women develop bunions, and there is plantar fasciitis, which causes excruciating pain in your heel, and a lot of broken ankles and knee injuries come with heels," she says. In fact, Broadway dancers' legs and feet are constantly monitored by "dancer doctors" who prescribe exercises and relief techniques.

Viia Beaumanis, features editor at Fashion magazine, has a less-intense relief tactic: She suggests Advil for novice stiletto-wearers. "An anti-inflammatory keeps your feet from swelling, which obviously makes your shoes tighter. Pop a couple while doing your hair."

Beaumanis doles this advice via e-mail while on vacation in South America. She writes that she has been dashing around Buenos Aires all day in a pair of chocolate, ankle-strap Manolos. "What can I say, they look great with my dress and I certainly didn't have any trouble flagging taxis." Beaumanis is a bona fide heel pro, having embraced the shoe style at the tender age of 13 and never looked back.

"Although I'm5'9'', I feel short in flats. I could not imagine being out in the evening in flats," she writes. "Heels make your ass and legs look better. I love the height, they way they change your gait and their clear, seductive appeal."

In addition to ibuprofen, Beaumanis advises that heels such as strappy sandals, sling-backs and peep toes, which don't completely enclose the foot, are more comfortable. "But at night, sport your more vertiginous options for those occasions when you will be drinking or sitting --activities that take the sting out of things."

And while there are a range of stiletto survival kit products on the market that contain a variety of padded cushions to buffer blisters and bunions, Beaumanis says she wouldn't dare mar an expensive heel by stuffing a gluey pad inside.

You are either a heel girl or you aren't, Beaumanis maintains, and for those who are there is a certain level of obsession. "It's such an addiction," says Sue Dando, executive producer of High Heel Confidential, a documentary airing tonight on CBC (8 p.m., ET/PT). "A lot of women say it's the single most important item in their closet."

A scene in the film follows a woman who has completely ruined her feet as she goes in for surgery to have her bunions taken off. "And as she is being wheeled into the operating room, she is asked what she will do after the surgery and she says shoe shopping," recalls Dando.

The documentary also delivers stiletto survival tips such as how to walk, exit a car (swing both legs out to the side and then push up on both heels) and what do to when one of your heels gets stuck (take the shoe off and bend down to free it rather than struggling ungracefully). Dando, who is usually found in low heeled shoes, jokes she could have used some advice herself while attending a Gemini Award ceremony a few years ago. "At one point I stumbled in my high heels and one of the Kids in the Hall guys said to me, 'We wear those much better than you!' "

Source: http://www.canada.com