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Alison Skirtboston

Skirt! Boston editor

Skirt! is evidence that the universe is paying attention: I spent the last six years at mach speed, whether finishing college (Emerson) while writing full time for Boston Globe West (2001-2004) or editing the Boston Parents’ Paper during the day while holding down the steady gig writing for Globe ...

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New Shoe Kinda Happy

Alison, editor

It was serendipity that we featured a shoe designer (Kristina Kozak) in our 24/7 this month (you’ll laugh out loud when you read her profile: http://boston.skirt.com/node/4044), then I saw the Fantasy Shoe League essay by a local writer, Liz O’Donnell. The great cover of this month’s skirt, featuring a high-heeled shoe, completed the fun theme.

Women and shoes. We just naturally go together, don’t we?

But at the same time, my sister is laid up this month, recuperating from foot surgery. My other sister has also considered getting her bunions erased and toes straightened – and it’s not for aesthetic purposes. The prospect of being an invalid for several weeks after a painful surgical procedure scares the heck out of me, especially when there seems to be a genetic component as strong as our family’s shared nearsightedness. 

Shoes may contribute to the condition, and I’m trying to deny it, but I’ve felt the pain of wearing heels too long or a too-pointy toe that doesn’t accommodate my square feet. Does the relief of taking them off make it worthwhile?

Still, I have a longstanding love affair with shoes. When I was young and irresponsible, I spent my hard-earned pay on shoes: high-top basketball sneakers, sexy heels, and fun, trendy stuff. Like Liz O’Donnell says in her essay (you have to read it): shoes make us feel good when our jeans make us feel bad. I nearly melted when I saw the shoes at Nordstrom’s grand opening in Burlington last week, and this spring promises to be a shoe lover’s dream, with lots of new styles:

When I moved from one fourth-floor walk-up apartment in Jamaica Plain to a duplex (second floor) in Roslindale years ago, a young man eager to show his strength pitched in to help. He hefted a  big box down the stairs of the first apartment, then up the stairs to the new one. He didn’t know what was inside until we were getting ready to go out later that evening... and he caught me opening the box to select the right pair of shoes. Until his discovery of my cache, I wasn’t even aware of how many shoes I owned back then. The box contained a collection of nearly 50 pairs. Thank God Imelda Marcos came along soon afterward, forever erasing the incident from my roommates’ memories. My shoe fetish was nothing compared to hers!

What we wear on our feet is a complicated issue: do these heels go with this skirt? Author Charla Krupp of How Not To Look Old, even touches on it, telling her readers that higher heels go with longer skirts. I’m committing that to memory for those mornings when I’m in a rush.

It all makes me wonder if sometimes women spend too much energy on shoes. After all, my husband has maybe 3 pairs of shoes. Are they just a distraction, like the little bell that your cat plays with? If we didn’t get consumed by shoes (or clothes or fussing with our hair) would we have seen a woman in the White House long ago? Think of China and its long history of binding women’s feet – they said it was beautiful, but was it to keep women from running away?

I don’t have answers, just questions.

Don’t you love these boots that Heather is wearing today?

Thanks to my coworkers who shared their feet for this blog. Especially to Stephanie, who has her own interesting foot story – her tootsies are featured in a medical journal!