Withering Heights

This spring platforms, heels and wedges are rising to new heights. With vertiginous footwear ubiquitous on the runway, the occasional model stumble has become commonplace.

Psychedelic fairyland heels flitted down Prada and Miu Miu’s Spring ’08 runways. Defying the laws of Physics, it’s pure geometry at Chanel, future shock at Dior—and I’m still trying to solve the gravitational mystery of Marc Jacobs and Antonio Berardi’s levitating heels.


Cartoonish and otherworldly, these objets d’art have women everywhere trampling each other to grab the next ”It” shoe. Practicality, whether concerning comfort or shelf life, has been stamped out.

The heavens are the limit—but what goes up, must inevitably come down to earth. Until then, we will be witness to the merely mortal’s attempt to walk in the shoes that make the angels fall.