Why Do Women Wear Sexy Shoes? - Part 1

Disclaimer: I am neither a psychologist, shoe manufacturer, counselor nor a researcher by any stretch of the imagination. I am a consumer who happens to be a woman on a lifelong quest to find the perfect pair of shoes (and no, I am not Cinderella at all as I am sure glass slippers are uncomfortable).

History of sexy shoes

When I think of sexy shoes I instantly associate those words with stilettos. As my reader, you are free to disagree and come up with your very own picture of what shoes are sexy to you. I was looking up the history of stilettos and it would appear that thanks to Andre Perugia and Roger Vivier this type of shoe became very popular during the 1950s. Their popularity seems to have died during the era of the Beatles. However, thanks to Manolo Blahnik, in 1974 these shoes became popular again. That popularity has in no small way been helped by images of screen goddesses at their seductive best wearing these unmistakable shoes.

Sexy’s price tag

I still do remember seeing Carrie Bradshaw on an episode of Sex in the City owning 100 pairs of shoes (many of them being stilettos) at $400 a piece which amounted to $40,000 spent on shoes! Now ladies, let’s be honest we can easily spend that much money on shoes in our lifetime, if we start working at 25 and stop at the age of 65. Let's say a woman purchases 5 pairs of sexy shoes per year over a 40-year period with each shoe priced at 100 euro. The math works out at 5 x 100 x 40 = €20,000 on sexy shoes and that is in reality a very conservative figure.

Lots of shoes

Last year when my Mother died I was the only offspring in the country when it occurred. While I was waiting for one of my siblings to come over to assist with clearing up her stuff, I noticed that my Mother owned a lot of shoes. She did not have a pair of stilettos but I do remember that she used to complain a lot about spurs in her heels so she spent what seemed like a lifetime trying to find the perfect pair of shoes. This got me thinking that surely with the advancement of technology shoes seem to be the only thing that has not changed in what seems like centuries. I often get upset in thinking that the average pair of shoes range from 40 euros to 100 euros and by the time my Mother got to her 10th pair it would have amassed to a small fortune spent on shoes. The sad news is that she shopped at Foot Solutions and their shoes are 200 euro and up per pair. Yikes! The price one pays for comfort is incredible, but then, is comfort our top priority when we select a pair of shoes? What are some of the reasons we choose to wear stilettos?

Are stilettos comfortable for you?

On one occasion, I was walking with two of my friends to the car and they were both complaining about the fact that their feet hurt, so I just had to ask them why they continue to wear shoes that inflict pain on their feet. I went on to say that as women we should do something about the problem instead of leaving the problem for the next generation to solve. So many times, I have seen women after having a great night out walking home barefooted with their shoes in their hands. How much longer will this continue before the issue is addressed?  

Do stilettos make women appear trustworthy?

Recently in the news I was surprised when I learned that a number of consulting firms had a requirement that their female staff should wear skirts along with a specific type of shoe—namely high-heeled shoes. Are shoe manufacturers and society as a whole driven by rules laid down by our consulting and corporate firms? Who decided that women love wearing stilettos or for that matter high heeled shoes? Did someone or a group of people come up with those rules as they believed it portrayed a certain image about the company or about the corporate world at large? Does that image suggest authority, trust and integrity? Can someone ask Travis Bradberry our LinkedIn Emotional Intelligence expert to give his point of view on this topic please?

Could it be that we women don't know how to walk in stilettos?

To be continued.................

What are your thoughts? Have you found your perfect comfortable sexy shoe? Do you love stilettos? Do women need to wear sexy shoes?

Join me next time for "Why Do Women Wear Sexy Shoes? - Part 2"

Sage is having an event in Manchester next week and the good news is that women don't need to wear sexy shoes. Join your peers in Manchester on October 18th to connect, share ideas, and view live demonstrations of how cloud technology is transforming businesses like yours - click here to join: http://bit.ly/2e6eY4g