Signs of the Times or Footwear is Your Future

Update... I wrote this piece before the 2016 Presidential Election, I along with many, was sorely disappointed by the results. 

I find it more than a little fishy that in the USA, as we move ever closer to electing our first woman president... style conscious females are, for the most part, shod in and tottering atop constructions of heretofore unseen height and treacherous design.

Regardless of your opinion of Hillary, she supports the Equal Rights Amendment. It is one of my pet theories that the possibility of the ERA's passage can be directly correlated to what has been offered on the world's catwalks.

I have felt that women have been incrementally and quite literally hobbled and wondered if this had occurred to any one else. I talked to an old friend who reminded me of our platform shoes in the 70’s, and I had to agree, they were pretty tall shoes at that. I wore them constantly, with flared jeans and trousers. Suddenly I was 5’9” tall. Awesome.

I danced in those shoes, rode a bike in them, worked in them and broke my ankle in three places in them. Still... however clumsy, the shoes’ soles had a sturdy thickness, and the heel had a width that allowed some sort of balance. And young men wore them too. Socially we were on a grand trajectory ...then came Reagan and the Reactionary Hordes, ushering in decades of alarming and ultimately unnegotiable high heels.

It seems to me for at least the last 100 years, right around the time women were poised to make a quantum leap toward equality... the fashion world would begin to trend in the direction of excessive restriction. 

Clothing or shoes, or both were periodically redesigned in such a way as to drastically curtail movement. Consider Hobble Skirts... which were so tight across the ankle that they were eventually outlawed. Women on the cutting edge of cool couldn’t get across the street quickly enough to avoid oncoming traffic... this around the time women were poised to get the vote. Post World War II, there were the latex girdles and stiletto heels into which women were coaxed after a liberating participation in the fight against global fascism.

Happily, there is now a light at the end of this particular tunnel. Karl Lagerfeld... arguably the most influential designer in the industry has, in recent years, included more and more sensible footwear in his collections for Chanel. There are platform sneakers... interesting! There is an entirely sensible and pretty assortment of flats. His line of high heels are attractive and of a reasonable altitude. Knockoffs have been appearing with increasing regularity. I believe that this augurs well for the future. Forget the stars, you can read the signs in the Shoe Department. Ladies, get ready to get equal.

Update... I wrote this piece before the 2016 Presidential Election, I along with many millions, was sorely disappointed by the results. 

Dancing Shoes in Sepia
Digital Media

Tech notes: This is an adaptation of my acrylic painting "Dancing Shoes"

I put the image into Photoshop.

I adjusted the color and applied the Poster Edges filter.



© 2016 DoretteAmell