DREAD OVER HEELS
Sole-searching over stilettos? Experts shoe away worries
Call it high anxiety: Madonna a bruised a bone falling off her pumps, Emma Thompson walked onstage at the Golden Globes without footwear for fear of pain, and Camila Alves de-heeled herself at the Screen Actors Guild Awards, lest she be the latest star to fall from grace. If celebrities, who are practically born in stilettos, can’t keep from toppling, what chance do other women have in heels?
Plenty, if you learn to put your r best foot forward.
“You’ve got to be savvy about your high heels,” said Meghan Cleary, author of “How to be Truly Unstoppable in Your Stilettos” and the website Shoe Are You.
“It’s all about planning,” she adds, citing her top recommendation: co ed io Never ee wear the dangerous ous daggers for more than an hour at a time.
Ever concerned d about the fate of New York women, , the Daily News asked foot experts for steps to avoid a walk of lame:
Build up your body and feet: Heels started to rise as far back as Renaissance Europe. Then as now, women who wore the flattering footwear suffered from weakened Achilles tendons, shortened gastrocnemius muscles in the lower leg and battered bones that were one step away from a fracture.
One famous foot doctor fashioned a full-body y workout to withstand stilettos. “You need to train the foot, ankle and [abdominal] core,” says Emily Splichal, creator of the Catwalk Confidence program.
A Broadway choreographer adds that it can take weeks of training to get in shoe shape.
“It takes more work that you’d expect to get your body used to it,” it, says Lorin Latarro, whose credits include “Waiting for Godot” and “Scandalous.”
Shop function, not fashion: The biggest
women’s shoe brands, like Dior and Christian Louboutin, have heels typically from 3 to 5 inches.
“When you wear heels that high, you’re going to pay the price for it,” says Vasilios Christofilakos, an accessories design professor at the Fashion Institute of Technology.
He said that before women put their feet in these shoes, they should use their fingers to test the bottom cushions for a strong “bounce back” effect. Before leaving the store, they should also take the heels for a walk on the hard floors, not just the shoe department’s deceptively cushy carpets.
“You just have to have some common sense when you’re shopping for heels,” says Christofilakos, who designed the Roberto Vasi men’s footwear brand.
Give the heels a hiatus: Sarah Jessica Parker told The Edit magazine last year she wanted to hang up her heels for good after years of 18-hour workdays in them. But you don’t have to go to that extreme.
“You should only wear it when you have to,” said Louis Peterson, a Manhattan podiatrist who said one in six of his patients are women with high-heels hurt.
Cleary adds that, if you must go high, set aside plenty of private prep time on the shiny spindles.
“Practice, practice, practice,” she adds. “Feel it out before you go out.”
A STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE
Want to strut like a runaway model and stay on your feet? Here are tips from Dr. Emily Splichal and Broadway’s Lorin Latarro:
1. Do Pilates to build your abdominal core and make your leg muscles more flexible.
2. Roll a golf ball under your foot to strengthen the plantar fascia, the issue connecting your heels and toes.
3. Try alignment exercises, walking slowly in a straight line without wobbling.
4. Do these workouts barefoot, to practice a natural balance.
5. In a standing position, connect your big toes with a rubber band, stretch the feet apart and hold for 30 seconds.