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Business News/ Mint-lounge / Features/  Footwear | The sole pursuit
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Footwear | The sole pursuit

Finding the right shoes is an uphill climb, especially if you are short and love toe standups

This high-heel addict’s shoe size can sometimes look better fitted for the children’s section. Photo: Priyanka Parashar/MintPremium
This high-heel addict’s shoe size can sometimes look better fitted for the children’s section. Photo: Priyanka Parashar/Mint

“You are so tiny!" someone remarked recently. Such comments visit me on bad shoe days: when I don’t wear heels to work or play. I am a high-heel idiot addicted to toe-standing. My affliction has little to do with the power of sexy, tall shoes; it has to do with my height. I call myself My Loyal Shortness—3ft, 26 inches tall—a cover-up for short limbs.

Being a fashion hack has only accentuated my height complex over the years. As my fashion stories multiplied, so did my collection of heels. But I have never been able to find a pair that’s a perfect cross between sexiness, comfort, fit and height.

My shoe size—33 or 34 (3 or 4 in India) in most fits and 35 in some just might be demoted to the children’s section if girls keep growing taller the way they are. Only when I am shopping in China towns in Asian countries do I feel really empowered. Or at Bata stores where you can get a mean little 4 for adult females. Since I have never sanctioned myself a bespoke pair by a luxury brand, it leaves me with middle brands like Charles & Keith which has many styles in size 35. God bless their soles. Steve Madden too, though its prices are higher than its heels. Zara’s smallest female size is 36, the same as at Forever 21 (40-plus women inside this store look desperate, so I only look at the windows). Payless stores in the US—the other end of the budget pendulum—stock some really uninspiring shoes but they have my size.

In fashionable, middle-brand stores, most styles in the smallest size are sombre, as if short women deserve dumpy stuff. There are other limitations: no espadrilles or pumps—even in size 35—fit me; my heel slips out at the back. So I must either hunt down a perfect open-toed pair, a sling-back, a Mary Jane or clumsy, buckled sandals or ask the inevitable question: “Do you have a smaller size?"

The only stilettos that have fit me well (but never comfortably) were from a small shop in Milan. They had a snug size 35 in every style and I instantly bought many pairs. I no longer travel regularly to Milan but keep those stilettos in see-through bags and bring them out like jewellery for special days.

My “sole pursuit" elicits various responses. Family and friends laugh all the time; shopkeepers cluck, especially when size 35 is a “bit too big". “So has Sindhi Crawford found her shoes?" teases my husband. A female security officer at Philadelphia airport in the US took my ankle boots (a flea-market buy) off the tray after they were X-rayed, held them up for her colleagues and made a big, fat joke of them. “She’s picked it from the children’s rack, huh?" she roared, holding her sides. Everyone burst into laughter. After the joke had been served, the officer jingled my boots as if denying a candy to a child before handing them back.

I regularly buy stilettos in styles I love in bigger sizes and take them for refitting to John Brothers, one of the oldest stores in Delhi’s Connaught Place. It is a small but coveted store of handmade leather shoes and accessories. Here, Jude Yep carefully turns my shoes around, as if examining an unwell pet before suggesting a solution. Fitting a bigger shoe for a smaller size is also about keeping the ratio between the arch and the heel proportionate as each human being has a unique foot arch. You get it wrong and it causes slow but sure damage to calves and body posture. Yep is a tolerant man and has remedied many a silly pair, but the last time I took black velvet, high-heeled pumps (Zara, size 36), he frowned. “It is not possible to refit every piece, I am sorry," he said politely.

But I am not sorry despite having 30-odd pairs that were never my size to begin with. Nor have I ever been sorry about vain, time-consuming rituals like carrying juttis in handbags, ready to be slipped into while running around for domestic chores or for carrying high heels in the car, to be worn before stepping out. When I was younger, I wore pencil heels every day to a full-time journalism job, gifting myself a permanent low backache. The only time I was sorry was when I returned from a vacation abroad armed with six, sexy pairs of stilettos but before I could wear them, ruptured ligaments in both my knees in a gym injury. The physiotherapist forbade heels for a year. As consolation, a photograph was taken at home, with me sulking beside my new and old pairs—it was my screen saver for a year.

Last year, three discs in my spine were herniated in an accident. “We must seriously reconsider high heels for good now," said my physiotherapist. Don’t miss the “we": He had sportingly enlisted himself in the lost cause.

In the last three months, I have been searching seriously for sexy, flat footwear and styling tips on how to wear them to “feel" tall. My shoe-aid kit has been boosted too: It has a variety of in-soles in absorbent materials; heel securers for slippy heel syndrome and half-soles for the front of the shoe. I still wear high heels at least four times a week, a compromise between health and idiocy. Salvatore Ferragamo’s autobiography Shoemaker of Dreams, is my go-to book for shoe counselling. My favourite chapter is The Unrelenting Climb.

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Photo: Thinkstock

Flat mates

Ground rules for styling footwear for the vertically challenged.

uSandal wood: If your feet are tiny, avoid sandals with too many straps on top of the foot; the skin of the feet should be seen, not hidden. Roman sandals work only if they have slim, criss-cross straps. Flat sandals with coloured T-straps with all embellishments limited to the ankle area are good too. If your toes jut out too much, it’s not the pair for you.

uLess with more: Proportion is key to good style. Pair oversized or multilayered ensembles with sleek shoes and clunky footwear with slimmer silhouettes. Try dainty sandals with Khadi or cotton saris; androgynous footwear like police boots with clingy chiffons and lycras; neon sneakers with lacy dresses, laced booties with ‘mul’ or crepe palazzos and delicate slippers with embroidered, heavy ‘ghaghras’.

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Photo: Thinkstock

uLoafing around: If you have a slippy heel, pad loafers and ballerina shoes with heel securers. Loafers with prints, patterns or embellishments look best with plain cigarette pants, ‘churidars’, tights and fitted jeans. The more distracting your shoe, the plainer should be your bottom separate. Coloured, velvet-smoking slippers look terrific with white harem pants. Try a ‘Patiala salwar’ with a short top and printed loafers (keep the ‘jutti’ for flared, blue jeans instead).

uSneak freak: Sneakers look sexy, modern and offer a lot of styling possibilities for short women. Wear them with silk palazzos that are not stiff or too structured; with ‘farshi’ pyjamas and ‘kurtas’ with slits on the side and long, easy dresses. An ombre chiffon sari or a Leheriya with printed sneakers is a dashing combination.

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Published: 27 Apr 2013, 12:09 AM IST
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