They are the most stylish shoes ever, but also the most painful to wear. The popular stiletto that was shaped by Salvatore Ferragamo and Roger Vivier in the 1950s has always been a favorite of celebrities to stand out on red carpets and big events. They stylize the figure and elongate the legs, but shining in the heights comes at a cost: calluses, calluses, hammertoes, compressed nerves, changes in the Achilles heel and many other diseases that appear with the excessive use of this kind of footwear And although the so-called sharp dagger shoe will never go away, and is now back in extreme form due to the industry’s obsession with Barbie and her styles, celebrities have decided to give their feet a break and have regained a sandal that was a hit in the fifties.
The kitten heel or sensible heel, the one that doesn’t rise more than 4.75 centimeters, is back with force this season with the approval of figures like Queen Letícia.
The Queen, who was diagnosed in July 2022 with chronic metatarsalgia in both feet and a Morton’s neuroma in the left, is opting for low or even completely flat designs this summer. She showed it on June 3 during the commemorative events of the Armed Forces Day when she combined a spring floral print style with some pink sandals with a sensible heel. This look would set a precedent in the following public events of Letícia and until the arrival in Mallorca. For the photograph of the royal family in the gardens of Alfàbia, on Monday, the wife of Felipe VI took off her heels and opted for flat espadrilles by the Spanish firm Sabellar that reaffirmed her desire not to abuse high heels.
In the same vein, and as a vindictive gesture against heels on the red carpet, model Irina Shayk surprised the Met Gala with a pair of lounge shoes to advocate for comfort and declare war on uncomfortable heels needle, which seems to be a mandatory dress code for performers in this kind of circuit.
The kitten heel, which was specifically designed as a shoe for learning to walk in heels before moving on to the dizzying stilettos, went from being a useful shoe to becoming a whole trend thanks to actresses like Audrey Hepburn. Today, luxury brands such as Balenciaga, Valentino, Givenchy, Loewe or even Jimmy Choo, king of stilettos, are reviving this comfortable shoe in order to adapt to the all-terrain woman, as well as to versatile fashion and functional that currently demands.
In this way, the kitten heel has adopted multiple forms in recent years: it is worn with boots or booties, as evidenced by Emily Ratajkowski for one of her walks in New York, just like fellow street-loving model Hailey Bieber more comfortable and informal style, which wears them in a mule version and pointed finishes. Others, such as the entrepreneur and influencer Chiara Ferragni, go even further in the trend and dare to wear it in futuristic formats in which the heel is born in the middle of the sole, in order to provide more balance and stability when walking Because, as the iconic Marilyn Monroe once wisely said, “Give a woman the right shoes and she will conquer the world.”
