• Home

Yes, please. We need wearable good-looking, flat-soled shoes

So, Canada's banned stilettos. We're all for women in British Columbia refusing to be defined by footwear. Surely, if women want to walk around in flats, it's no skin off anyone's, er, shi

I happen to be sitting at the Vogue Café at Dubai Mall's Level Shoes when a colleague forwards me an email, a press release about how Canada's British Columbia has reversed the dress code that previously required female staff to wear high heels at work.
This change came about because a receptionist, Nicole Sharp, started a petition after she was sent home from work for not wearing heels. The release says, "The requirement to wear heels in the work place is a health and safety issue." As a woman who (despite being only 5 foot tall) prefers flats and never wears heels over three inches, I wonder how many women at the Dubai Mall realise that they are putting themselves at risk? They are eating kale salad, drinking vitamin-infused mineral water and on their feet are four-inch heels (the average height of most women's shoes, I notice). I decide to call my physiotherapist to see what she has to say about the women in trendy malls tottering around on their heels. She says, "Forget about their backs, it is bad for their knees, their hips and their circulation." I give myself a pat on the back for being a girl who is happy without heels.
As I walk around Level Shoes, I notice that they have a wide selection of flats - yet I do not see any of the women at the Vogue Café in flats. I am at Level Shoes to interview Edgardo Osorio, creative director of Aquazzura, an Italian brand known for its wide range of flat shoes. "I found women apologising when they met me and were wearing flat shoes.
I realised that there was a need for well-made and beautiful flat footwear." Osorio is of the belief a woman should be able to wear whatever shoe makes her feel good, be it a flat, a block- or a stiletto heel - which is why, his collection includes all these types of shoes. "I think there is nothing wrong with a woman wearing flats with a cocktail dress," he says. The only place he feels flats may not work is on the red carpet. "A long dress needs heels". So I mention this new dress code reversal in British Columbia. "Do you know that it is mostly working women who wear heels? It gives them a feeling of being empowered," he says. Once again, I think how wonderful it is that I have the confidence to wear flats and do not need a pair of heels to feel empowered. Osorio says, "Actually it's better for women to wear a slight heel and not complete flat shoes, if you are talking about health."
Osorio points out that both Michelle Obama and Hillary Clinton, women of substance and style, usually wear a small heel. So I quickly do some research, since there is free Wi-Fi available. It would appear that the best shoes for a woman to wear come with a heel of roughly three millimetres.
My smile is suddenly deflated, but perhaps the Italian shoemaker sums it up when he says, "A woman should be able to wear any shoe she wants." And that really is what matters - by overturning the rule that required women to wear high heels a woman can now wear shoes that she wants. And well, if women want to tower around on these high heels, who am I to judge them? Flats or heels, there should be no rules on what a woman wears, not should there be any judgement.p.s. I still think high heel should come with a health warning, just as cigarettes do - even if the warning does not seem have any effect.
sujata@khaleejtimes.com
Sujata is KT fashion editor. She makes it her business to stay on trend - and in flats