I’ve always gotten the impression that Sarah Jessica Parker is nearly the opposite of the character she’s most famous for playing, Carrie Bradshaw. Where Carrie is brash and immature, Sarah comes across as exceedingly polite, considerate, and almost shy. But one thing they definitely have in common is that Sarah is every inch the daring fashionista Carrie Bradshaw is (if not six inches, when clad in Carrie’s beloved high heels). Sarah launched her SJP footwear line in 2014 in a West Village shop in NYC. Since then she and business partner George Malkemus III (a Manolo Blahnik exec) have been putting their best feet forward with an array of mostly heels with some flats, all handmade in Italy. Until now. The 10-year-old brand has announced they will be shutting down at the end of this month, and the news has left columnist Arwa Mahdawi wondering, “are heels on the way out?” From The Guardian:
These days my wardrobe is best described as “freelance-writer chic”. Which is to say, I feel dressed up when my socks match. Once upon a time, however, I was a trainee corporate lawyer and dressed like one — tottering around in a state of constant panic and very high heels. I was, as you may have guessed, not really cut out for corporate law. After I eventually gave up both the law and my heels, my feet took several years to recover from the abuse. It had been a sole-destroying job. For a while I had to tiptoe everywhere when I didn’t have shoes on because the heels had mucked up my achilles tendons and calf muscles.
Despite the fact that they disfigured my feet, I still have a soft spot for heels. They make your legs look great and you feel instantly powerful. Apart from the pain and the impracticality, what’s not to like? So it is with mixed feelings — but comfortable feet — that I watch them die a slow death. Heels have been on the way out for years now, their demise supercharged by the pandemic. Kids these days don’t wear heels out clubbing, according to a recent viral TikTok from an influencer who wondered “whether we [millennials] need to come out of retirement and teach the girls how to wear heels”. And per the Economist, even the French have kicked off their heels.
Now there’s a new sign that heels aren’t coming back anytime soon: Sarah Jessica Parker’s namesake shoe line is shutting down. Parker launched the brand in 2014, capitalising on the fact that her Sex and the City character, Carrie Bradshaw, was renowned for her shoe collection. Mr Big even proposed to Carrie with a pair of blue satin Manolo Blahniks. The fact that the patron saint of uncomfortable footwear is shutting down her shoe company feels like the end of an era. That said, if you still love heels, don’t let gen Z tell you that you can’t wear them to the club. As SJP might say, a woman has a right to shoes.
“They make your legs look great and you feel instantly powerful.” Nice try, but I have unimpeachable rebuttals for each assertion made in that quote. For starters, nothing makes my legs look great, so there! They are my least-cooperative body parts. Even for that one month in the summer of 2011 when I was at a healthy size 6, my gams were not giving. I’ve made peace with it; after all, I’ve been gifted with a glorious head of curly hair. As to the power surge, more power to anyone who can truly summon a commanding presence in those things. But personally, I find it challenging to feel powerful as I inevitably find myself performing a reenactment of newborn Bambi taking his first teetering steps. I’ll keep saying it: I do not f–k with fashion-stilts! Not even when someone tries to hide them in an unholy union with sneakers! And I say that as a millennial, thankyouverymuch. This is one area where I unequivocally stand proud (and comfortably supported) with the kids of Gen Z.
photos credit: IMAGO/RW/Mediapunch / Avalon, T.Jackson/Backgrid
I’m all for prioritizing comfort, but I will never get used to seeing athletic sneakers and socks paired with a fancy dress. It’s so jarring. Like, I get that you want to be comfortable, and I totally support that, but why not a nice pair of flats instead? Or a cute, dressy boot?
I guess it’s all about personal aesthetic. I love a cute pair of Stan Smiths with a dress.
I wasn’t familiar with the Stan Smiths, but I checked them out and they’re super cute! Thanks for the tip.
It’s much healthier.
I find it far more jarring that women are still being pressured to wear heels, which are terrible for our feet and legs.
There is literally nothing jarring about wearing healthier shoes, apart from the fact that we’ve been brainwashed to think it’s jarring.
I feel like I was pretty clear that I’m all for people not wearing heels if they don’t want to. When we’re out and about in the evening, and I see young women pairing their teeny dresses and club outfits with sneakers, my first thought is always, “Wow, good for them. I wish my generation had the wherewithal to put our comfort first, instead of screwing up our feet in the name of fashion. They’re so smart.”
What I don’t get, though, is this trend towards dressing appropriately for the occasion/venue from the ankles up only. Like, if you were going to a fancy wedding, you wouldn’t wear athleisurewear just because it’s comfortable. You would wear something suitable for the occasion. And if you didn’t want to wear heels, you’d have lots of other options that were more comfortable and supportive, but were still occasion appropriate. Heck, I have dressy flats with memory foam linings that I got at Target for $20. So that’s really more what I’m interested in learning more about. Why the disconnect between the feet and the rest of the body, sartorially?
@whatever, I think part of the problem is that even nice flats that are comfortable and good for your body are hard to find. I have yet to find a pair that doesn’t hurt my feet or my back, and I wear heels daily. Women’s shoes are, overall, just not made well or for comfort (while also being affordable).
Once you experience foot pain where your feet hurt so bad you can’t walk, you no longer give AF. This young Gen Xer stands proudly with Gen Z….I am all for heels going the way of the “business suit and tie” on men and “panty hose are a must” for women. Why suffer
I love heels. They’re stupid but also… stupid fun.
I’m with you. I rarely do these days but I still love them.
Well, my barely 5’2″ stature benefits from a few inches, but the Boston sidewalks of bricks and cobblestones are an ankle killer. I’d have to mince along like a mountain goat. Back when my work and lifestyle called for fancy footwear, I’d keep a pair of soft ballet flats in my purse for when things got too painful – a bronze pair for the evening, they folded up nicely into an evening bag.
I wore heels everyday for 13 years. And I even wore them to school when I was a teen. But lockdown changed all of that. And now my wardrobe consists of 80% sneakers. I actually had to BUY heels for a trip I took earlier this year. I have always loved a heel but am definitely more of a sneaker girl now. My lifetime has changed completely post-lockdown. My job is casual chic – we can all wear sneakers. I move around a lot more during the day. I also walk a lot more in my down time so sneakers are just what works. I had a pretty healthy (okay oversized) shoe collection full of designer heels that I wound up selling on Poshmark because I just don’t have a need for them anymore. I wept a few tiny tears when I sold my Celine pumps and Loewe ankle boots. Those were my babies.
Me too, Ameerah. Pre-lockdown, I wore heels (3-4 inches) 4-5 days a week. Even back to work in the office most of the time, I never wear heels. I even stopped wearing trousers that are a length requiring heels. Nothing but flats since March 2020. All my cute heels are stored in my closet, never to emerge.
I have never done and will never do heels. They are impractical and painful and no, I will not wear them. Could not do a job where it was required I had to wear heels and I have no idea how my mom did it for 30+ years in the finance world. I have flat narrow feet and I will only buy heels from Clarks (yes the “Old Grandma” shoe company) and even then, I can only wear them for a few hours. I’ll do boots or flats but heels nay.
I used to occasionally wear heels in early 20s, but they’re just so painful and I refuse. I have one pair of heels now, Doc Martens ones with skulls on the toes, and I think the last time I wore them was at my brother’s wedding in 2008. I look at people wearing heels and wonder how they manage it without being in agony.
Fortunately I’m in the law enforcement biz and can just go with police boots or hiking shoes every day.
Heels are terrible for our health, so I hope they’re out.
They’re actually not. Flip flops and shoes with zero support are actually worse.
High heels actually are unhealthy.
I am sorry that you think they are not when there are MANY studies to show that high heels are terrible for us.
They put muscles out of alignment and joints too. It doesn’t just affect feet, but wearing them can also cause pain in other body parts including even the neck and back.
@Flowerlake – I work with physical therapists who see people for foot issues everyday. I myself have foot issues that didn’t start until I started wearing sneakers and walking more everyday. What hurts feet is lack of support around the ankle as well as repetitive impact. Which is why chunkier heels are often easier to wear – because they support the ankles. Flip flops actually break down the achilles as wear as other parts of the foot over time because of their lack of support. Same goes for shoes like ballet flats. And there are studies that show the damage that flips flops do the feet as well.
Ameerah – I’ve actually heard similar things from my physical therapists. They’re very wary of shoes with absolutely no support, and actually, they recommended to me that rotating between a variety of heel heights and shoes can actually be a very good thing for you. They certainly weren’t advocating for wearing anything dangerous or uncomfortable, but they said that your foot and calf muscles retain more flexibility, and cause less pain, if you don’t walk around with your feet and ankles in the exact same position all the time. They seemed to think that mixing it up was a good thing.
Ameerah— The ‘foot issues’ you are referring to are already the result of bad shoe habits:
“Your body is great at building muscle for what you do regularly, and also getting rid of muscle when you don’t need it. So wearing shoes that don’t make you use your foot muscle can result in feet that don’t work well without support. On the other hand, a few months of incorporating barefoot walking can shorten the arch, meaning it doesn’t collapse so much as you’re walking. Removing shoe support strengthens the feet muscles.“
Above quote is from http://drchloetillman.com/feet-support-and-orthotics/
I am sorry, Ameerah, but I am trusting studies done by many doctors and scientists more than an individual posting here.
Also, I never mentioned flip-flops.
What I do know is that sneakers never hurt me and heels always do.
If heels were so “good” for us, doctors would be recommending left and right that men should wear them as well, but they do quite the opposite.
I mentioned flip flops because my original reply mentioned flip flops. But I will trust the Drs I work with everyday. They see and touch feet literally everyday. Also – heels were invented FOR men. It wasn’t until the early 18th century when they began creating them for women that they became “women’s shoes”. But men wore heels for centuries. There is a lot of history behind heels and the vilification of them – which surprisingly coincided with when women started wearing them. I love fashion history and I would recommend watching fashion historian Nicole Rudolph’s video on the history of heels. It’s fascinating!
https://youtu.be/_7mKFrV3Mpk?si=oFDL9UsdGKUh7bHR
I used to wear heels for most of my adult life and then after pandemic just switched to flip flops and my feet have never hurt more particularly my heels so I agree with Ameerah
Flips flops and heels are both bad for your feet. Arch support is required and many shoes don’t have it.
A podiatrist would say that neither should be worn. Flats without proper support aren’t great either. But the human foot is not made to support your weight in a tippy toe position hence why women in their 40s and up tend to notice bunions if they wear heels too often. Even super skinny women like Kate Middleton get bunions from wearing heels too much.
Gen X here and I cosign Gen Z lol. i have never been able to wear heels, I’m clutzy and uncoordinated so you can imagine the show I put on trying to walk in them (I once sprained my ankle walking barefoot across a level floor for example lol!) Give me ballet flats, boots with a slight but wide heel and sneakers.
Even in my younger days I never was able to wear heels comfortably. I managed to wear 1-1/2 inch heels but that was it. Today, all my friends who wore stilettos and pointy-toed shoes are now suffering from bunions, corns, neuromas and all manner of foot-related problems — my feet, on the other hand, are wonderful and healthy.
High heels look sexy, but I can’t wear them because I have very wide feet. I can’t wear pointed toes either (also bad for you). I don’t have the foot problem that women my age have. Because they had to wear heels to work.
Flats can be cute. Shoes with modest heels can be very cute.
A lot of women just wear the high heels at night or to a wedding or when they want to look super dressed up. I’ve been to a number of weddings where they hand out free flip-flops so the women can dance freely.
I can’t imagine a vacation in Europe where you walk in heels. Ouch. But you could take them along and slip into them right before you get to the restaurant.
I was a heels girl for almost 20 years. I used to be able to run in them. Like, I need y’all to understand, I was an a crazy crazy young woman who did really silly stuff for kicks that made no sense including literally running in my black Guess pumps to prove to people I could. Like real running. So stupid.
About 18 months ago, I got rid of almost every heeled shoe I owned. Currently I have a pair of nude pumps, a pair of Naturalizer kitten heeled sling back square toed sandals, a pair of Brother Vellies sphere slides (basically a kitten heel with a ball instead of a spike), and two pairs of low wedges. Everything else is a flat or a sneaker or a flat boot. I own 39 pairs of footwear. I just can’t stand being uncomfortable for the sake of fashion anymore. I say this as someone who never ever thought she would give up heels.
I’m 5′ 9″. I don’t need heels and I don’t want them. I stopped wearing them out at about 22 years old.
I can tolerate heels for about 2 hours. So be it a dinner or conference or any event where I need to be seen and take pictures. After that, I’m in my comfy, stability for overpronators, running shoes. Heels are absolutely horrible. They have been a source of blisters and corns on toes. Ugh! I hated those!!!! I have a time limit with them, because once the feet start to hurt, they’re gone. My feet are precious to me — I need them to run around. Not doing anything painful and hurtful for fashion anymore. I’m too old and don’t care anymore if my running shoes don’t go with my evening gown.
‘Where Carrie is brash and immature, Sarah comes across as exceedingly polite, considerate, and almost shy’
Huh? Even extras on the set of Sex and the city have come forward about how mean girl she was.
This was when Matthew was caught cheating by the tabloids & I always wondered if that was how she processed the cheating, reverting to mean girl tactics.
Agree. And remember the backlash when she posted some gushy sympathy note on IG when Kim Cattrall’s brother committed suicide? She came across like the two of them were besties when, in fact, they clashed constantly on the set of SATC. Kim put her FIRMLY in her place.
SJP has always been a brat with a bad rep for treating people badly – she is very much like Carrie in real life (or should I say that Carries became more like her once she became an exec producer).
I have not worn heels in years. 5-2 if I stretch. A lady who owned a dress shop I frequented back in the 80’s told me to ditch the heels. Sneakers are my go to. Kitten heels if I feel like it. I have a gorgeous pair of Cole Hann black patten leather kitten heels hardly worn. My feet are very healthy because I wear good fitting sneakers 99% of the time. Have a nice weekend ladies. Monday is a holiday.
I am of the age where I can yell Get Off My Lawn, so I will also say that you will pry my heels off my cold, dead feet. I have foot issues (from years of dance and pointe, not the heels) and a MASSIVE shoe collection that is 95% heels. I love them, have done charity runs in them, wear them with anything and everything. To each their own, wear what you want but I love love love my heels.
I loved my heels, wore them for about 20 + years, but now my feet (esp my left foot) is jacked and I can’t handle them anymore. I’ve also gained weight so another reason for no more stilettos. I still miss them. But now I’m in flats or a (at most) a 2 in block heel that’s sturdy. Love my Stan Smiths too. Probably should see an ortho to see what can be done but for right now I’ll keep wearing my sensible shoes and dreaming of the time when I wore my heels and strutted down 5th ave a la Carrie Bradshaw.
I never got big into heels, but I liked them. I have flat feet and need custom orthotics, so now I can’t even look at heels. I don’t enjoy shoe shopping anymore. It’s always bulky $150 + sneakers for me. My feet seem to be doing better, but my calves and knees are a mess. I’m glad dresses and sneakers are a thing now. It makes me feel like a trend setter because I’ve had to do this since 2016.
I am 40, and I wore heels a lot in my 20s, up until I had my firstborn at 29,, in 2013. I wore them less frequently while I had little kids, but still would put them on if there was an occasion. I went from working in an office to freelancing in 2011, so I have zero reason to wear heels most days. For about a decade I’ve worn leggings, a t shirt and house shoes in my house–birkenstocks or casual tennis shoes out and about. But if I am going to a meeting, church, get-together with friends, date night, wedding–I’m either wearing cute flats, wedges or heels. I do love to wear heels, I just now only wear the ones that are comfortable. This year several of my favorite heels have let me down and the inner lining just disintegrated, but they’re shoes that are 10-20 (omg, 20) years old and weren’t expensive to begin with.
So 90% of the time I don’t wear heels. But I do like to wear them when the occasion calls for them. I think they look nicer with dresses and slacks, and now that flares/bootcut jeans are back I’m having to wear them even more because of the hemline situation. Wedges are the most comfortable, but I’ve got chunky sandal heels in several colors that are as comfortable as heels can get.