Why women love shoes?

These beauties from Colin Stuart are stunner {and they’re vegetarian}; I ordered them online from Victoria’s Secret website sometime ago and finally walked in them last Sunday.

While I was admiring these, it got me thinking what is with women and their love for shoes. Shoes have been an important part of life for most women, so much so that I was gobsmacked when I read about a divorce case where this hedge fund manager in US, Daniel Shark, sued his ex-wife Beth for getting a 35 per cent share of her $1 million collection of footwear. Really? Suing his wife for shoes? And what is remarkable is Beth’s serious love for shoes, not only she has a jaw-dropping collection, but the fact that she also tattooed an image of a Christian Louboutin stiletto on her body reiterates the depth of the relationship. That’s the extent of obsession women have over shoes.

So why women love shoes?
One argument {I’d say from those who little know women} would be that it is not really a love but a ‘herd mentality’. This argument suggests that the fashion industry creates a hype through magazines and celebrities who rave about how many pairs of shoes they have amassed and the rest of the women get swayed, follow them blindly and start hoarding shoes to look cool and join the herd. I am sure there would be certain women who’d fall in this category too, but that’s not the prime reason.

There is indeed a much deeper connection between women and shoes. I’d say this from my own experience. I’ve had a thing for shoes since an early age of 12. In those days you barely had access to the Vogue, Elle and Harpers’ of the world (I didn’t even know they existed) and there were barely any celebrities who were interviewed on TV and even if they did, it wasn’t about their clothes or shoes. Regardless, I loved shoes and by that very age I had over 20 pairs which was a talk of family and friends. Women in those times had maximum 3 pairs of shoes – bathroom slippers, a black pair (that’ll go with everything), which was used for everyday errands, and a pair of party shoes, which would most probably be in neutral metallic (think silver, gold, copper), to go with every outfit.

I’ve given up on the count of shoes I own now, but in my defense I don’t keep on piling shoes. The moment I buy new pairs I also ensure I give a good share of un-required pairs back to someone who could use them. Why hoard something you know you don’t need anymore or will not wear. My love for shoes wasn’t based on following the crowd, it came up naturally early on.

I did some online reading, spoke to some women from my circle, some randomly online and found some common link to why women love shoes. Interestingly, most consider shoes as their loyal friends; simply because they never go out of size – so whether you turn from size 0 to size 6 or stay the same, your shoes would still fit in for decades to come. Their loyalty has even turned shoes into a collector’s item (mind you shoes are displayed in museums like art and have fetched upto millions of dollars).

Interestingly, ‘collector’s item’ just reminded me of another fact that most women rarely wear the shoes they love the most. Its that precious piece that is to be admired, occasionally touched.

Another argument was how shoes immediately make a woman thinner and taller {yes we are talking about heels here}, and these are two traits that every woman would die for. So when it comes to high heels, they make women feel sexy and empowered at the same time. When the stilettos add height they literally raise a woman’s status, changes her posture and adds that glam factor. Undoubtedly anything that’ll make her feel all this at once are definitely going to be an object of her obsession.

What’s your take on shoes?

Image Credit: Vivek Samaiya Photography