At Monday evening’s CFDA awards at Lincoln Center, the audience was transfixed by actress Naomi Watts, presenting the award for Womenswear Designer of the Year, careening across the stage of Alice Tully Hall. A mix of a lurch and a teeter, her walk was typical of so many red-carpet striders who buckle forward as they balance on the pinhead stiletto of a seven-inch platform shoe—and the lovely Ms. Watts was the first to acknowledge it: “It’s embarrassing having to walk in these shoes in front of all you models who walk in these for a living.” DSK’s perp walk was nothing compared to this.
The problem, of course, wasn’t Watts; it was the sky-high platform Louboutins she had chosen to wear with her gold Calvin Klein frock. Over the past several years, shoes have clearly gotten higher and higher, and in an effort to all be eye level with Amar’e, female celebrities, and those who emulate them, have taken to shoes inspiring little confidence and significant vertigo. Helen Mirren was famously quoted citing platform shoes as a beauty secret along with sucking in her stomach. “Four-inch platforms give you great height and make your legs look unbelievably long. I used only to be able to get them in stripper shops, but now you can buy them everywhere—although, unfortunately, that means everyone else has discovered the trick too.” Discovered the trick indeed but mastered the art of walking in those tricks? Not yet.
The fashion world has recently extolled the virtues of the kitten heel, the wedge, the classic stiletto. At Carolina Herrera’s resort collection presentation the next morning, for instance, Manolo Blahnik patent sandals looked discreet and elegant. While celebrities believe themselves to be fashion forward in their extreme heels, the question is whether they are putting their best foot forward in those heels. Watching Watts navigate the stage, one was struck by the image of perennially chic Inès de la Fressange on the Croisère in Cannes a few weeks earlier in either of her two showstopping red-carpet ensembles—her flat Roger Vivier sandals the pièce de résistance both times.
