Can tall girls wear heels?
The answer is yes!
You may find this hard to
believe, but I was 47 before I acquired my first pair of high-heeled shoes.
That's not normal, is it? I
mean, a friend just bought his daughter her first pair of heels for her 13th birthday,
and here I am in my forties, still in my flats.
I blame the genes - my
internal genes, not the tight jeans that look hot with heels.
When I was 12, I shot up
like a magic beanpole to a towering pre-teen 1,8m. And standing at least a head
taller than all the boys in class is a sure-fire way to make a girl feel
self-conscious.
I was the baby giraffe who never
had a partner at school dances, the one who felt gawky in her gangly body and
got relegated to the back row in school photos.
Can
tall girls wear heels?
To balance out the height,
I take a size 7 shoe. The laws of physics dictate that tall things will fall
over unless they have a good, solid base beneath them. Unfortunately, the laws
of fashion (back then) dictated that any fashionable footwear stopped at size
6. A "Bigfoot" like me may as well have shopped in the men's section,
because all we were offered were dowdy brown or black insults to
attractiveness.
Not only were they flat, they
were unsexy in a way that instantly made the wearer feel that she had slipped
on a pair of barges. Haute couture was a long way short of haute.
Besides, I found that few
men - with the exception of supremely confident celebrities - are comfortable
with a taller woman on their arm. And, let's be honest, I wanted a man I could
look up to, rather than down on.
It's a miracle that I didn't
develop an apologetic stoop to go with all this emotional shoe-initiated baggage,
but I've always walked with an attitude that says: "Here's me. Take me as
I am. Just don't make me any bigger."
The change happened when alcohol
was involved, as so many changes do. It was my birthday, and I was dancing with
one of my shortest friends. I admired her gladiator stilettos that added at
least four inches. She peeled them off and handed them oven Size 6, but I
squeezed them on, stood up, and felt magnificent. I tottered a little, but that
may have been more the champagne than the vertigo.
The next day she sent an
SMS: "I have a pair of size 7 shoes with your name on." I put them on
and drew up to my full, impressive height, wobbled around her lounge trying not
to fall over.
I went out in them for the
first time with a tall male friend. He held my hand to give me some balance as I
brushed my hair against an overhanging branch. In the toilets I had to bend
down to reach the door handles. I still peer down at the pavement cautiously, worried
that a stiletto will jam in a pavement crack and I'll topple over like an
ungainly tree being felled.
For women who wear heels, this
must sound ridiculous. But, for the first time, I finally realize that there is
something undeniably ego-boosting about wearing sexy high-heels. I've been an
unnoticeable wallflower for too long. Safe clothes, safe shoes, barely any
make-up.
I want to feel sexy and be noticed.
This is me. In your face – or above your face - unless you're as tall as I am. Soon,
I may even strap on my stilettos and totter off to a beauty salon for a
professional make-up lesson …
