I Want Those Shoes!

Introduction Five years ago, I moved into my current apartment. The previous tenant, the usual friend of a friend, was a very sporty type, with a decided flair for DIY. While showing me the features of the house, he paused proudly before a recess in the wall that he had skillfully transformed into a spacious cupboard replete with shelves, where he kept his numerous mountaineering sweaters (he's not the jacket and tie sort). At the sight of this, I was filled with excitement, and cried out: "How wonderful! That's where I can store my shoes!" He stared at me in amazement, and asked: "Well, how many shoes do you own? I myself own four: two for the winter, and two for the summer!" If ever I had doubted it, here was the proof: men and women are very different in several respects, but the moment you get onto the subject of shoes, a chasm opens between the two sexes. It has been calculated that the average person walks almost two thousand miles during their lifetime. Thus, shoes are useful objects for both sexes, but it is only for women that they become an all-consuming obsession. Women's magazines tell us how to use shoes to find ourselves a husband, reconquer a lost lover, or get that job we hanker after. They can cost a fortune; yet while money itself does not bring happiness, a pair of new shoes can bring about a kind of exaltation that comes pretty close to that fleeting pleasure described by the philosophers. The reason is often a mystery. One explanation may be that, unlike many other objects -- clothes, for example -- shoes have a distinct advantage. Whether you're fat or thin, short or tall, beautiful or ugly, you can buy all the shoes your heart desires. Shoes possess magical properties; capable of making you feel splendid or sexy, elegant or sporty at a single stroke. In spite of the soles coming into contact with the less-than-immaculate streets, and indeed our own sweat, they remain works of art -- or at least of a kind of noble craftsmanship, which at the end of the day is not that far removed from that of jewelry. With the difference that they cost somewhat less than diamonds, which are considered to be "a girl's best friend." In the end that's what shoes are: our best friends. At this point I have to come clean and admit that the aim of this book is not to arrive at a definitive understanding of the subject, because that would be impossible. The French director Francois Truffaut maintained that cinemagoers have two professions: their own as well as that of film critic. In just the same way, all women are experts on shoes. They always have been, but over the last ten years this phenomenon has increased massively due to several factors. In order to increase the popularity of their brands, the great fashion houses have invested a great deal in the production of accessories -- not only shoes but bags, glasses, and cosmetics, all of which are in a far more affordable price range than clothes, suits, and coats. For a long time, the obsession with luxury shoes has been the prerogative of a select caste composed of "It Girls," the females of the international jet set, a select tribe of actresses, socialites, and millionairesses whose members could be identified by the accessories with which they adorned themselves. Their distinguishing tattoos were the labels -- Hermes, Gucci, Caovilla, Ferragamo, Blahnik -- which they procured by putting their names down on the special waiting lists of international boutiques. Subsequently, in accordance with the new commercial politics of the top brands, what was once the preserve of an elite has now turned into a behavioral trend for the masses. The brands have multiplied or branched out into numerous lines, along with their collector-buyers. Over the last couple of years, producers have described the state of the shoe market as being critical, as is the case with oJacobbi, Paola is the author of 'I Want Those Shoes! ', published 2007 under ISBN 9780743277747 and ISBN 0743277740.