They are the most elegant shoes ever but also the most painful to wear. The popular stiletto shaped by Salvatore Ferragamo and Roger Vivier in the fifties has always been the favorite of celebrities to stand out on red carpets and large events. They stylize the figure and lengthen the legs, but shining at heights has a cost: bunions, calluses, hammer toes, compressed nerves, Achilles heel disorders and many other ailments that appear with the excessive use of this type of footwear. And despite the fact that the so-called sharp dagger shoe will never disappear, and has now returned in an extreme format due to the industry's obsession with Barbie and her outfits, the famous have decided to give their feet a break by recovering a sandal that It was a hit in the fifties.
The kitten heel or sensible heel, the one that does not rise more than 4.75 centimeters, returns with force this season with the approval of figures like Letizia. The Queen, who was diagnosed in July 2022 with chronic metatarsalgia in both feet and Morton's neuroma on the left, is betting this summer on low or even completely flat designs. She proved it on June 3rd during the Armed Forces Day commemorative events by pairing a springy floral-print look with sensible-heeled pink sandals. This look would set a precedent in Letizia's following public events and until her arrival in Mallorca. For the unofficial posing of the royal family at the Marivent Palace, last Monday, Letizia dropped her heels and opted for flat espadrilles from the Spanish firm Sabellar that reaffirmed the Queen's will not to abuse high heels.
Along the same lines, and as a protest against heels on the red carpet, the model Irina Shayk surprised at the Met Gala with slippers to advocate for comfort and declare war on uncomfortable stiletto heels that seem to be a mandatory dress code for actresses.
The kitten heel, which was specifically designed as a shoe to learn to walk in heels before moving on to the dizzying stilettos, ceased to be a useful shoe to become a trend thanks to actresses like Audrey Hepburn. Today luxury firms such as Balenciaga, Valentino, Givenchy, Loewe or even Jimmy Choo, king of stilettos, recover this comfortable shoe in order to adapt to the all-terrain woman, as well as the versatile and functional fashion that she demands today.
In this way, the kitten heel has taken multiple forms in recent years: it is worn in a boot or ankle boot, as evidenced by Emily Ratajkowski to take one of her walks through the New York city as well as the model Hailey Bieber, lover of the most comfortable streetstyle and informal, by wearing them in a mule version with pointed finishes. Some, like the businesswoman and influencer Chiara Ferragni, give the trend another twist and dare to wear it in futuristic formats in which the heel starts at the middle of the floor, to provide more balance and stability when walking. Because as the iconic Marilyn Monroe once wisely said “give a woman the right shoes and she will conquer the world”.
