Names You Need to Know in 2011: FiveFingers

Image via Wikipedia

Here’s something you need to know about: Could we be seeing the beginning of the end of the modern running shoe? A growing legion of runners and recreational joggers—I am one—backed by a rising number of physiologists, believe that running shoes do more harm than good for millions of people. With their inflexibility, cushioning, and raised heels, they almost force you to crash down on your heel and send the impact of all your weight in every step straight into your knees and hips.  That’s not how our bodies were designed to work, and it does terrible harm. 

Millions of years of evolution gave us a much springier way of running, which begins with our coming down on the front of our foot, a little like when you run in place.  You necessarily run that way when you run barefoot, because hitting with your heel would be unbearably painful.  But who is going to run barefoot in the modern world?

Enter FiveFingers, a line of shoes by the Italian company Vibram that are really gloves for the feet, with minimal protection and a finger for each toe. They look like the feet part of a gorilla costume, and they feel almost like being barefoot. They have grown a cult of devotees over the past few years, and they’re starting to go mainstream. You see them on more and more runners, and the stores that sell them can’t keep them in stock. The running shoe industry has begun trying to figure out how to either beat them or join them, and they and other new minimalist shoes are the subject of a long article in the November 2010 issue of Runner’s World.

I’m a believer.  I became one after seeing the wacky-looking things on someone, asking about them, learning more online, and deciding to spend the $85 to try out a pair of FiveFingers KSOs (a model that covers the top of the foot and “Keeps Stuff Out”).  I feel freer, faster, lighter on my feet, and my knees and hips don’t hurt anywhere near the way they used to. Pronation and plantar fascitis seem to disappear when you start using your feet the way they were designed to be used.

You have to adapt to barefoot or FiveFingers running very carefully and slowly. Much of the impact that used to shoot into your knees and hips now gets absorbed by your calf muscles. Those muscles will get very sore at first and then very strong. You have to wake up muscles all over your feet that you haven’t been using. You have to toughen the bottoms of your feet.  You can get blisters—I wear five-fingered socks to prevent that. But I’m loving running more than in many years. I feel throughout my body that I’m doing something right that I always used to do wrong. If my experience and that of thousands of others is any guide, the FiveFingers phenomenon can only grow and spread. The age of the modern running shoe that began in the 1970s with Phil Knight and Nike could just possibly begin to enter its twilight.

Ankle Boots

What to Wear with Ankle Boots

By Desiree Stimpert, About.com Guide

In all honesty, ankle boots are probably my least favorite style of women's footwear.

It's not that I dislike ankle boots for what they are, it's more that I dislike how they're worn -- which is often in the most unflattering way possible.

I blame the media. Okay, that's a cop out, and technically, I am part of the media, so I guess that statement needs a little clarification.

What I mean to say is that what we see on the runways and in fashion magazines does not always translate well for our own bodies and lives.

For example, ankle boots with cropped leggings or shorter tights is a definite "don't" for women who have shapely calves. Even women who are on the thin side have to be careful as the combination seems to chop inches off your height while adding bulk to your legs.

So what should you wear with ankle boots? I'm so glad you asked. Here are a few of my favorite combinations.

Ankle Boots with Long Skirts

Whether they're flat or heeled, ankle boots and long skirts are a classic combination. While I personally prefer to pair them with a long skirt that is on the fuller side, I've also seen ankle boots paired fairly successfully with long skirts that are more narrow. Whichever style you prefer, the key is to show no leg. If the skirt isn't long enough to cover the top of the ankle boot on its own, add a pair of tights.

Short Skirts and Ankle Boots

This look is definitely a little more difficult to pull off, because a lot of women don't like their legs. But it works well because instead of showing no leg, you're showing a lot of leg -- the real trouble comes in when you only show a little leg. Look for skirts that are a couple of inches above the knee or shorter and skip anything that's too full, lest your outfit start to like a figure skating costume.

The Best Pants for Ankle Boots

This one is nearly a no-brainer -- ankle boots work with any kind of pants. The advantage to wearing them over shoes or taller boots is that you get ankle coverage without the bulk of a knee-high boot. But -- and this is a big "but" -- the only pants that work well tucked into ankle boots are very tight ones. Wide-legged pants tucked into short boots create a very unflattering balloon effect.

Ankle Boots with Leggings or Tights

I mentioned before that cropped leggings don't work well with ankle boots. Long leggings or tights however, look great -- assuming of course, that leggings look good on you in the first place. If they don't, pairing them with ankle boots isn't going to make the situation any better.

Clothes to Avoid Wearing with Ankle Boots

• Cropped Pants
• Cropped Tights
• Mid-Length Skirts with Bare Legs
• Pencil Skirts
• Shorts
• Capris

Shoes Good Enough to Eat

Crisp waferlike textures bejeweled with beads of fruit combine to create beautiful layers of puff pastry in the form of two mille-feuilles. But these Mille feuille are not the kind you eat: You wear them on your feet. Yes, this is just one of the many pairs of shoes among the works on display at a fun exhibition of Chiho Akama's podiatric creations.

Chiho Akama's Edible Shoe Creations

Shoes? Shoes...Still, Shoes! is a showcase of her sometimes scrumptious footwear, themed on everything from sushi to insects. The event lends a fun, pleasant atmosphere to Pola Museum Annex in Ginza, Tokyo, where a selection of her works are currently on show. Each of the shoes uses original fabrics and other materials to re-create a variety of objects, ranging from grasshoppers and beetles to ikura, Christmas cakes, and roasted chicken.

Source: Kumi Matsumaru, Daily Yomiuri  via AP [12/17/10]

Beach shoes combine high heels and flippers

Known as High Tide Heels, they combine the elegance of stiletto heels with the swimming speed of flippers.

They could provide a fashionable alternative for sun-seekers who don't want the hassle of changing footwear every time they cool off with dip in the sea.

But don't expect to see thousands of tourists ditching their flip flops and sandals in favour of High Tide Heels this year.

The shoes were created by the Belgian artist Paul Schietekat for an exhibition in 2006, and there are not thought to be any plans to release them commercially.

Even so, similar designs are causing excitement among style-conscious travellers on shoe websites.

Nine-inch Sky Heel

Brave ladies are set to get a boost with the launch of the nine-inch Sky Heel, billed as the tallest heel available on the market, the Daily Mail reports. The vertiginous shoe -- due to be released next year -- will come in sparkly red or gold and retail for less than $100, according to the paper. Great! That should save plenty of dough for those inevitable doctors' bills when your ankle snaps just as you're crossing Fifth Avenue.

"The Sky Heel was fueled by customer demand to mimic the celebrity look," a Sky Heel spokesman told the paper. "We've seen the five-inch and six-inch, and we've even seen the seven-inch heel. "The trend is bigger, bigger, bigger -- and the Sky Heel is the biggest of them all."  In other words: Be afraid. be very afraid.

Source: Erin Donnelly, Stylist [11/12/10]

Half of British women injured by shoes

LONDON, Nov. 16 (UPI) -- One in 10 women in Britain admit they've received medical attention or been hospitalized because of wearing trendy shoes, a survey indicates.
The survey of 3,000 women in Britain who wear high heels was conducted by Hotter Shoes, a British shoe manufacturer.
Nearly half of women say they have twisted their ankle because of their footwear and two-thirds admit wearing shoes that have caused them injury. The most frequently reported injuries caused by shoes were broken ankles, twisted knees, infected blisters, bunions and torn tendons.
"As a comfort shoe maker we were amazed to discover the pain and discomfort that women were prepared to endure for a pair of killer heels or an ill-fitting impulse sale bargain," Lisa McCarten of Hotter Comfort Concept Shoes says in a statement. "Nothing can ruin a day more than sore and tired feet, every person in our design and technical team works hard to ensure that our shoes are stylish and comfortable."
The survey was conducted by onepoll.com Oct. 29 to Nov. 1. No margin of error was provided.

Forty pairs of Louboutins for Blake Lively

Blake Lively buys FORTY pairs of Louboutins

It's happened to the best of us: a great sale, our favourite designer and some must-have styles that somehow we can't resist taking home for keeps. But Blake Lively has been engaging in some retail therapy on a totally different scale recently as our sister site OSOYou reports:

The Gossip Girl star recently attended an invitation-only sample sale at Christian Louboutin, and not one to pass up a fantastic opportunity, she walked out of the store with more than FORTY of those famous red-soled beauties.

It's rumoured that she spent more than $9,000 in one go, and you know what's even more sickening/unfair/(insert-jealous-dig-here)?! She's not ashamed to admit it. Post-purchasing, she said: "I have sisters, so I'm getting gifts for them and for friends." Do we believe a word of it? 

Not likely, Lively!