I’ve always gotten the impression that Sarah Jessica Parker is nearly the opposite of the character she’s most famous for playing, Carrie Bradshaw. Where Carrie is brash and immature, Sarah comes across as exceedingly polite, considerate, and almost shy. But one thing they definitely have in common is that Sarah is every inch the daring fashionista Carrie Bradshaw is (if not six inches, when clad in Carrie’s beloved high heels). Sarah launched her SJP footwear line in 2014 in a West Village shop in NYC. Since then she and business partner George Malkemus III (a Manolo Blahnik exec) have been putting their best feet forward with an array of mostly heels with some flats, all handmade in Italy. Until now. The 10-year-old brand has announced they will be shutting down at the end of this month, and the news has left columnist Arwa Mahdawi wondering, “are heels on the way out?” From The Guardian:
These days my wardrobe is best described as “freelance-writer chic”. Which is to say, I feel dressed up when my socks match. Once upon a time, however, I was a trainee corporate lawyer and dressed like one — tottering around in a state of constant panic and very high heels. I was, as you may have guessed, not really cut out for corporate law. After I eventually gave up both the law and my heels, my feet took several years to recover from the abuse. It had been a sole-destroying job. For a while I had to tiptoe everywhere when I didn’t have shoes on because the heels had mucked up my achilles tendons and calf muscles.
Despite the fact that they disfigured my feet, I still have a soft spot for heels. They make your legs look great and you feel instantly powerful. Apart from the pain and the impracticality, what’s not to like? So it is with mixed feelings — but comfortable feet — that I watch them die a slow death. Heels have been on the way out for years now, their demise supercharged by the pandemic. Kids these days don’t wear heels out clubbing, according to a recent viral TikTok from an influencer who wondered “whether we [millennials] need to come out of retirement and teach the girls how to wear heels”. And per the Economist, even the French have kicked off their heels.
Now there’s a new sign that heels aren’t coming back anytime soon: Sarah Jessica Parker’s namesake shoe line is shutting down. Parker launched the brand in 2014, capitalising on the fact that her Sex and the City character, Carrie Bradshaw, was renowned for her shoe collection. Mr Big even proposed to Carrie with a pair of blue satin Manolo Blahniks. The fact that the patron saint of uncomfortable footwear is shutting down her shoe company feels like the end of an era. That said, if you still love heels, don’t let gen Z tell you that you can’t wear them to the club. As SJP might say, a woman has a right to shoes.
“They make your legs look great and you feel instantly powerful.” Nice try, but I have unimpeachable rebuttals for each assertion made in that quote. For starters, nothing makes my legs look great, so there! They are my least-cooperative body parts. Even for that one month in the summer of 2011 when I was at a healthy size 6, my gams were not giving. I’ve made peace with it; after all, I’ve been gifted with a glorious head of curly hair. As to the power surge, more power to anyone who can truly summon a commanding presence in those things. But personally, I find it challenging to feel powerful as I inevitably find myself performing a reenactment of newborn Bambi taking his first teetering steps. I’ll keep saying it: I do not f–k with fashion-stilts! Not even when someone tries to hide them in an unholy union with sneakers! And I say that as a millennial, thankyouverymuch. This is one area where I unequivocally stand proud (and comfortably supported) with the kids of Gen Z.
photos credit: IMAGO/RW/Mediapunch / Avalon, T.Jackson/Backgrid
