shoewawa
I found this story from the Houston Chronicle this morning interesting. In an attempt to find out whether women’s shoes really give out the messages we think they do, researchers set up a special “man panel”. A group of women were asked to stand behind a curtain, with only their feet showing. On either side of them, they were asked to place a pair of shoes they felt best represented their personalities. It was then up to the men to write down what they thought the women’s shoe choices said about them.
Of course, the men got it spectacularly wrong, guessing that a 27-year-old marketing executive with a penchant for sky-diving was, in fact, a 50-year-old divorced mother working in accounting. Their guesswork on the other women was equally out of place, leading to the conclusion that what we think our footwear says to the world could be far removed from what it actually says.
Now, this study centred around what men think of women’s shoes, and I’m willing to bet that a lot of us don’t actually care too much what men think. But it got me thinking, though – and wondering what my shoes say about me. I’d like to think think anyone looking at my shoe closet would probably get a pretty accurate reflection of my personality from them (as well as being able to accurately surmise that I spend far too much money on shoes), although, on reflection, perhaps not.
When I really think about it, I suspect the huge collection of pretty evening shoes I own would perhaps lead people to think I was a dedicated party girl, when, in fact, I’m a bit of a homebody, and just have an inability to walk past a gorgeous pair of shoes without buying them.
What about you? What do you think your shoes say about you?
All one needs to do is look at Marni: spectacularly designed “serious” shoes women covet, yet most men find ugly.
However, I think some shoes, like those made by Dolce Gabbana or certain Louboutins, communicate clearly to both genders.
The problem here is that for the most part, women’s fashion communicates with other women. There’s a clear divide between the kind of fashion used for communicating with other women and the kind used for communicating with men (hint: find the key in FHM). This is well-established, I believe.