According to stats, British women wear the highest heels, with the average women boasting 3.3 inches on her shoes. Ladies, where do you fit in?
According to stats, British women wear the highest heels, with the average women boasting 3.3 inches on her shoes. Ladies, where do you fit in?
High heels are a girl’s best friend, along with diamonds, pearls, money, make up… The list goes on, as they say. So admittedly hearing that British women wear the highest heels really doesn’t surprise me that much.
I remember when I first tried on a pair of heels. I must have been about four and my babysitter was about to take me to the park. Maybe I wanted to look ‘special’ for the park or something but I remember going into the cupboard under the stairs and bringing out my mum’s pair of heels. Now, my mum isn’t a massive fan of high heels so these couldn’t have been very high- just a couple of inches. Well, the shoes were huge on my toddler feet and I remember stumbling into the front room much to my babysitter’s amusement I’m sure.
When I was 14 my mum treated me to my first pair of high heels. They were black, ankle high boots which slipped onto your feet, and the stiletto heel was almost four inches high. The first time I put them on was certainly memorable as any first timer of high heels will know; stumbling around the house in order to ‘break them in’. But I quickly adjusted and soon I was wearing them to school- and just as quickly I was dragged into the head of year’s office. Now I’m not usually one to get told off, especially not for wearing ‘a potential weapon’ to school. Admittedly I was quite astounded by the fact that this woman was referring to my fashionable shoes as a weapon! So the high heels were stored away for special occasions only and out came the dolly shoes- even a beautiful pair of shoes wasn’t worth suspension in my mind.
My next favourite pair of heels was some strappy, silver stilettos. These were for my high school prom, and they definitely set off my long, hot pink prom gown. Again they were four inches high and though I spent most of the night sitting down, I still left with them in my hand. In fact, I still own those shoes almost five years later I adored them that much!
It was only when I went to sixth form that I began to whittle down on my high heel heights. By this time I was 5’7’ and with the guys in my year averaging just below 6’, except for the basketball team I played with and even they were close, I became very aware of how much I was towering over them. That’s when I started pulling on those ‘kitten heels’ which were usually only a couple of inches; I was never willingly going to give up high heels altogether. I know many girls are horrified by the idea of kitten heels, it’s all ‘go big or go home’ but unfortunately I’m no longer a massive fan of standing out to that extent, especially when I have friends who are only 5’1’! But there is certainly an advantage in being able to walk an entire night of clubbing without the pain.
At this moment I think I have around five pairs of kitten heels, two pairs of high heels which are hitting four inches and a multitude of dolly shoes and one pair of trainers (sadly, you can’t wear heels to the gym). In fact, I’ve grown so accustomed to my adorable two inches after five years that when I tried on my old prom heels I felt like I was in stilts!
