I’ve been a late starter on the shoe front. I’ve worn what I think are quite nice shoes, but I haven’t gone in for anything overly dramatic and don’t own a single pair of Manolo Blahniks or Jimmy Choos. The shoe fetish to which so many fashionistas confess has always seemed to me a thing of mystery, a pattern of behaviour verging on the deranged. I mean, 700 pairs of shoes? That way lies madness, in my book.
I have, however, discovered the power of the shoe. I have two very sexy pairs — a red open-toed version from L. K. Bennett, and some bright green ones from Marc Jacobs that brought on a severe attack of what my son calls post-purchase depression. I now love both pairs and they have turned out to have that uncanny ability to give a sexy kick to the dullest of outfits.
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A plain black dress teamed with the red or the green shoes is an altogether different proposition from when worn with sedate black courts. But these shoes are strictly for show. I can totter around a room in them or as far as a taxi, but I could not wear them during an energetic day around town.
The point of this week’s column, though, is that some people, of a more practical turn of mind than me, never discover the transforming power of shoes because they won’t buy shoes that they can’t wear on the Tube, to work and around the supermarket. They want comfort and glamour. Which is where Taryn Rose comes in. She is a Californian who trained as an orthopaedic surgeon and spent too much time dealing with the ills brought on by badly fitting shoes, high heels and pointy toes not to realise that it was hard to find sexy shoes that did not damage the feet. Being young and attractive, she also wanted glamorous shoes that were as comfortable as a glove.
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She set to work and by 1999 came up with her first shoes, which had the fashionable hallmarks of the day and supported the foot in the right places and did not put pressure on all the wrong places. I can’t pretend that her designs are quite as sexy as those of Manolo Blahnik, Jimmy Choo or that they match my gorgeous Marc Jacobs. But for women who have difficult feet, or have had corns or bunions, they offer something glamourous that is hard to find elsewhere. Gwen Stefani bought 11 pairs just before she had her baby. Taryn Rose designed a wardrobe of shoes for Sienna Miller in her role as Edie Sedgwick in the film Factory Girl and, as for Oprah, why, she calls them the shoes “that save the soles of women everywhere”. Few of the shoes are stilettos but many have high heels. Anyway, I’m reliably informed that stilettos are on the way out.
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Most women have trouble finding high heels that are comfortable, and that is Taryn Rose’s main contribution to footwear (comfortable and high). But she also has ballet pumps and sandals, low and high, as well as courts and open-toed retro high-heels.
Taryn Rose now has four boutiques in the US and her footwear is on sale at Saks branches. In the UK, it is sold exclusively at Harrods. Almost all the pairs cost around £245, so they’re not cheap, but they are beautifully made and if they enable women who never before have been able to wear a high heel with élan to wear something glamorous on their feet, then they are worth it.
For anyone wanting shoes designed around their own feet, Taryn Rose at Harrods has a wide range of designs — high heels, ballet pumps — that can be made to order in alligator skin which, according to them, is softer and more flexible than crocodile. These are hand-made and bespoke and come in a large range of colours. They cost about £1,500.