Stiletto Workout

“Women who don’t wear heels a lot lean forward and hold tension in their shoulders. They don’t settle into the heel, and shift their weight from foot to foot” [and it is not a pretty sight!] (Maryanne Byington)

Yesterday night in Central London, I saw a woman wobbling like a new born leggy horse on the most beautiful pair of silver stilettos. It would have been disgracefully endearing if the shoes had not been Christian Louboutin, but when it comes to Louboutin, there is no messing around: if you wear them, you are not allowed to disfigure them. Learn to walk before putting them on.

I mean, come on, where would Cinderella be now if she hadn't known how to run out of the palace in high heels? (one high heel to be precise, that's a true skill!!!)

My advice for women who can't walk in heels (oh do I feel for them!) has always been to not wear them, or wear a hight they could handle. However, there is a new solution to this life-survival issue which the US fashionista community addressed in all their inventive avant-guardism: stiletto workout. New yorkers can now attend stiletto-wearing classes at the gym instead of their usual step course in boring flat sneakers.

Why at the Gym? might you ask. Well, because these classes do not teach only sexy strutting, they focus on shaping and strengthening these parts of your body you need strong and tense to walk in stilettos comfortably: after a few sessions, there should be no more ankle-wobbling or back-aching, you will be able to run after your double-decker, steady coffee in hand, as if you were in your sunday jogging Nikes. Stilettos, posture and health, it's all about balance.

For you girls who used to live in heel-fear, you will be interested to know that a recent Italian medical study lead to the conclusion that wearing heels bettered one's libido by accentuating the blood rush around the pelvis. Now that it has been recognized as a healthy sport and a way to tighten and strengthen your body as well, why deny yourself the pleasure any longer? New York is next door, plane tickets are increasingly low, and one week in the Big Apple might have you totally transformed from ugly little duck to beautiful Swan.

Two names: 'Stiletto Strength' at Crunch on Union Square, and Miss Vera's High heels seminar, at Miss Vera's Finishing School for Boys who want to be Boys (cross-dressing academy if you wondered... your fellow classmates might be a little more diverse and colourful). Stiletto Strength will have more of a fitness twist to it, but Maryanne Byington, who teaches at Miss Vera's, is a former ballet dancer so might put more of an emphasis on grace and demeanour.

By Champagnista V