Stiletto Shock: Tipping Into Shoe Obsessions & Repercussions
Posted on December 10, 2008
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NOT YOUR AVERAGE SHOE LOVER
On a brisk, fall evening, women donning coats with popped collars and gigantic handbags scurry into a brightly lit SoHo boutique. Champagne is flowing, music is thumping, and the conversation is roaring. Of course, they’re discussing men. Not just any men. These guys—Christian Louboutin, Manolo Blahnik, and Jimmy Choo—are at their feet.
Welcome to a Hello Stiletto shoe party, a club for shoe lovers.
Melissa O’Shea, president of Hello Stiletto, started the club in 2004 as a social event for people to “get out in those crazy shoes that they otherwise may not get to wear.”
Originally founded in Boston, the organization has grown to over 7500 members in 15 cities, including Atlanta, San Francisco, Chicago, and Philadelphia.
“I really love shoes!” said O’Shea. “I collect them like some people would collect art. So when I have high heels on my feet I feel like I’m wearing a piece of artwork.”
Click-clacking in three-inch to five-inch heels against the wooden floors of Té Casan, these aren’t your average shoe lovers. When it comes to footwear, these women mean business. From zebra stripped pumps to teal and pink plaid heels with matching rosettes—only the chicest designs grace their soles.
But all mouths drop and eyes widen as a vivacious, brunette steps onto the main floor in a pair of blue, patent leather Louboutins, oozing sex-appeal and confidence down to her slick, stacked, gold platform.
ELEVATED STATUS
Heels have always represented status and like many other facets of culture, men were the first when it came down to wearing them, according to Elizabeth Semmelhack, Toronto’s Bata Shoe Museum head curator. But because fashion tends to trickle down from those who are perceived to have power, it wouldn’t be long before members of the lower-class added heels to their wardrobe.
“Once the lower-classes started to do that, the upper-classes increased the heights of their heel to the point where the heel became expressly impractical,” said Semmelhack. “And the impracticality of the high heel was a wonderful way to express privilege because if you’re running around in high heels that is a very clear message that you aren’t farming that day or farming ever.”
By World War II, the heel soars as steel is inserted into the base, providing a thinner and more secure foundation. No longer confined to the boundaries of technology, shoe designers such as Salvatore Ferragamo, Charles Jourdan and André Perugia test out alternatives to the classic heel.
While the inventor of the stiletto continues to be debated, many give credit to Roger Vivier. In the 1950s, the young, French designer was tapped to design shoes for Christian Dior’s New Look collection—a line of feminine and fanciful skirts and form-fitting tops. Semmelhack believes that it was Vivier’s sculptural sensibility and position of power that garnered him such a distinction.
Yet, the Italian shoe designs of Salvatore Ferragamo caused a stir within Hollywood. He adorned his heels with fine materials like satin and picked up a huge following among starlets including Marilyn Monroe, Clara Bow, and Mary Pick. It is Ferragamo’s heels created for Monroe that deem him the originator of the stiletto for others.
TIPPING INTO DANGEROUS TERRITORY
Celebrities including Victoria Beckham, Jessica Simpson, Beyoncé, and Gwyneth Paltrow hit the red carpet in towering stilettos. Models at Prada’s Spring 2009 show in Milan tumbled down the catwalk in six-inch snakeskin, platform heels designed by Miuccia Prada. And thanks to tabloids and television shows like “Sex and the City” and “Gossip Girl,” women are buying into this trend, according to Tamara Speigel, fashion editor at Fashion FACTS Folio.
“Its something consumers like to associate with,” said Speigel. “[Consumers] like the look and the image of this person and want to see what she’s wearing. It’s more about identifying with the celebrity and the image they’re portraying.”
From August 2006 to August 2008, 25 percent of women’s fashion footwear sold at department stores, national chains, and shoe chains were heels 3 inches and up—a four percent increase, according to NPD Group, Inc. While heels between 1 ½ inches and 3 inches dropped in total sales to 26 percent from 34 percent.
Although the stiletto continues to reach extreme heights, more and more women are tipping into dangerous territory. Medical research shows extended wear of high heels can lead to serious health conditions like bunions, hammertoes, and tendonitis. (Click here for related article and here for health graphic)
A heel over three-inches alters the way the foot functions when you walk in such a shoe, according to Greg Cohen, an attending podiatrist at Long Island University Hospital in Brooklyn. “It lifts the heel off the ground and shortens the Achilles tendon,” said Dr. Cohen. “When that tendon shortens it leads to a host of problems usually in the ball of the foot because more pressure is placed there as opposed to evenly from the heel to the arch to the ball.” As a result, he sees patients that develop pain in the fore foot, nerve pain, and stress fractures.
But for those who can’t resist the allure of stilettos, they can rest comfortably on Pillows for Your Feet. Suzanne Levine, a New York podiatric surgeon who trains other surgeons on the procedure, injects fillers like Sculptra into the balls of the feet for cushioning that last six to nine months.
Studies that illustrate the long-term effectiveness of such treatment do not exist. And Dr. Cohen believes that this is because the materials used are designed for facial plastic surgery and not weight-bearing areas. “For some women who are willing to undergo such a procedure and the expense it can be helpful,” he said.
“A FLAT SHOE JUST DOESN’T DO”
Fifty years after its creation, and despite the pain, the stiletto in all its transformations is still a timeless shoe. From its modest beginnings at the hands of European, male shoe designers to its revolution with contributions by Vivienne Westwood, Betsey Johnson and Sandra Choi. “And even though they hurt our feet and we take them off as soon as we get in the elevator,” said Speigel, “it really has a way of boosting the mood, confidence, and the way a woman feels when she wears them in a way that a flat shoe just doesn’t do.”
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Nollywood: An Interactive Anaylsis of the Nigerian Film Industry
Posted on November 20, 2008
By Dana L. Oliver
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Brooklyn Biz Rides Vinyl Resurgence Wave
Posted on May 16, 2008
CD sales continue to plummet. Digital downloads are rapidly climbing. And an old musical format is steadily making a comeback. Audiophiles in search of that warm, grainy sound are getting into the vinyl groove again.
Last year, 990,000 records were sold –a 15% increase from 2006, according to the Nielsen SoundScan. Amazon.com recently unveiled a vinyl-only store with new and old selections from genres including jazz, rock, reggae, and pop. And UrbanOutfitters sells record players with USB connection for music lovers who want to tote their wax tunes on their iPods.
Brooklynphono, a small mom-and-pop vinyl record manufacturing company in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, is profiting from this nostalgic musical resurgence. In 2001, Thomas Bernich and his wife, Fern Vernon-Bernich, established the plant on 42nd Street where they press vinyl for independent artists and New York City-based record labels for $1 a record.
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Cricket Is Wicket
Posted on May 13, 2008
By Lakshmi Gandhi
Dressed in white with their long, paddle-shaped bats in hand, Queens’ Aviation High School’s inaugural cricket team prepare for a match against DeWitt Clinton High in Flushing Meadow Park. Hindi, Urdu, Bengali, Jamaican Patois, and Guyanese Creole fill the air as warm-ups begin.
These are the sounds of cricket in New York City, which last April became the first school district in the United States to introduce cricket as a varsity sport. The game is one of the most enduring legacies of the British Empire and the city’s 16 high school made up primarily of students of South Asian and Caribbean descent. The young athletes see the game as a continuation of the cultural traditions their parents instilled in them.
“Cricket, it’s from my native country,” said Vik Singh, Aviation High School team’s student manager, who is of Guyanese descent. “My dad played. And basically everybody before him played cricket, so it’s good to know that I am also playing cricket.”
Widely considered the world’s second most popular sport after soccer, cricket is unfamiliar to many Americans. In New York City’s West Indian and South Asian communities, however, the game continues to be a treasured export from home. Nowhere is this more evident than in Ozone Park and Richmond, home to Singh’s Sporting Goods, one of the country’s largest suppliers of cricket equipment. Customers drive here from as far away as Connecticut and Philadelphia to buy bats, balls, and gear. The neighborhood’s bars advertise televised matches in their windows and many residents sign up for satellite television just to follow their favorite teams.
“Cricket is like a religion to me,” said Ricky Singh. “It’s a part of your culture. It’s an everyday part of your life.”After observing immigrants playing the game in places like Ozone Park, Eric Goldstein, the chief executive for School Support Services of the Public School Athletic League, followed a hunch, convinced an interest in the sport existed among the city’s high schoolers.
“The people who are playing are either recent immigrants or first generation Americans from immigrant families where cricket was very much part of the sporting culture of where they come from,” said Goldstein. “What we wanted to do is to embrace that — that’s what New York, America, is all about — it’s all about immigration and embracing change and welcoming the new groups.”
Many of the students currently playing cricket did not participate in sports before cricket went varsity. Aviation’s Coach Wesley Henry believes the game helps players who are recent arrivals adjust to America.
“This is a sport their parents understand,” said Henry, 34, who immigrated to the United States from Guyana as a teenager. “This is a sport they play in their country. So it’s a smooth transition for the students to actually come on to the field and participate.”
The sport also attracts athletes without any ties to cricket-playing nations. Cricket novice Shamir Alcequiez, a Dominican American, joined DeWitt Clinton’s team when his swimming coach suggested he try out. He said that it took him a long time to adjust to the game.
“They got the cricket in their blood and I don’t,” said Alcequiez, 15, who also plays baseball. “So it’s difficult.”
His heart remains with baseball, however. “I can’t lie,” he said. ”If I got to choose, I choose baseball.”
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Yet, in baseball-obsessed New York, cricket has its passionate devotees. “I feel a lot of connection because when I play cricket, I am a member of my country,” said DeWitt Clinton’s Sohail Banaras, 14, who was born in Pakistan. “When I play baseball, I don’t feel as much excitement as when I play cricket.”
Mdarman Mannan, a Bangladesh-born Aviation High student who tried out for both baseball and cricket this season, agrees.
“It’s a new thing,” he said. “Baseball, you could say, is an old thing in America.”
Roisin O’Connor-McGinn contributed reporting
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Alternative Art Space Lures Artists, Art Lovers to Sunset Park
Posted on April 27, 2008
When young, white hipsters are spotted throughout a heavily-immigrant populated neighborhood there is an immediate sense that gentrification must be near. But the artists and art lovers pouring in and out of an industrial complex between 33rd Street and the waterfront in Sunset Park, Brooklyn don’t have the same fear. Instead, they are in search of creative refuge. Light Industry provides that escape.
Drawing inspiration from alternative art spaces of the past like The Collective for Living Cinema, The Filmmakers’ Cinematheque, and Cinema 16, Light Industry evokes the spirit of these classic venues where people gathered in tight spaces to experience film screenings and interact face-to-face with artists. Founders Thomas Beard and Ed Halter are huge fans of this era that hailed the “projected image.”
“One of the great things about New York City is that there are many generations of artists,” said Halter. “People who run art spaces interact with one another so the history is all there.”
Halter and co-founder Beard introduced Light Industry’s weekly series, which allow local curators, filmmakers, critics, and artists to organize film and new media exhibits for the public without the financial pressure.
For the most part, alternative art spaces also serve a cultural niche that exists outside the dominant art institutions, according to Beard.
“They’ve been home to an adventurous and intrepid work,” said Beard. “There’s a sort of freedom for artists to do things that might not make as much sense in a traditional context or to do things that aren’t determined by the profit driven motives of commercial spaces.”
From sexy machinima flicks to tickling silent comedies, early exhibits featured at Light Industry illustrate Beard’s point.
On the third floor of the six million square foot complex, huge black cloths block the light coming in from industrial size windows as people sit in grey fold-out chairs close enough to rub elbows, drink bottled water or $4 Dutch beer, and pay $6 to watch multiple film clips as short as three minutes bounce off a white wall.
The shows attract a diverse audience as well. On an April evening, the room was filled with people of many ages and backgrounds from across the city’s five boroughs.
Sixty-year-old Manhattan resident Charles Krezell crept in minutes after the film projector started clicking away. He nodded in sync and cocked his head left and then right as images of a black gospel choir singing and Richard Pryor telling jokes flashed at high speeds. Krezell heard about Light Industry from a friend who lives in Sunset Park and after logging on to the website decided to come and check it out.
“I wasn’t expecting such a huge crowd,” he said. “The show was really good!”
Another member of the audience, Darnell Witt, 26, was amazed by the space and how it lends itself towards showing thought-provoking pieces. Witt recently moved to Williamsburg from Chicago where he created an alternative cinema listings. He is working towards a Brooklyn version.
“It was a long trek,” said Witt, “but definitely well worth it.” He is convinced that he’ll be a regular.
Regulars are likely to be witnesses to the Light Industry’s ongoing development. For now, the space has an unfinished quality—speakers are visible and wires are taped down along the concrete floor. But Beard and Halter hope to create a permanent space in the future that will be more like a theater, where they can do shows two or three times a week. As always, though, providing an audience for artists is their primary goal.
“People can show things on the Internet and share DVDs with one another nowadays,” said Halter, “but there’s something much more fulfilling for an artist to show their work in a room full of people, get feedback, talk about their work, and have it in a social atmosphere.”
For more information on Light Industry, visit their website at www.lightindustry.org
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Willowbrook State School: Family Voices
Posted on April 12, 2008
It was a mental institution that only Hollywood could’ve created, but what happened at Willowbrook State School in Staten Island, New York wasn’t part of any movie. The facility opened its doors to children with mental disabilities in 1947. As the years passed, the school’s notoriety grew when doctors injected patients with the virus that causes hepatitis as part of a medical study. But it wasn’t until 1972 when a then unknown WABC-TV reporter, Geraldo Rivera, secretly snuck into the institution and uncovered the inhumane conditions–overcrowding, contamination, and physical and sexual abuse of residents. The State of New York finally agreed to shutdown the school 11 years later and in 1987 its doors were locked for good.
The families of former Willowbrook patients have struggled long before Geraldo’s exposé. Duncan Whiteside, father of Michael Whiteside (former resident), reveals how the mental institution impacted the lives of his loved ones, as well as, himself.
Willowbrook State School: Duncan’s Story
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Historical photos by William Bronston M.D.
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