Flat Shoes

ANSWER

Dear Jane,

Sorry to hear about your Scoliosis.  I went to school with a girl who sufferred from the same thing so I am aware of the kinds of difficulties that this can pose particularly for shoe wearing styles and in particular heels which place a lot of stress on joints and backs! 

Firstly, I wish you luck with your medical treatment and secondly thank you so much for the chance of being able to offer some helpful advice regarding shoes.

Whilst not being able to wear high heels anymore is certainly a loss that you will probably need to grieve, there are a beautiful amount of flat shoes that you can wear to replace your heels. Further more flats are so trendy right now, from the groovy trainer to the ballet slipper through to the Roman Sandal and Vintage boot!

Flat heeled boots can look fabulous, from ankle through to knee.  Team this style with jeans, skirts and trousers.  Dress them up or down!  In recent years flat vintage boots (think 80's, pirate boots, push down boots etc) have been particularly popular.  You can pick up a great pair on eBay - how about these groovy red ones from Nine West. 

However, your question asked specifically about evening shoes and as such i'd like to give you a few suggestions.

Elle McPherson was spotted recently wearing with her evening gown a gorgeous pair of flat jewelled thongs. Check her out at this particular red carpet event, how great does she look in her flats!

Now while the word thong may conjure up images of rubber, these days you can get some really gorgeous jewelled thongs which look absolutely stunning with evening wear. Think of a great pair of gorgeous jewelled silvery thongs matched with silver accessories and a plain black floor length gown - a fabulous classic look! How about these gold thongs from eBay which could work equally as well.

Another style popular at the moment is the Roman Sandal which a lot of girls sported at the recent Spring Racing Carnival, when teamed with a gorgeous dress this can look equally glamorous.

Another style is the ballet slipper, although I wouldn't neccessarily suggest this for evening wear, rather i'd keep your ballet slippers for your more casual look as you don't want to appear too Lara Flynn Boyle Oscars! Choose bright colors with jewelled features for a bit of difference, team them with black leggings and then pull a gorgeous above the knee dress over the top for a funky look.

You can these days get some excellent low heeled shoes that whilst not a high heel have just a minimal heel yet still are in keeping with the highheel flavor. Take inspiration from the French who in the time of Josephone Bonaparte favored low heeled shoes with the men wearing the heels! Here is gorgeous Josephine for inspiration. There is something very Audrey Hepburn about her here in My Fair Lady.

At the end of the day, it will be your choice of flat shoe and how it matches with your outfit that will stop you from looking like you are wearing your bedroom slippers. Anything tatty, dirty or with lambswool is a no! Anything elegenet, refined and well kept is a yes!

Take comfort in the fact that there are many tall girls out their (look to Nicole Kidman and her shoe choices for inspiration) who actually choose to not wear heels.  And maybe for the rest of us these will be the girls that the rest of us heel loving gals will be admiring when we are crippled with arthritis in our knee joints from years of wearing heels for such a long time.

My best advice I can give to you is to feel fabulous in whatever flat shoe you choose to wear. Half the trick of looking gorgeous is feeling gorgeous on the inside and carrying yourself with pride. There is nothing more beautiful in this world than a women who carries herself with confidence and a self assurance that comes from feeling wonderful on the inside.

Love
Bronny
xxxx