Antonio Bernardi Sans-a-Heel Platforms
Manolo says, the Manolo does not approve.
The 5 1/2in creations by Briton Antonio Berardi can hardly be described as high heels, since they lack the most important part - a heel.
For the bargain price of £1,800, the wearer will get to totter around with all her weight balanced on a thickened platform sole.
Unsurprisingly, fashionistas are jostling to buy a pair.
Stars including Gwyneth Paltrow and Uma Thurman invested in a black patent version costing more than £1,100, shortly after they were unveiled in Berardi’s spring/summer collection in Paris.
And Victoria Beckham apparently has a snakeskin pair.
They are going on sale in Browns stores in London, where they have to be ordered up to five weeks in advance.
Lincolnshire-born Berardi, 39, said he was inspired by Latin American music and 1980s post-modernism, adding: “When you walk, it is almost on tiptoe. You look really dainty.”
Dainty, as if your feet were bound in infancy by Mandarins.
February 28th, 2008 at 5:05 pm
Oh my gosh those are hideous! Why would you want to put yourself through wearing those. I feel sooo sorry for the model now.
February 28th, 2008 at 5:19 pm
I think Posh is really the only one who could pull those off.
February 28th, 2008 at 5:19 pm
Can you say… chiropractor?
February 28th, 2008 at 6:04 pm
I’ve seen shoes JUST like that in black patent. They were worn 8 years ago by an S&M aficianado wearing chaps, a thong, handcuffs and those shoes in the SF Pride parade. Now, I love me a gay parade, but really, its not a look I’d think Gwenyth should be going for.
February 28th, 2008 at 6:34 pm
You know, the only way these would work would be if the platform was heavy enough to counterbalance the wearer’s weight, allowing her to rest her foot on the heel like a normal shoe. However, that might pose its own problems in terms of mobility. . .
February 28th, 2008 at 7:12 pm
The horror! Berardi is wacked. May I ask, how does one feel “dainty” in ANY platform? And who wears a platform because they want to be???
February 28th, 2008 at 7:29 pm
ok, I love the look, but forsee disaster in the execution. Would it be so hard to put a narrow titanium cantilever around ground level to allow the wearer to walk with her weight distributed as if in a normal shoe? It wouldn’t ruin the aesthetics.
February 28th, 2008 at 7:35 pm
fugly.
February 28th, 2008 at 8:29 pm
I thought it was some optical illusion for a second; the synapses weren’t connecting just right in my brain. My brain wanted to see heels, yet none existed.
February 28th, 2008 at 8:46 pm
Hello Manolo,
Your post inspired in me a small homage–or anti-homage–to Spenser’s Faerie Queene, something a wide reader like you may find amusing.
Cheers!
Miss Cavendish
February 28th, 2008 at 9:39 pm
Newest fashion accessory, not a baby bump, BODY CASTS! Anyone have some bitchin’ blingin’ gurneys or wheel chairs? Forget Rehab! Orthopedics is the new medicine…
February 28th, 2008 at 10:58 pm
Those things are an abomination. All I see when I look at that photo is pain.
February 29th, 2008 at 1:05 am
“Dainty”? “Prissy”, more like.
February 29th, 2008 at 1:14 am
The way you walk pays a huge part in how you look in your shoes. I can’t imagine people pulling this off and looking chic. I see women in obvious pain tottering about in stilettos and it spoils the effect. On that note, perhaps that’s why so many celebs are on prescription pain meds…
February 29th, 2008 at 6:25 am
They remind me of the wooden shoes Oiran (Geishas with highly paid special services) used to wear in Japan. They had to parade around the pleasure quarter for advertisment every day on these things, they couldn’t walk alone, never. They walked very, very slow.
Apparently a woman unable to walk alone or at a decent pace still is considered incredible sexy. And these Bernadi shoes look like hooves. At least, when you get out of them you’ll have a decent assault weapon.
See examples of Oiran Geta:
http://8611.teacup.com/gatacobu/shop/01_01_01/0411/
http://www.geocities.com/kleppers/oiran.jpg
February 29th, 2008 at 6:55 am
I don’t understand . . . is this shoe seriously designed such that you have no choice but to walk around solely on your tiptoes? I mean, when you put one foot forward to walk, you can’t put your weight down on the heel . . . you are just tiptoeing. That sounds so little-girl-like. Women who wear these shoes will have the gait of a 4-year-old who is trying on her mother’s high heels.
I suppose in a culture that increasingly equates sexiness with disappearing, looking like a child, etc, this should come as no surprise.
February 29th, 2008 at 8:53 am
EWWWWWWW! That’s all, just EWWWWWWWW!
February 29th, 2008 at 8:58 am
The look says “I am so rich, my servants carry me to the toilet.”
February 29th, 2008 at 12:00 pm
Those are ugly. And I can’t imagine what happens if the wearer tries to put her weight on her heels, or heaven forbid walk up a flight of stairs. I mean, how the hell?
February 29th, 2008 at 12:10 pm
Stupidity: The Strongest Force on Earth. Agirl, I suspect we’ll be seeing the YouTube videos before long.
February 29th, 2008 at 12:15 pm
On the upside, think of the calf muscles these babies will develop.
February 29th, 2008 at 3:01 pm
Miss J agrees with The Manolo. Awful.
February 29th, 2008 at 4:14 pm
Can you say pony play?
http://www.punitiveshoes.com/database/ballets/catalogue_pony.shtml
February 29th, 2008 at 7:05 pm
I agree with daisyj - they must be really really heavy in order to stand in them.
February 29th, 2008 at 7:26 pm
The only shoes that shouldn’t have heels are… flats.
February 29th, 2008 at 10:02 pm
Thank you, Manolo. You are not always the champion of women who favor comfortable shoes (Crocs being neither comfortable nor shoes), but you have humane limits. Thank you, thank you.
March 1st, 2008 at 12:49 am
That last line killed me!
daisyj, I was thinking the same thing - it would be awesome if you could actually use these like shoes. And by awesome, I mean “a science fair miracle.”
March 2nd, 2008 at 6:25 pm
Dainty? They look like they belong to a stripper who’s just been in a serious cat fight and got her stilettos ripped off…
March 4th, 2008 at 12:44 am
Heelless shoes. They are very inventive but not very practical. Stars buy them cause they can. In finally, their good bedroom and museum shoes but nothing else.
March 4th, 2008 at 12:06 pm
So falling on your ass is chick?? Thats where I would be if I was in those shoes, on my ass!!
March 11th, 2008 at 10:14 pm
well if this catches on then i’m gonna be seeing ALOT more business as a physical therapist, so kudos to you antonio bernadi!!!!
March 11th, 2008 at 10:14 pm
well if this catches on then i’m gonna be seeing ALOT more business as a physical therapist, so kudos to you antonio bernadi!!!!