Manolo says, the recent appearance in England of the tiny little president of France, M. Sarkozy, has started the mania for the high heels shoes for the mens.
The male heel has risen to the top of the footwear charts. And all because of ‘The Sarkozy Effect’. In the wake of the State visit by the vertically-challenged, 5ft 5in French President – whose towering, 5ft 9in, ex-model wife, Carla Bruni, wears flatties to try and minimise the height discrepancy – some British males are turning to heels to avoid similar embarrassment when out with their partners.
The department store chain Selfridges has noted a surge in sales of men’s shoes with ‘stack’ heels of up to 5 cm or two inches. The store’s head of menswear, David Walker-Smith said, in the past, Cuban heels or cowboy boots were favoured as casual wear with jeans.
‘‘Now the pinstriped businessman wants to up his game by adding to his height.” Shoe brands such as Jeffrey West and Patrick Cox now provide heels of up to 5cm instead of the customary one and a half cm.
Trust the Manolo, the mythical man of business who wishes to “up his game” by wearing the stacked heel shoes, will indeed not only look taller, but also ridiculous. Few things indicate male insecurity as forcefully and as humorously as tacky elevator shoes. One might as well resort to the Ron Popeil hair-in-the-can as the cure for baldness as stacked heels as the cure for shortness.
Worst of all, the head of state who wears the platform shoes risks unflattering comparison to this shorty tyrant.