Augusta focus. ([Augusta, Ga.) 198?-current, January 26, 1995, Image 12

Augusta focus., January 26, 1995, Page 12, Image 12

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Newspaper Page Text12 January 26, 1995 TH = g *\ ‘oo UNCI /% : B Fashion slaves @ get their Kicks .. from spike ) heels. Z @ -—©® @ @ O @ By Teri Agins THE WALL STREET JOURNAL ombat boots for wom en were fabulous — last year. This spring, the trendiest shoes are decidedly not made for walk ing. Fashion designers are rallying around the new “glamour” look: clingy dresses, Wonderbras and, yes, sexy spike heels. “With the return of glam our, women are looking more vampish and seductive,” says Candy Pratts Price, accessories editor of Vogue magazine. “We are talking a high heel.” Vogue’s January issue is filled with stilettos. One photo spread features a $455 pair of red patent leather sandals with five-inch heels from shoe designer Manolo Blahnik, the high priest of high heels. Mirabella’s February is sue has a full-page photo of a black patent-leather pump with a six-inch heel from Guido Paquali for Vivienne Westwood. So far, six inches is the maxi mum heel height. Most of the new high heels have very pointy toes and reveal a lot of skin, including “toe cleavage,” that is, the cracks between the toes; some also feature thin criss cross or ankle straps. “It never ceases to amaze me how much pain, discomfort and self-destruc tion women will go through in order to look good for a man,” says Laura Schlessinger, a Los Angeles therapist and author of “Ten Things Women Do to Mess Up Their Lives.” Shoe designers know they count on women to sacrifice com fort for vanity. In high heels, women’s “legs look longer and thinner, and the heels force them to stand back to keep their bal ance, which causes them to walk sexier,” says shoe designer Ken neth Cole. ¢ Valerie Donati recently bought four new pairs of stilettos (high pumps with dagger-like heels), including a pair of black patent leather Charles Jourdan shoes with stainless-steel heels. “They make me feel fun and frivolous and really glamorous,” says Ms. AUGUSTA FOCUS Fashion Focus Donati, a Manhattan writer. “I have more men saying they like my legs but what they are really talking about is my shoes.” And pop culture icons every where are wearing what the fash ion-industry calls “fast shoes.” Witness the boss-seductress played by Demi Moore in the movie “Disclosure.” Her charac ter could have been the inspira tion for shoe designer Charles David’s ad: “If you really must step on someone to get ahead, use a very sharp heel.” But it remains to be seen how many women will jump from prim pumps to sassy stilettos. Many women complain that they don’t Shoe designers know they count on women to sacrifice comfort for vanity. In high heels, women’s "legs look longer and thinner, and the heels force them to stand back to keep their balance, which causes them to walk sexier," says shoe designer Kenneth Cole. feel glamorous teetering along on spindly heels, and millions of American women are already suffering from corns, bunions and other foot ailments. “Women are four times more prone to have foot problems than men due to women’s lighter bone structure, the effects of pregnan cy and hormonal changes,” says Suzanne Levine, a podiatric sur geon in Manhattan. Dr. Levine adds that all foot problems are aggravated by the shoes women wear, especially high heels. In fact, many women accept sore feet as part of life. A 1993 study of 400 women sponsored by the American Orthopedic Foot and Ankle Society in Seattle found that 56 percent of the wom en “believed that having bunions is normal,” according to Carol Frey, one of the,researchers on the study and an orthopedic sur geon at the University of South ern California. Since Cinderella, women have been lying about the size of their feet. So the Seattle study com pared the actual measurements of the women'’s feet to the shoes they wore and concluded that 88 percent of women were squeez ingtheir feet intoshoes that were “significantly smaller” than they should be. However, women’s feet are getting bigger from genera tion to generation. So the stigma about big feet, some say, is be ginning to recede. That so many women may be ready to wear spike heels may be evidence of a trend away from mannish work attire. Boxy suits and silk scarves were de rigueur back in 1982, when Mr. Cole, the shoe designer, introduced his first collection of mostly square toed, chunky-heeled shoes. “Women were obsessed with be ing practical and sensible look ing,” he says, “and the high-heel business seemed to cease to ex ist.” But nowadays, “That ‘Working Girl’ look is kaput. We now . . . can go to the office and cross our legs in a short skirt and high heels,” says Vogue’s Ms. Price. Jennifer Wylie won’t be among the new leg-crossers. Firmly grounded in low heels or flats, the 30-year-old Pittsburgh pub lic-relations executive refuses to suffer in spikes. “I'm adamant about being comfortable,” she says. ' Retailers are hoping Ms. Wylie is the exception rather than the rule. The 45-store Saks Fifth Avenue chain projects half its sales in spring dress shoes will be high heels, up from 30 percent last year. Shoe makers maintain that today’s high heels are more com fortable than the spikes of the early 19605, when they were last fashionable; today’s stilettos are fuller across the toes, more shock absorbing and better balanced, they say. Mr. Blahnik notes that three women click around his Italian factories, testing his spikes for comfort, “spending an hour or so going up and down steps and things.” But no one will argue that a five-inch heel is the last word in comfort. That’s why Dr. Scholl’s in 1993 came out with its Toe Squish Preventer, a shoe cush ion for spike heels. “It acts like a speed bump for your foot, keep ing your toes from getting jammed into the pointed toe,” explains Steven LaMonte, vice president of footwear marketing for Schering-Plough Health Care Products. A number of shoe marketers, including Kenneth Cole and Nine West, concede that there’s a lim it, even for the fashion-conscious woman these days. Neither com pany will make a spike heel for spring higher than three inches. “We interpret that stiletto look into a wearable, comfortable shoe with heels that aren’t too spin dly, that more women can relate to,” says Stacy Lastrina, vice pres ident of corporate marketing for Nine West. More comfortable dress shoes continuetosell, eveniftheyaren’t the height of fashion. But even U.S. Shoe Corp.’s Easy Spirit pumps, advertised to “feel like a sneaker,” are updated for spring. The new model, called “Legends,” features a thinner, tapered two inch heel, the tallest comfort pumps to date. And the fact is, for many wom en, buying shoes is not a practi cal matter. Even Dr. Levine, the podiatric surgeon, is hardly a role model. She confesses she often wears Manolo Blahnik heels at work. “I know theimpor tance of healthy feet, but as a woman, I understand the psy chological damage that can oc cur when a person is denied fash ionable shoes,” she says. Pick a part, Pierce a part: High fashion in the 90s By Larry McShane ASSOCIATED PRESS Writer MONTCLAIR, NJ. The ear (ouch). The nose (Ouch). The cheek (Ouch!). The nipple (OUCH!). The genitals (0000000UCH!!) Body-piercing, once the domain of thespiked dogcollarset, hasrelocat ed from the subculture to the sub urbs, Manhattanand San Francisco aren’t the only places to pierce any more; from Wildwood,N.J., toSanta Monica, Calif,, piercing shops are now staples. ‘ There’s even one here in down town Montclair, town of choice for yuppiesfleeingManhattan’s crowds and crime. On a tree-lined street lined with wood-frame homes, a hardwarestore and a beauty parlor, an average of 50 folks per week take a sharp needle through a body part at Ink-Credible Tattoo. “Some people go every week for a manicure, a massage or a sauna,” explains Christine Brief, co-owner of the husband-and-wife piercing place. “Other people come here. It's part of their lifestyle.” Prominent celebrity lifestyle con verts include navel-pierced supermodels Naomi Campbell and Christy Turlington. “The Crying Game” star Jaye Davidson prefers nipple jewelry. NBA star Dennis Rodman rebounds (when he’s not suspended or AWOL) with pierced ears, a pierced nose and a pierced navel. Guns n’ Roses guitarist Slash has a nose ring. But the rich, famous and punc tured are not alone. Ever imagine bank tellers with nose rings? Law yers with nipple bars? Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee, reflecting on his pierced ears, noseand nipple, now sees himselfas somewhat wimpy. 'i"‘; “Those piercings are considered worthless and weak in thg '9os,” says Lee, whose holes date back to the'early 1980 s. “Unless you have a bolt through your (O0O00000UCH!!), you're not making it in the '9os.” Piercing tip No. 1, from Maria Tashjian of Venus Modern Body Art in Manhattan: When piercing the tongue, use extreme caution. “You can't just pierce randomly, because there are two major veins that go up its underside.” At Tashjian’s East Village pierc ingboutique, tongue piercing ($35) is No. 2 on the most requested list, behind navels (SSO) and ahead of nipples ($55). The friendly staff appears somewhat threatening, mostly because they sport enough facial jewelry to set off metal de tectors. “I never saw piercing as;a fad,” says Tashjian, who displays an as sortment of ear piercings, two nose rings, a septum (the cartilage that separates the nostrils) pielggyg and astud protruding from herlowerlip. That look — including a one-inch hole in her right ear, the result of a process called stretching — is rela tively tame. EmployeeJohnDolceis fastclosinginontwodozenpigzmgs' . Body piercing has escaped the “drunken-sailor-on-shore-leave” stigma that goes ink-in-arm with tattooing. For one thing, piercings aren’t permanent (Roseanne, Johnny Depp and Mark Gastineau are just three people embroidered with the name of an ex-loved one.) Tattoos are done in, parlors; piercingsareperformedinboutiques. The level of hygiene is quite high — instruments cleaned in autoclaves, needlesusedjustonce, rubbergloves discarded after each customer. The lobby at Venus Modern Body Artis donein purple and black. The display case is filled with jewelry ready-madeforyoureyebrow (rings, generally) or your cheeks (barbells — just what you think, only small er). f Tashjian taught computer skills to Russianrefugeesbeforesheopted to turn her passioninto her profession. She studied at the Fakir Musafar School of Body PiercinginSan Fran cisco before opening her own shop nearly two years ago. f, Dressed head to toe in black, with tattoos peeking out on her wrists and neck, Tashjian looks like some one who's into body piercing. But don’t be fooled, she says; lots of un gk!;ly people are sporting body jew “A lot of people can't do facial piercings because of their jobs,” she says. “But there’s a lot of piercings cloaked under business suits.” Piercing tip No. 2: Picking your jewelry is painless. Making a hole for it is not. Tony Paternoster, of Totowa, N.J., rates nipple piercing as No. 1 on the ouch-ometer, although he says get ting the back of his neck lanced was no picnic, either. ' The back of his neck? “You clamp the neck, as tight as you can with as much skin as you can pull, and then pierce right through it,” he explains. A bent bar- PR . 0 Lot YR oy i « ‘ i;E | 4 _ F | n’} g percent of their ear lobes. RN, G g e bell is slipped through the hole, cre ating a look that recently cost him jobs as a lifeguard and flower deliv ery hoy. At 22, Paternoster is in the same age group as many piercers: 18 to 30 years old. But his interest pre dates the outbreak of body-piercing that began in 1993, starting on the fashion runways of Paris. Montclair piercer Cary Brief, who handled all of Paternoster’s perfora- - tions, saysthe rush ofbusinesssince | has remained constant. : “This is not a fad like a hula hoop : or amood ring, where you can put it ; on, takeitoff, and forget aboutit,”he * says. “You've got to get your nerve | up, sit in the chair, and get it done.” | Piercing tip No. 3, from Pater- ; noster: Attempt to keep track of ; exactly how many holes you havein | your body. 4 “Right now, probably 15 t 0 20,” he says, running down a mental check- } list. “Nipples, navel, tongue, four in | the lips, septum, nostril, eyebrow, | back of neck, genitals. That covers g | London body piercer Teena Maree, who did the navel-pietcing job on } Campbell and Turlington, has 23 | piercings of her own. It’s not unusu al to see people with a dozen or more | visible piercings at one of the local ; shops. ‘ ' } “It’s kind of addicting,” says Tashjian. “Once youget a piercing 4 done, you start thinking of the next one. At least for me, it was like, “That’s beautiful. What am I gonna get next?” Butdon’t get the impression that four out of every five Americans is walking around with a half-dozen holes in their body. A study done this year by the Inverness Corp., a major manu facturer of piercing equipment, found that 89 percent of the peo plequizzed would only needle their ear lobes. Those who feel differently say they’ve been pierced for different reasons: Rite of passage. Sexual pleasure. Celebration. And that old standby, rebellion. “My parents —every time I come home with something new, they’re freaked out,” Paternoster says. “That shock factor probably has a lot to do with it. I love watching the reaction.”