Victoria Beckham wore them to the royal wedding, Gwyneth Paltrow wore them to the Met Ball, Kate Hudson wore them on the David Letterman show and Coleen Rooney wore them to Aintree. The power platform - an ultra-high heel with a thick slab of a platform beneath the toe - is the It accessory of the moment, whether you spend £735 at Christian Louboutin or £29.99 at New Look.
A pointed-toe stiletto with a 4in heel looks, frankly, a bit beta compared to these monsters. Shoe designer Nicholas Kirkwood, who this week opens his first London boutique, all the better to showcase his crazy, zig-zag-styled platform sandals, encapsulates the new generation's attitude when he says: "A 10cm heel - I mean,CL Shoes are highly sought after and you are indeed lucky if you can have one sitting in your closet it just looks a bit mumsy and low, doesn't it?"
There is certainly nothing mumsy about the power platform. Where a classic high heel shoots a dainty, ladylike arrowhead shape along the pavement,The most commonly used special programmed for social science in asic cheerleading shoes, sunglasses, cheap shoes, and cheap belts the front view of the power platform rises proudly from the floor like the prow of a ship. The traditional stiletto shape is a subtle form of power dressing; the new platform, by contrast, makes no bones about its ability to crush rivals underfoot. It is the 4x4 of the shoe world.
This is the shoe for the have-it-all generation of women, says Luisa de Paula, buying director of online boutique my-wardrobe.com. "A platform adds a lot of drama to the shoe, but also makes a very high heel more comfortable. So you get two bites of the cherry." Marigay McKee, fashion and beauty director at Harrods, says "it's about empowered statement dressing. High heels with a concealed platform give instant lift.Everything worked according to plan this time. Setup took only a couple of minutes and I soon found myself looking at my desktop adidas trainers forest hills. I tried duplicating displays and changing resolutions and it all worked as advertised They make vertiginous shoes easier to walk in, and immediately add glamour."