Lynne McCrossan: Every girl's sole is touched by a footwear fascination

Published on Monday 15 March 2010 09:03

ONCE upon a time, in a far away land . . .

The story of a girl called Cinderella, her one true love and THAT glass slipper, is told to millions of wide-eyed little girls each night just before bedtime.

The fable focuses on fabulous footwear that fixes all Cinders' problems by leading our heroine to her happy ever after.

From infancy the tale embeds itself in our tiny female brains, growing with us into adulthood. So is it really that much of a surprise when we all end up developing an overwhelming addiction to high heels?

Shoe addicts walk amongst us every day, they are easy to spot, all you have to do is look south of their ankle for that telltale sign.

Imelda Marcos, Carrie Bradshaw~ and Tamara Mellon are some of our more vocal female shoe fanatics but it's not just us girls purring over pumps. Billy Connolly boasts of owning more than 100 sets of shoes and still gets teary when thinking about a pair of leopard print brogues he lost almost 20 years ago.

Girlfriends of mine go mental when a stiletto is snapped or scuffed on our cobbled streets.

As our obsession reaches fever pitch and heel heights soar, that quest for a unique footwear fix becomes ever more elusive – that was until the "shoe out of poo" made its debut.

Artist Insa and shoe designer Ruth Shaw, creators of Insa Heels, have spawned a staggering shoe made out of elephant dung that towers at an impressive ten inches. Produced for Tate Britain the shoes are currently on display at the gallery – in all their resin coated, beading and painted glory.

The platforms were a hot topic of discussion when I popped into see our city's very own "shoexpert" Pam Jenkins – she giggled as she told me: "I don't think the heel height will catch on in Edinburgh but it does give a new slant to the phrase I've just stood on a piece of s***!"

Capital Catwalk

Craig Keane and Dan Cavanagh on the East Coast Train from London to Edinburgh.

I clocked this couple as I boarded my train back to the 'burgh' at Kings Cross last week and loved their collective look.

Dan's denim shirt is a vintage picking with her hat hailing from H&M, skirt Reiss and specs/socks combo from American Apparel.

Craig's jumper is also from H&M and that hat was picked up in TK Maxx.