Designer feet for designer shoes

[Aphro]

How incredibly fucked up we are.

I love pretty shoes as much as the next woman. But to get foot surgery to make your feet fit into designer heels?

Hey! I've got an incredible idea! How about the shoe designers make the shoes to fit women's feet, instead of operating on the feet to make the shoes fit?

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/24/f...-can-wear-designer-shoes-in-comfort.html?_r=0

When Dr. Ali Sadrieh, a podiatrist, started Evo Advanced Foot Surgery in Beverly Hills, Calif., 13 years ago, he thought it seemed a little vain for women to ask for surgery because their feet hurt wearing fashionable shoes.

“Patients would bring in shoes they dreamed of wearing,” he said over tea recently at the St. Regis New York, where he was staying to see New York patients. “On the surface, it looked shallow. But I came to see she needs these shoes to project confidence, they are part of her outside skin. That’s the real world.”

For Dr. Sadrieh (who was wearing made-to-order Gucci brogues), foot surgery is a fusion of medicine and fairy tale. At his practice, you don’t have a bunionectomy; you have a Cinderella procedure.

“I had never met a patient who asked for a hallux valgus correction with osteotomy and screw fixation,” he said. “So I decided to create a name that captures the result of the procedure, without all the Latin. The point of the Cinderella: being able to put a shoe on that didn’t fit comfortably before.”

He also has coined the Perfect 10! (aesthetic toe-shortening — once administered, he said, to a 17-year-old fashion model, so she could wear the shoes her career demanded); Model T (toe-lengthening); and Foot Tuck, a fat-pad augmentation that he said helps with high heels.

And he is not the only doctor changing the face, as it were, of foot surgery.

Dr. Neal Blitz, a podiatrist who specializes in aesthetic and reconstructive procedures (including a Bunionplasty) at his private practice in Manhattan, and operates at Mount Sinai Hospital, calls this body part “the final frontier” for those who have had work done on their faces. “My practice has exploded because of Manolo Blahnik, Christian Louboutin and Nicholas Kirkwood,” he said in a recent phone interview. “There’s nothing like opening a shoe closet that’s been closed to somebody for years.”

Perish all thought of Dr. Scholl’s or Birkenstocks in these waiting rooms. Dr. Oliver Zong, founder of NYC Footcare and self-proclaimed “originator of the foot face-lift and toe tuck,” routinely corrects such conditions as High Heel Foot (a term he coined to describe a deformed foot that’s conformed to the shape of a stiletto), and Hitchhiker’s Toe, (an abnormally large big toe that sticks out like the thumb of a hitchhiker). He recently introduced the phrase “Toebesity,” which he plans to describe on his site, where flashing text promises: “Designer feet for designer shoes.”

One designer, Cathy Hardwick, who gave Tom Ford his first assistant job, had bilateral bunion surgery from Dr. Richard Frankel, the founder of Park 56 Podiatry, in 2008. “He didn’t want to operate, it was so little,” she said of the bump. But, she added: “It was unsightly and it hurt when I wore certain shoes. A few years later he operated. My foot is perfect now. And I can wear sandals I couldn’t wear before.”

Indeed, it’s not unusual for patients to walk into Dr. Suzanne Levine’s Institute Beauté, a podiatry clinic and medical spa on Park Avenue, with a bag full of shoes they can’t wear because of bunions and hammertoes. Victorian boots, Jimmy Choos and Manolo Blahniks are some of the examples on floor-to-ceiling glass shelves. Dr. Levine consults with patients on the designer high heels best suited to their particular feet, knowing, for example that both Prada and Michael Kors make a wider-than-average shoe last. “Some people won’t go to the beach or the pool, they’re so embarrassed about their feet,” said Dr. Levine, who was wearing chunky-heeled Michael Kors bootees during a recent interview.

Her solutions, described in five books such as, “My Feet Are Killing Me,” include, among others, platelet-rich plasma therapy; stem-cell injections; injectable fillers for metatarsal cushioning; Botox; Dysport; Myobloc for excess sweating. She also advocates exercises for the feet.

The craziest request she’s received? “Once a patient came in asking for toe liposuction,” Dr. Levine said incredulously. And Dr. Zong said he had a patient ask to have a pinkie toe removed to fit into her shoes. Neither request was granted.

Dr. Jonathan T. Deland, chief of the foot and ankle service and attending orthopedic surgeon at the Hospital for Special Surgery, is opposed to even less-radical cosmetic procedures.

“The most important thing about a foot is that is doesn’t hurt you and you can function,” he said. “If we’re just talking about three-and-a-half-inch-heel stilettos that cause pain and if they wear a two-and-a-half-inch heel with no pain, then that’s probably not a good reason to do surgery.”

Dr. Deland is cautious about injections designed to pad the feet. “If there was an injection that really worked and that lasted, a lot of good doctors would be using it, because it’s a common problem,” he said. “The answer is, there is not. The patient should ask, ‘Hey, doctor, can you give me the article or the reference that shows long-term follow-up for that procedure?’ ”

But to Annette Healey, an executive vice president in retail services with CBRE, elective bunion surgery felt like a necessity. “Sneakers never worked for my career,” said Ms. Healey. She had elective bunion surgery in 2011 two days after Christmas, “while everyone was away in St. Barts,” she added, so she “could camouflage it better with Uggs.”

Her orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Craig Radnay, told her that her gait had become increasingly affected by her foot issues and that she was hurting her back.

Ms. Healey said she can now walk 20 miles in fashionable boots. “If you live in New York, your feet are your wheels,” she said. Though she spends 95 percent of her time in chic flats or wedges, she also wears Prada, Manolo and Gucci heels. But there are limits. “Sadly, I will never get my foot into a Christian Louboutin,” she said.

 

[pointless]

i have wide feet. i sympathize, but not that much. if my shoes don't fit i don't buy them. surgery is not even an option.

also girls have the worst fucking shoes in general. heels are inhuman. stop wearing them. it is madness.

 

[JohnnySavage]

Crocs fit anyone.

 

[subdued_passion]

Back in school I would've happily got that done if someone had offered. I have wide feet and I'm tall so finding pretty shoes with heels was next to impossible and I always felt so self-conscious about my ugly feet.

 

[BotanyBoy]

Jesus titty fuckin' Christ.......what a bunch of fucking retards.

 

[chillywilly2]

If your'e tall, you gotta have big feet...that way you don't topple over

 

[pointless]

seriously though: i fucking hate heels.

 

[Aquagal]

What a stupid way for society to further make women feel they must conform. The only heels I can muster these days is a thick block heel on a boot. Wearing pumps in the bush would just be silly.

 

[RjThoughts]

Crocs fit anyone.

Crocs, the only 100% effective form of birth control

 

[RjThoughts]

Back in school I would've happily got that done if someone had offered. I have wide feet and I'm tall so finding pretty shoes with heels was next to impossible and I always felt so self-conscious about my ugly feet.

Now, shoe boutiques have wide sizes. How do I know this? Wife spends my bonus checks at Nine West and Aldo

 

[pointless]

no, gay sex is pretty solid on that front as well.

 

[chillywilly2]

What a stupid way for society to further make women feel they must conform. The only heels I can muster these days is a thick block heel on a boot. Wearing pumps in the bush would just be silly.

Its not society...its women....my secretary is addicted to shoes and it isn't because her husband pushes her to buy more.

A woman asks a man, how do you like my shoes (and she askes because he didn't even notice them) he says, oh yeah, those are real nice and he is thinking, great, there goes another 2 hundred bucks.

 

[chillywilly2]

seriously though: i fucking hate heels.

Society is pushing you to wear them right?

 

[pointless]

Its not society...its women....my secretary is addicted to shoes and it isn't because her husband pushes her to buy more.

A woman asks a man, how do you like my shoes (and she askes because he didn't even notice them) he says, oh yeah, those are real nice and he is thinking, great, there goes another 2 hundred bucks.

her husband isn't society. he's part of it, but he's hardly the whole thing. in fact, he's a barely a blip, a speck of paint on the big picture.

 

[pointless]

Society is pushing you to wear them right?

no, society has no interest in increasing the visual length of my legs to improve my sex appeal.

 

[RjThoughts]

$200 shoes? I think my wife's purchased one, maybe two pairs of shoes that much just to spoil herself, but she's of the mind of "Why get one pair at that price when you can go during a sale and get 4, 5 pairs for $200" mindset.

 

[chillywilly2]

her husband isn't society. he's part of it, but he's hardly the whole thing. in fact, he's a barely a blip, a speck of paint on the big picture.

the way she has been talking lately, you're right...he is barely a blip in her life anymore

 

[chillywilly2]

no, society has no interest in increasing the visual length of my legs to improve my sex appeal.

try wearing shorts...maybe they would look good that way

 

[chillywilly2]

$200 shoes? I think my wife's purchased one, maybe two pairs of shoes that much just to spoil herself, but she's of the mind of "Why get one pair at that price when you can go during a sale and get 4, 5 pairs for $200" mindset.

I am so blessed...I don't think my wife owns 10 pairs unless you count her rubber boots and snow shoes

 

[RjThoughts]

I am so blessed...I don't think my wife owns 10 pairs unless you count her rubber boots and snow shoes

She has way too many shoes, but she doesn't like wearing the same pair more than once a week, or two weeks. We've found that it's STILL cheaper than when she smoked

 

[unregistered]

 

[chillywilly2]

anything is cheaper than smoking...especially in Canada...I think they are 10 bucks a pac now

 

[RjThoughts]

anything is cheaper than smoking...especially in Canada...I think they are 10 bucks a pac now

I haven't a clue what they are in NY state, since she gave it up almost three years ago, and our son and I never picked up the filthy habit.

 

[thør]

https://scontent-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-frc3/t1.0-9/1002668_741185362568736_5707766317617444782_n.jpg

 

[LiFeNdEaTh]

*clicks