on flats

Is it just a London thing or women all over the world are now wearing flat shoes/ballet flats, whatever you call them? Now, first things first, I love ballet, and as a feminist I've always had a thing, ideologically speaking, against high heels: the whole "standard of beauty" thing, as you can imagine, but also just for the simple fact that they ruin your knees and back in the long run plus you can easily get injured. Ankle injury is, of course, painful, as I can personally testify (it's never the same, even after whopping 9 months!!). So, yes, when flats first "arrived" (ages ago), I was cheering, of course, even though, deep down, I had some aesthetic reservations.

Fast forward to London, June 2008. It may be that the nice, dry, sunny weather has people eating lunch in the parks, walking around in cute dresses and linen shirts, but it has a weird effect on me. I'm allergic as hell. The dust and the pollen or whatever it is in the air gets in my eyes literally all the time. When I'm outside, I'm always moody, unless it rains and there's none of that dust/pollen/unidentified particles in the air. So, yes, I may be grumpy and bored, but I'm not exaggerating. If I get a dollar every time I see girl wearing flats, I'll be a millionaire by now.

Okay, ladies. It's getting old. It's not in anymore. And you might say that you don't care about that, you just like flats because they're comfortable. Well, beauty is pain. Just kidding.. or not. Anyways, studies have shown, much to my surprise after googling shoes-related injury, that flats and flip-flops can cause injury too! So there you go.

The thing about flat shoes is that they are kind of awkward looking. It's actually a look that's hard to pull off, in my humble opinion. If you succeed, and many have, kudos to you, and I love you for that. But in most cases.. no. It comes down to this: if you don't have the right legs, and hips, too, I'd say, since many wear them with short shorts or mini-skirts, it just doesn't work.... especially with short shorts and mini-skirts, in fact. (But, actually, even if you have the legs and the hips to make the look work, heels would actually allow you to show off better...)

There are no golden rules, but I think this one comes close: don't make yourself look stockier than you actually are!

PS. I'm no fashion expert. I already miss my intense researching/writing period... Oh those days of not having the time nor the inclination to actually look at the mirror before leaving the house or to check out what other people are wearing. No distractions, I was one-track mind: wake up, coffee, get dressed (in whatever), then work. Okay, so I always looked like shit in the library, so what. But today I looked at the mirror before leaving the building and was slightly disturbed by my decision not to tuck my oversized shirt in even though I was wearing a rather small jacket. It didn't work... Now considering throwing away that shirt.

Can't we all be effortlessly chic?