Gentle reader,

Since Scott was away on New Year’s Eve, I pulled my velvet blazer on over my plaid pajamas and spent the evening at home with my elderly widowed friend, Mrs. Clicquot.  A new year was upon us and I was thinking about what we’d be doing differently in the coming months, especially about a couple of articles that I’d read recently—one in Harper’s and the other in Vogue—that seemed to toll the death knell of the platform shoe.

It’s been nearly a decade that you’ve been clunking around in these big things and we’ve got so used to seeing them on every red carpet, pop performance, editorial shoot and street corner that it’s a little shocking to think of them going away, right?  Have you enjoyed the extra height so much that you’ve convinced yourself that they’re actually really comfortable and that you moved really gracefully in them once you got the hang of it?  Well, they might be comfortable but graceful you are not.  Picture, for instance, Grace Kelly gliding along in a crisp blouse, full Dior skirt and killer stilettos.  Had she been wearing Alexander McQueen clodhoppers on her feet, gliding would’ve been impossible; she’d be stomping around like Lady Gaga. (More after the jump.)

Also, many of today’s silhouettes are really crying out for a single-soled shoe.  If you put Versace’s new short, short skirts on with a platform heel, you’ll look like a cheap hooker and that is a look that most (I’m not saying all) women try to avoid.  Those flat gladiator sandals, on the other hand, are what really made that collection work.  Some designers still showed heavy-looking platforms on the Spring 2013 runways, however.  I’ll be the first to admit that I often forget to pay attention to the shoes and bags when fashion week rolls around, but Prada’s hideous toe-thong-sock things might be just what put me over the edge with this platform era.

That’s not to say that you can’t have some fun and whimsy without the previously ubiquitous platform.  Celine’s crazy mink-covered pumps are all over the editorials this month, though I’m not sure how many I’ll be seeing on the street.  The brightly colored, mixed-materials trend that looks like 1985 exploded on your feet and that is exemplified by new shoe design star Sophia Webster certainly couldn’t be called tame.  Nor could Dolce & Gabanna’s exquisitely hand-embroidered low mules.  There really are lots of ways to wear interesting shoes without teetering along, worrying about falling off the damn sidewalk.

Be safe and look fabulous.  Make that your motto for 2013!

Much love,

xxJames

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