June Swann, a shoe historian in Northampton UK told Cathy Newman of National Geographic magazine, “Shoes are the best indicator of how people are feeling.” Heel height shadows the rise and fall of prosperity; toe configurations tell of war; and soles' thickness indexes the degree of social change. Shoes have become a significant marker of East vs. Bob Morris reported to the New York Times the significance of shoes as a social and economic marker.



As his friend Brook was putting on a designer cocktail dress for a Santa Barbara CA benefit dinner, she refused high heels, with the remark “I think they're going to be too much.” Amy Swift, a branding consult, explained both Brook's choice and her own with a brisk, “You can't wear high heels without looking like a hooker.” Swift acknowledged that all the shoes she'd moved out from Manhattan gather dust in her closet, while she puts on flip-flops to go out to a restaurant. Manhattan women have picked up Cairo's fashion lead, choosing footless black dancers' tights under short skirts—and even not-so-short skirts—paring them with black heels, wedged espadrilles, and platforms. As Ruth L Ferla describes, “Shoes are the new handbags, having kicked aside chain bags and satchels the size of weekenders as a status signifier.”

Shoes that are big as handbags may be the highest status marker of all. ILC Dover, in Frederica, Delaware, manufactures high-tech shoes for NASA at $30,000 a pair. Dave Graziosi, aerospace engineer, explains: “We're planning for the moon and beyond.” The M2 Trekker will tolerate temperatures from 350 degrees below zero Fahrenheit to 350 above, and resist micrometeoroids at 45,000 miles an hour. Closer to the surface of the earth, whether on the catwalk and on the street, women choose knife-heeled boots, multistrap flats, men's wingtips, towering platform riding boots, and gladiator with seven inches of buckle sandals.

Some of the season's more interesting offerings include shapely black pumps with cut-away sides just like Grandma wore during her overseas war; brown equestrian-look boots with impractical canvas shanks; olive suede pumps with a miniscule heel and scalloped bow; and platformed criss-crossed ankle-strapped heels, brown leather with an indecent pink leather lining. Noted shoe designer Manolo Blahnik, praising the stacked-heel patent-leather pumps designed by his competitors, has dropped a long-standing policy of remaining aloof from US domestic politics, to share his concerns regarding staff working conditions.