Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Columnist Susan Snyder: High fashion is for the well-heeled

A winning bet Saturday would have been that the woman strolling around the World Shoe Association trade show in gold, stiletto-heel sandals would be soaking her aching feet by noon.

The world's largest shoe show, which closes today, covered two floors in each of the Mandalay Bay and Sands convention centers. And I spent Saturday browsing its aisles -- not for what's hot this spring or fall, but to see what shoe-people wear on their own feet.

And it seems most of those who buy, sell and manufacture shoes prefer ones in which they can actually walk.

Granted, there were some odd choices -- mostly among those who wear "fashion" as opposed to clothes. That poor woman in the gold sandals with the 4-inch heels stood in one place so long, I think she was in too much pain to take another step. Hope someone brought her a sandwich or something.

Maybe the fashion conscious wore comfy shoes because roaming this trade show is more like a trek up Mount Hood than a stroll down Rodeo Drive. My pedometer says I covered three miles in the first two hours.

But another woman's patent-leather Mary Janes had a heel that pitched her so far forward, she had to keep walking just to keep from falling over.

"They try to wear cutie shoes," said Terry Lewis, a buyer from Tampa, Fla., who sank gratefully into Bobbi Montgomery's shoeshine chair outside the Mandalay Bay expo hall.

"For instance, these are my Gucci boots," Lewis said. "You can't come here wearing some old, cheesy boots."

Her Guccis were in need of a polishing. Snow and sleet had taken their toll during a shoe show in Philadelphia two weeks ago. Lewis conceded the pointy toes and skinny heels weren't the smartest choice for that trip.

"I'm a fashionista, though," Lewis said. "I've always been that way, and I've got the toes to prove it."

The boots were bearable Saturday, she said, thanks to generous padding under the carpet in Mandalay Bay's expo hall.

"There are some trade shoes where the floor is so bad, you're dying in heels like this," Lewis said while Montgomery massaged lotion into the leather. "But I'll get in, do what I have to do and get out because let's face it. Vegas isn't all about work."

However, some people are paid for their pain, Lewis said. She pointed across the concourse at a woman wearing a denim micro-mini with black, fur-topped surfer boots (a look I still don't understand).

"Look at her, right there. You see that Playboy emblem on the side? Somebody's paying for that, I'll tell you," Lewis said.

She handed Montgomery $10 for an $8 shoeshine and was off, her gait hiding whatever evils her podiatrist will reveal in five years.

That made nine shines for Montgomery since she'd opened her stand three hours earlier. On a good day, she'll do 42 shines in a shift that can last 10 hours.

She quit her office management job two years ago. Shoeshine money is comparable and the work more interesting, though harder.

"After my first day, I had so many aches and pains. I felt muscles I didn't even know I had," she said.

A man climbed into the chair and propped his dogs on the footrest. His shoe fashion statement: The season's "new black" is actually black, and the style is like-Dad-used-to-wear sensible.

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