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Why Old People Play Teens and Soaps Look That Way; Plus, the Red Carpet Dangling-Toe Epidemic

by Leslie Gornstein | February 18, 2006

In red carpet pictures, it appears that most women's toes hang over the edges of their open-toe shoes. It looks horrible, as if their shoes don't fit properly. Why is this?
  Nikki, Columbus, Ohio

Jada Pinkett Smith pays a high price for looking this tall: toe slippage.

A.B. Replies: If you're hoping I will blame ignorant celebrities--or some untouchably cliquish glam squad that orbits those celebrities in perfect ellipses and does whatever their clients say for $3,000 a day--then rejoice. Rejoice and huzzah, for the gawky-toe beautiful people you've spotted are indeed clueless.

Let's start with your basic red carpet shoe factoids. Most of these sandals have a heel that's three to four and a half inches high. That's high. This would explain why power sprite Jada Pinkett Smith isn't mistakenly shunted to the kiddie table during awards ceremonies and forced to eat gourmet chicken nuggets and spaghetti with Dakota Fanning.

Most of the shoes you see on the red carpet--at least, the ones worn by female A-listers and nominees--are borrowed or gifted by fashion houses eager for publicity. Ninety percent of the time, the formal sandals are also the proper size. Additionally, most of the shoes also consist of one of the following combinations: very skinny straps of leather; Swarovski crystals; $2 million worth of diamonds by Stuart Weitzman; the sweat and tears of three dozen Italian virgins who have been kept in an underground cobbling facility below the hills of Tuscany and have begun to forget what daylight looks like; and maybe some glass beads from Milan.

These are, usually, very, very well-crafted shoes. At least, from an aesthetic perspective.

"Let's be honest," says top Hollywood stylist Ricci DeMartino, who has dressed Lisa Kudrow for the Oscars. "It's more about style over function."

However, the real problem isn't the design, but rather the wearer, who may not know how to avoid the toe-hanging you so despise.

According to DeMartino, who, through the respected Cloutier Agency, has also clothed Patricia Heaton and worked with Courteney Cox, Denise Richards and Rebecca Romijn, there is a simple solution to the slipping problem. They're called Foot Petals, he says, and "you can find them in any department store."

"They're pads that kind of help the ball of the foot stay on the pad of the shoe and not move forward," he explains. "You put them at the front of the shoe, right at the ball of the foot."

In other words, stylists who don't know about Foot Petals may be responsible for making their clients look like endangered South-American parrots perched on a shaky dowel.

Two other factors contribute to toe-hanging. One, says Jennifer Heim, owner of the trendy Related boutique in Los Angeles, is sweat. Nervous or overheated celebrities may perspire to the point where they're sliding right out of their shoes.

The other factor: physics.

"It's not that they don't fit properly," says Heim, who also has served as the buyer for Intuition, one of the Hilton sisters' favorite shops. "Your weight slides over the shoe, so your toes go over the edge. It's the weight distribution, pushing you a little bit forward."

And, yes, you read correctly: A-list actresses do have weight.

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Look for the next installment of Answer B!tch Sat., Feb. 25