Nothing Confidential in High Heel Confidential

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Tonight I watched the CBC documentary “High Heel Confidential”, directed by Alan Burke. I was anticipating an in-depth look at the social and cultural factors influencing the evolution of the heel, and maybe a broader, international consideration of this vertiginous footwear. Let’s say that the disparity between expectation and reality was sizeable, but we’ll get to that later. On the positive, it was an interesting look at Canadian-born, Paris-based, footwear designer Patrick Cox’s work. From his showroom in Paris to the archaic, although nonetheless critical, workshop in Venice, Burke took you behind the beaded ankle straps and satin bows. It was an interesting glimpse into what it takes to make it among the world’s footwear elite.

Equally as interesting was a look at a New York-based designer attempting to harmonize the largely incompatible worlds of high heels and comfort. His retraceable wedges (reminiscent of Hussein Chalyan’s telescoping wooden coffee table-cum-skirt) offered the viewer a peek into what may be the future of footwear.

For the large part, however, the one-hour documentary was disappointingly superficial and trite. It was merely a fat-skimming collection of interviews with today’s major shoe names (Manolo & Choo, although where was Louboutin?), discussions with ruthlessly botoxed New Yorkers, and a hastily done synopsis of the heel’s evolution. The fact that heels are synonymous with power and sex are nothing new, and surely not worthy to warrant an hour long documentary. One must only be in the presence of a heel wearer to reach such conclusions, which, may I point out, the 90s-looking, overexposed vignettes spotted throughout the hour did little to reinforce.

And although Burke did film a woman undergoing bunion-removal surgery merely to reassume her love-affair with this steeply-inclined footwear, I was surprised at no mention of the toe-removal surgery, which many New York woman have been known to gladly undergo, in order to squeeze their toes – one less, of course – into the pointiest of stilettos. If obsession was the intention, this would have been exponentially more powerful than a woman who hastily keeps her precious footwear like one would keep un-regiftable Christmas junk and decoration – unabashedly entangled in plastic Rubbermaid-like containers.

All in all, there was barely anything confidential in “High Heel Confidential”. High heels symbolize sex and power. Tell us something we didn’t know.

Credit Photo: www.cba.ca