Our Lady of Immaculate Soles: The Cult of Stilettos

Just last month, we saw a fun documentary, God Save My Shoes, directed by Julie Benasra and produced by Thierry Daher. It's now available on DVD (click the film's name, above, to go to the site), and it's a worthwhile purchase for anyone who loves shoes, or is simply interested in the symbolic roles they've played throughout history. There are interviews with designers like Manolo Blahnik, Walter Steiger and, bien sûr, Christian Louboutin, whose Fall 2012 collection we recently previewed in Paris and New York (where we saw this chic glitter pump with a vinyl vamp piped with nude patent, and a black bow). The film's director also spoke to fashion historians (including Valerie Steele, director of The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology, and Elizabeth Semmelhack, senior curator at the Bata Shoe Museum); sexual psychologists; and even an orthopedic surgeon. But the real stars are the various women who literally bare their soles for the camera. Personalities as different as burlesque star Dita Von Teese, pop singers Kelly Rowland and Fergie, and prima ballerina Marie-Agnès Gillot (from the Opéra de Paris) either take the viewer into their closets or sit and wax poetic about what shoes mean to them. And if you're a shoe addict yourself, you'll recognize more than a few kindred spirits.