New York* staffers test drive Fall 09 runway shoes

This is the kind of thing I love – an attempt to mix real women with unreal fashion. In this short video (1:51), New York Magazine staffers try on the craziest of the Fall 09 runway shoes, the ones that models apparently fell in. After a quick walk up and back on a sidewalk that seems to be just outside the magazine’s building, they gave their opinions. Three testers admitted their shoes were uncomfortable, and three testers expressed mild surprise (perhaps a touch of condescension?) that a model could fall in such comfortable shoes. What these women were testing was really not comfort. They were testing basic walkability. See Nina Ricci's 8.5" platform heelless shoes that make you walk on tiptoe. A truer test would be walking the same course that the models walked on the runway. Or wearing the shoes for several hours. And was it just me, or did the staffer testing the "comfortable" Manolo Blahniks have a bit of a wobbly ankle situation?

*I have to say that I love New York Magazine’s fashion blog The Cut for its insidery tone (which is not too too) and its inevitable New York sass, sometimes reflected in comments that are shocking and priceless.