High heel shoes: the new fashion faux pas

This just in from the Wall Street Journal Fashion Section: high-heeled shoes appear to be very yesterday, and flats are in.

According to the article published last week entitled, “Are High Heels Dead?”, there’s been a strong trend toward low flat shoes like sneakers and flats that may lead to a lasting change in women’s footwear. For example, this Spring, high-heels were nowhere to be seen on the fashion runways.

Rejoice!

As the woman who first discovered the link between high-heeled shoes and increased knee joint torques related to knee osteoarthritis is 1998, I couldn’t be happier. If you never saw it, for giggles, see this clip on ABC’s 20/20:

I have to admit that my feelings have been a little hurt all these years that fashion didn’t immediately change with that discovery. Come on, you’d think that something as significantas knee arthritis would trump fashion, but it didn’t. Until now! Ha!

I’d like to think that our OESH La Vida has had a little something to do with this recent shift in fashion. Yes, I designed OESH with health in mind, but guess what? Our La Vida has become, gulp, a fashion statement and we are getting requests to, gulp again, feature them in fashion shows. (When we actually accept a request, we’ll let you know.)

Of course, you OESHers don’t need Paris or the Wall Street Journal to tell you that your La Vidas are a fashionable flat shoe option. Thank you for posting on social media outlets and sending us pictures of your wearing them at weddings and other fancy occasions. Please keep posting and sending pictures because healthy is and forever will be fashionable.

D. Casey Kerrigan, Mary K. Todd, Patrick O. Riley. Knee Osteoarthritis and High-Heeled Shoes. The Lancet. 1998:351(9113):1399-1401.
D. Casey Kerrigan, Jennifer L. Lelas, Mark E. Karvosky. Women’s Shoes and Knee Osteoarthritis. The Lancet. 2001:357(9262):1097-1098.
D. Casey Kerrigan, Jennifer Lelas Johansson, Mary F. Bryant, Jeniffer A. Boxer, Ugo Della Croce, Patrick O. Riley. Moderate-heeled shoes and knee joint torques relevant to the development and progression of knee osteoarthritis. Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. 2005:86(5):871-5.

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