After seasons of sky-high stilettos, the dainty demiheel is back. A devotee of five-inch platforms sees how the two stack up. See our roundup of the best kitten heels for fall.
Day one featured a pair of 2.3-inch camel-and-black spectator slingbacks courtesy of Giambattista Valli. The first obstacle was what to wear them with. They call for very tailored looks, like suits, pencil skirts, and slim pants — the kind of thing you could easily envision in a young Jackie Kennedy's closet. Despite it being the height of the summer, I had to delve into pieces typically relegated to early spring and fall. I thought I'd start out simply with a white Carolina Herrera buttoned shirt and a black Prada skirt, a classic ensemble that I can typically lift into the cool air of the fashionsphere with a Burberry trench and a crazy heel. With the kittens, however, I looked like a banker or a hostess or a secretary. In other words: boring. And sad. Already half an hour late for work, I settled on an Yves Saint Laurent cheetah shift, with the idea that the print would distract from the unshakeable retro elegance of the shoes. I added a studded Givenchy cuff to further cut the lady vibe. But just a few steps later, I felt like the shoe had added 10 years to my life. All of a sudden, I had a second husband, stepchildren, and a townhouse on New York's Upper East Side. I was a lady who lunched. I shuffled to the subway, dispirited, toes pinched.
