Laura Slattery reports on the effects slavishly following fashion can have on your feet
Ever had to hit the taxi rank prematurely on a night out because the balls of your feet seem to be burning into the ground? Or toppled over a four-inch heel while making an entrance, breaking an ankle or, worse even, a shoe strap?
Any woman who has answered yes to either of those questions is likely to have sneered at least once in her life at the thought of wearing "sensible" shoes, thinking of them as drearily flat clumpy things made of drab shades of soft leather.
But sacrifice comfort for pointed court shoes or backless kitten heels on a regular basis and the nation's shoe fetishists will soon be hobbling their way to their nearest podiatrist or, in extreme cases, an orthopaedic surgeon, begging for cures to all kinds of deformities, trapped nerves and repetitive strain injuries.
Chiropodists and their cousins, the podiatrists (a chiropodist with a degree in podiatry medicine), are witnessing the results of this ugly sister approach.
"With all the pointy toes and stilettos that have come back into fashion, we are seeing more corns and hammer toes and all of the problems that were associate with winkle-pickers [extremely pointed shoes] in the Sixties," says Ms Jennifer Maxwell, a podiatrist at Dalkey Podiatry Clinic.
Court shoes have no strap across the instep, meaning there is nothing to stop the foot from thrusting forward and the toes getting crammed into the pointed end. For podiatrists, it's a matter of simple geometry. "Our feet are not shaped in a point. Where our toes are, they are round and they need room to move," says Ms Maxwell.
"A lot of women are wearing high courts to work. Fancy stilettos are fine if you're going to a wedding or for occasion wear, but if you wear them from day to day, it will cause corns, affect your posture and shorten your calf muscles."
High heels transfer the weight of our bodies onto the ball of the foot. As the centre of mass of the wearer's body is pushed forward, the spine may bend backwards to compensate, causing back problems. Teetering about long-term also stores up future trouble for ankles, knees and hips.
People who have a hereditary predisposition to bunions may exacerbate them by wearing high heels with narrow toe boxes. These shoes can also cause Morton's Neuroma, an enlarged nerve that creates a sharp, jolt-like pain.
A lot of Ms Maxwell's clients are women aged 20-40, the demographic most likely to suffer in the name of style. "They are very much influenced by Sex and the City and shoe obsessions and they will buy ill-fitting shoes."
Sex and the City heroine Carrie Bradshaw kept her walk-in wardrobe stocked with 100 pairs of Manolo Blahnik high heels, each with a price tag of $400. But throwing money at the problem isn't necessarily the solution.
One client who had spent the equivalent of almost €200 on a pair of shoes once came to her in "the most horrendous" pain, according to Ms Maxwell.
"She didn't understand why she had a corn. All that was in her mind was that she had spent that amount of money. But when she produced the shoe it had two-inch high heels and no strap or back support."
Some professional heel wearers may now be thinking "only two inches? I could climb mountains in those". Four-inch spike heels regularly thump nightclub dance floors at precarious angles, while supermodel Naomi Campbell famously tumbled on the catwalk wearing 12-inch Vivienne Westwood platforms - the kind of cartoon shoes that make walking a dangerous sport.
As fondness for "head over heels" shoes grows, so too does the shelf space at chemists devoted to footcare. Over-the-counter treatments on sale include "party feet" gel cushions, bunion relief pads, "foot butter" and peppermint creams.
"If someone buys silicone gel in a chemist, it will give that person temporary relief, but unless the original footwear is changed, it won't solve the problem," says Mr Niall Donohoe, a podiatrist based at a South Circular Road clinic in Dublin.
People with diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis or poor circulation should regularly visit a podiatrist, he says. Converting to flats on a 24-hour basis won't solve all of our foot crises either.
Women who wear high heels every day for long periods and then suddenly embrace less vertiginous footwear may suffer pain in the backs of their calves, as the muscles get used to the new shape. Switching from heels to flats is one of the causes of plantar fascitis, a common condition where the band of tissue connecting the heel to the toe becomes inflamed.
Flat shoes also don't take the arch of the foot into account, so a person with a high, long arch might actually feel more comfortable wearing a slight heel.
Some flat shoes, such as the brightly coloured pumps that hit shoe shops during the past winter season, score marks for being round-toed, but lose them for being slip-ons, as the shoe needs to be extremely tight to stay on. Backless mules, meanwhile, force the toes to claw as you walk, straining the muscles.
Summer weather unleashes something of a daily dilemma when it comes to clothing our feet.
"Definitely with this heat the number of athlete's foot and fungal nail infections are up," says Mr Donohoe. "People who wear synthetic brands of trainers and don't rotate their shoes will be at risk," he warns.
But some hot weather shoes expose the heels, meaning they may become cracked. "Someone who wears flip-flops for three months during the summer may come in complaining of calluses at the back of the heel," he says.
Slingback sandals are generally good for feet during hot months because they give the sweat glands in our feet a chance to breathe, says Ms Jacqueline Regan, a podiatrist at a Dundrum Road chiropody clinic. These days there are also sturdier models on sale, not just the thin-soled, flimsy kind of old. Fissures on heels can be treated using emollients such as Flexitol, Ms Regan adds.
"Really the rule in summer is to let as much air in as possible," she says. "If you are wearing laced, closed shoes or trainers in the heat, the feet will sweat, so there is a damp, dark environment there for fungal infections to thrive."
We put so much pressure on our feet, they're bound to kick up a fuss if we encase them in murky, rigid shoe prisons, glass slippers or spike-heeled boots that clearly aren't made for walking.