http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/04/09/fashion.shoes.heels/index.html?hpt=C2
Yep, hotel stairs, uneven tiles, you name it. Teens, perpetually curious and anxious to be ‘in’, will try it…some of them novices to high heels. Sigh. I routinely balance on ice on a quarter inch of steel, and I think this fashion is risky to the max.
To paraphrase P.T. Barnum, you will never go broke underestimating public taste.
Roman prostitutes wore them with SEQVI carved on the bottom in reverse. “Follow me.” At least they had a practical purpose.
Venetian fashionistas used to wear them to get over the flooded bits of pavement and keep their pricey dress-hems clear of what flowed from the alleys (say the smallest were used as latrines).
Greek drama used them to make the exaggerated masks more in scale and to give the actors a little boost toward the level of the audience (acoustics). But all the actors were male.
Outside of advertising, theater, and high tide, I cannot think of a helpful use.
I’ll tell you one more reason these shoes are not beautiful: if the person wearing them does not have the skill of an acrobat to walk gracefully in these with head up, the instinct is to ‘turtle’ the head and shoulders forward while walking, and to move with a lurching gait. Watch the head alignment of a person walking in these. I have seen professional models turtle in these things. It ain’t pretty.