What's the most you would pay for a pair of shoes?

I have a confession to make. I don’t like shoes. I know that women are supposed to be notorious for their love of shoes but I just don’t see the point. To me, shoes are functional. Shoes should be comfortable, flat and not too ornate. Boots, however, are another matter entirely. Boots are not merely shoes, they are shoes with attitude. I own several pairs of boots and am always on the lookout for more.

According to a recent poll in the UK, women spend more than £33,000 on shoes over the course of their lives. On average, women buy 8 new pairs of shoes a year (some buy at least one pair a month), and have a total of 44 pairs of shoes in their cupboards (8 pairs of which are shoes with attitude). Of the 44 pairs of shoes that a woman owns, 10 have never been worn more than once (if at all) and 3 are too uncomfortable to walk in.

Now, I know that shoes don’t come cheap. The idea of allotting a portion of my monthly earnings to my feet is enough to make me clutch my miserly heart and wail. For some women though, dressing their feet well is more important than eating or owning property. Take Carrie from Sex and the City, for example, she couldn’t afford to buy an apartment but managed to feed an expensive Manolo Blahnik habit.

The most expensive pair of shoes ever made cost $2 million, just over £1 million. These Cinderella Slippers were made by Stuart Weizman and come with four and a half inch heels and 595 carats worth of diamonds in platinum settings. Apparently they’ve been worn by singer Alison Krauss. I looked her up and found out that she’s a famous country/bluegrass singer with 21 Grammy awards, more than any other female artist, and I still don’t know who she is.

The second most expensive shoes in the world were also made by Stuart Weizman, but these only cost $1.8 million (£908,769). They’re a pair of Ruby Slippers, based on the red slippers from the Wizard of Oz. They have 690 rubies and were made for an actress to wear at the Oscars, but she (whoever she is) never did.

Manolo Blahnik makes it to the list of the top three most expensive shoes ever made, but at only $14,000 (£7000), he’s got quite a lot of catching up to do. His entry is a pair of alligator skin boots with nigh on impossible high-heels, as is his norm. Ostrich and snake skin versions are also available, but only in New York.

$2 million is too rich for my blood, but what would you be willing to pay for a perfect pair of shoes? Having bought them, would you then dare to wear them outside, or would they become show case shoes, displayed in a well-lit glass case, to be viewed by appointment only?

Recommended sites:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/femail/article.html?in_article_id=517958&in_page_id=1879

http://www.quazen.com/Shopping/Clothing/The-Worlds-Most-Expensive-Shoes.46114

Sandra wrote this article for the online marketers Phineas Products quality shoe hanger manufacturers one of the leading manufacturers of shoe hangers and shoe related products in the UK.