Let's Discuss: Crazy Heels and the Towering Heights

An assortment of mad, multi-story shoes from Alexander McQueen's seasons past.

I am really petite, and take great pleasure in donning a lovely pair of heels to give me a little boost.  However I do have a limit, my high heel height limit is 3.5".  If I go beyond that limit I become a teetering, tripping mess.  I know some women would scoff at my inability to wear a 4" heel, but even 4" heels seem quaint compared to the new heights that heels have reached.  Not only has the heel height been climbing, the rest of the shoe has been pushing the limits of what would be considered footwear and what should be a sculptural work of art.

I know crazy high heels are nothing new, designers have been sending them down the runways the last few years.  I recall a wave of shock when Alexander McQueen's armadillo shoes hit the runway a couple years ago.  Sensationalist artwork mostly, but then women started wearing these feats of engineering, well it was mostly Lady Gaga, but others soon followed suit.  Now those seriously strange soles are no longer the trademark of ostentatious designers, maintstream shoe manufacturers are selling sky-high, sculptural stems. I have gathered up a selection of current styles that are dangerously high and/or wonderfully strange.