Season's hottest shoe a foot fashion faux pas

• Article
• Comments ()
• Click-2-Listen
• Videos

By

They're edgy. They're wedgy.

And they're sending fashion-forward women tipping and toppling like Star Skater Barbie.

The "wedge" -- with cork, wood or woven bamboo elevated soles -- is the height of summer footwear.

Wedges range from $58 at Nine West to designer Isabel Fiore's $300 straw platform sandal, which measures in at a staggering 5 inches tall.

Women falling for the fad are suffering from sprained ankles and other injuries.

"I've had two patients in the last 10 days who have slipped off their wedges," said Dr. Rock G. Positano, a celebrity podiatrist in New York.

The doctor said both patients were young women who had sustained twisted ankles. He is advising patients who wear the wedge heels to do so for short periods of time, at a pool party or the beach, and not to attempt to stroll for blocks in them.

"And I'm afraid, with vacation time coming up, many women are going to take them for sightseeing. They're just asking for trouble," Dr. Positano said. "These shoes affect a person's ability to know where the ground is. They don't have that mechanism anymore. There's no stability."

Allison Purmort, sales assistant at Washington's recently opened Intermix boutique, modeled a pair. "I fall off my Missoni's. But they're really high. They're 5 inches."

On M Street NW, the Kate Spade store has sold out of all its $295 "Cabos," with a 4-inch-tall basket-weave heel. The style comes in black and pink, and customers don't blink when their feet are painfully inverted almost to a 90-degree angle.