Buying heels that are too big for your feet is not a celebrity shoe hack.
At least since Megan Markle stepped out in a pair of strappy stilettos that looked like her feet were swimming in them, clickbait footwear authors have had a blast celebrating the latest “celebrity shoe hack”.
The supposed “shoe hack” is that celebrities buy high heels which are too big for their feet and therefore they are more comfortable.
Sounds simple, right? All you need to do to avoid blisters and have a comfortable high heel experience is to buy a pair of shoes that are the wrong size for your feet.
Let’s give this silly idea a moment’s thought.
Let’s start with the absurdity of the proposition that everyone who isn’t a celebrity is wearing the wrong sized shoes, and anyone who is a celebrity has got the right ones on. This seems implausible.
And if the wrong sized shoes were really the right sized shoes, wouldn’t we have wrong and right confused?
So why are celebrities sometimes seen in shoes that look too big for their feet? There are a number of reasons why this could be the case.
The celeb in question might have bought the shoes when their feet were larger (feet tend to swell during the day) and worn them when they were smaller.
They may have ordered the shoes online or through a stylist or been given them without trying them on. Shoe sizes vary enormously, even within the same brand.
Or they may have erred on the side of “sizing up” to avoid cramming their famous feet into too tight stilettos. There’s no doubt that shoes which are too big are better for your feet than those that are too small, but this misses the point.
The best size shoes are almost always shoes that fit properly. They will hold to your foot correctly and you’re less likely to fall out of them.
Best of all, you’re actually less likely to get blisters if your foot is properly held in place by the parts of the shoe that are designed to hold it in the first place.
The hard truth is that there are lots of ways you can minimise blisters and foot pain when buying and wearing heels. Buying the correct size, for starters. Buying quality shoes and wearing them in properly would be other “hacks” you can employ.
As for buying shoes that are too big for your feet?
That’s one hack you can forget, unless you want to walk around looking like you’re wearing someone else’s heels and are about to fall out of them.