The rise of the power platform

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Victoria Beckham wore them to the royal wedding, Gwyneth Paltrow wore them to the Met Ball, Kate Hudson wore them on the David Letterman show and Coleen Rooney wore them to Aintree. The power platform – an ultra-high heel with a thick slab of a platform beneath the toe – is the It accessory of the moment, whether you spend £735 at Christian Louboutin or £29.99 at New Look.
A pointed-toe stiletto with a 4in heel looks, frankly, a bit beta compared to these monsters. Shoe designer Nicholas Kirkwood, who this week opens his first London boutique, all the better to showcase his crazy, zig-zag-styled platform sandals, encapsulates the new generation's attitude when he says: "A 10cm heel – I mean, it just looks a bit mumsy and low, doesn't it?"
There is certainly nothing mumsy about the power platform. Where a classic high heel shoots a dainty, ladylike arrowhead shape along the pavement, the front view of the power platform rises proudly from the floor like the prow of a ship. The traditional stiletto shape is a subtle form of power dressing; the new platform, by contrast, makes no bones about its ability to crush rivals underfoot. It is the 4x4 of the shoe world.
This is the shoe for the have-it-all generation of women, says Luisa de Paula, buying director of online boutique . "A platform adds a lot of drama to the shoe, but also makes a very high heel more comfortable. So you get two bites of the cherry." Marigay McKee, fashion and beauty director at Harrods, says "it's about empowered statement dressing. High heels with a concealed platform give instant lift. They make vertiginous shoes easier to walk in, and immediately add glamour."
If buyers love these shoes, it's because they fly off the shelves, thanks to womankind's seemingly insatiable appetite for added height. These shoes can make you very, very tall.

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The Christian Louboutin Daffodil heels that Beckham wore to Westminster Abbey, have a 16cm (6.5in) heel, with a 6.5cm (2.5in) concealed platform – you can't see where the upper ends and the sole begins. Victoria Beckham, who stands 5ft 6in in bare feet, is over 6ft in her Daffodils. The modern eye, accustomed to seeing clothes on catwalk models, reads that silhouette as desirable, rather than freakishly tall.
The rise of the platform as a shoe with sex appeal can be traced back to the YSL Tribute sandal, which was a cult hit on the front row two years ago. The Tribute was a game-changer, transforming the 70s platform sole from the butt of the style joke into something sleek, streamlined and with impressive leg-lengthening properties. Such has been the success of the Tribute that a new version has lowered the heel, while keeping the platform the same height, so that the "pitch" or angle of the foot is less steep. In the new Tribute, the platform makes up 4cm of a 14cm heel. The higher proportion of sole to heel is frowned upon by design purists, but seized upon by women who like to walk rather than hobble.
Shoe designers Kirkwood and Charlotte Olympia have staked their claims to fame on overt, quirky pieces in which the platform, far from being concealed, is accentuated in contrasting lines, colours or fabrics. The concealed platform, alternatively, is all about a slick, ultra-feminine look. (It is no coincidence that Cheryl Cole and Beckham, the two Wags-who-made-it-big, are both big fans of the look.)
The ubiquity of the concealed platform among celebrities has sparked n inevitable backlash. Some commentators have dubbed the Daffodil style of super-platform the new "slag shoe". With all types of glamour and grooming – blow-dried hair, tanned skin, makeup, long nails – too much exaggeration kills the sophistication. The power platform has come to represent artifice in the way the Wonderbra-boosted cleavage once did. "There is a point where it starts looking like a pole dancer's shoe," warns De Paula.
Shoe designer Jonathan Kelsey can still see the appeal of a concealed platform – "it's nice to have something a bit hidden about a shoe, it makes it more seductive" – but concedes that the proportions on today's versions are becoming "a bit Minnie Mouse." Gianvito Rossi, the son of Sergio Rossi, is quietly making progress on fashion's inside lane – American Vogue loves him, Carine Roitfeld wears his designs – with a focus on single-sole (non-platform shoes) that are delicate, even fragile-looking. Kirkwood also says he'd like to design more single-sole pieces, "but all over the world, right now, women want platforms".
"Next season is all about the platform boot," says McKee. "The standouts for us include YSL's amazing Tribute boots, McQueen's chic ankle boots and Balmain's power lace-up boots." De Paula agrees. "We've got a lot of concealed platform boots for autumn/winter. Platforms aren't going anywhere – for as long as women want to wear heels, they will be continue to be popular." The backlash? For now at least, it looks set to be trampled underfoot.
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