Yana Nadelyaeva
From the very first moment after I arrived in the USA and on the LIU-Post campus, I noticed something very funny thing to me. Every time when I wear some adorable pair of shoes like my beloved high heels and walk through campus paths, I see widely opened eyes, looking at me with amazement, and mute question in the air: “Is everything OK with her? Why is she wearing heels?” From time to time I am asked, “How can you walk on them?”
Well, I can walk in heels. I can dance in heels the whole night in a club; I even can jump and run in them I am Russian and I wore shoes with heels for the first time when I was 13, since then I practically don’t take them off and I swear-I prefer them to any other kind of footwear!
Maybe it sounds amazing to you, but any Russian girl surely wears shoes with heels for partying, dating or studying, and may be for going to the nearest grocery or walking with her dog- at least I do. And I assure you- I’m not alone!
What is really a funny thing is that here in a foreign country, we Russian girls recognize each other not by faces or language, but by the high heels. As usual we are the only ones who wear high heeled shoes in general life.
I don’t know why it’s so. I’m from the generation that has grown up on the series “Sex and the City”. Before I first came to NYC, I was sure that all women in Manhattan, like Carry Bradshaw, were wearing shoes with high heels by Manolo Blahnik. The reality turned out to be quite the opposite and disappointing.
But anyway, this series can’t explain why we Russian girls are so faithful to heels. “Sex and the City” is an American production, but it’s so famous and extremely popular all round the world. Nevertheless, it’s obvious that only Russian women are so crazy about fashion in general and about shoes with high heels in particular. My mother and my grandmother used to wear heels, though they didn’t have such shows in their youth.
Maybe the answer to this question lies somewhere in our origin or inner culture. But, I can see the proof of it that when I was a kid, I really adored trying on my mother’s shoes with heels and making attempts to walk like a model in my tiny room. I don’t remember it (my mother told me), but what I can see now is that the most favorite game of my little sister (she is just 4 years old) is to come to my room when I’m not there, to drag off my innumerous pairs of shoes and dresses from the wardrobe, to clothe in and to spin before a mirror. It’s so funny and sweet to watch it.
So, for the first time I think about the question why we Russian girls like shoes with high heels so much- and I still can’t give the exact answer. But what I surely know is that I do love heels and I will never stop wearing them, even when I’ll be 70-something years old!
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