Russian Girl Demo on High Heel Nail Art Show Cuticle Cutting and Drilling Video
When, last calendar month, a girl in Canada shared a photo on social media of her bloodied feet afterward a piece of work shift in heels as a waitress, information technology triggered a wave of condemnation in the West.
In Russia, the post had little impact. But a glance around a central Moscow shopping center is all it needs to conclude that many Russian women must be secretly sharing her pain. In a period of fifteen minutes waiting at the Yevropeisky shopping center, eight women walk by in stiletto heels of eight centimeters or higher.
Irina, 31, an attractive, slender blonde, is visibly in a rush. Just she stops in her tracks when asked to show off her shoes. Out comes the right foot, showcasing a towering 10-centimeter wedge sandal — it is slowly rotated right, then left. Then, she kicks her leg back, as if in a Marilyn Monroe-way photograph shoot. And suddenly she's off once again, darting abroad similar a mod-day Cinderella.
Russian women are famously practiced at wearing sky-high heels — through sunshine, rain and thick snowfall. No wonder а Russian woman holds the world tape for tightrope walking in loftier heels.
And they're not reserved for special occasions, or Friday nights.
When stopped on a central Moscow street in the mid-afternoon, a girl wearing biscuit stilettos at least 9 centimeters high apologizes for non having the fourth dimension to speak. "I'yard on my way to work," she says.
Shoe DNA
Loftier heels are central to beauty and femininity in Russia, says Tatyana Maximova, editor of Russia's Cosmopolitan Shopping magazine, herself in medium-peak block heels.
"They lengthen your legs and amend your posture," she says. "So if a girl wants to look feminine, she'due south better off wearing heels." (She kindly looks past the sneakers worn past this The Moscow Times reporter.)
According to Alla Verber, Russian women's dearest for heels is in their DNA. A former Soviet émigré, Verber is ane of Russia'due south almost famous retail moguls and was instrumental in transforming what used to be the grayness TsUM Soviet section shop into a shopping playground for the Russian aristocracy of the postal service 1990s.
Even during Soviet times, Verber says, Russian women had a penchant for shoes. "At that time, many women didn't even know their shoe size and in that location was almost nothing bachelor, and then they bought what they could. Only everyone nevertheless tried to look skilful. Well-looked after shoes were seen every bit a sign of intelligence," she says.
With the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990s, nevertheless, shoes took middle phase.
"People were hungry for cute things," says Verber. "No one ever wore flat shoes. No 1. The general assumption was that a woman without heels was non cute," And, true to the Russian dogma of that time — "more is more than" — women reached for the highest heels bachelor, at 9 or 10 centimeters.
The prototype of Russian women in sky-high heels became a stereotype, says Verber. "Russian women were mocked abroad. People said: 'They'll vesture heels fifty-fifty at the airport, or when going for a walk. Always, wherever.'"
A music video from the popular band "Petrograd." The Russian girl prepares herself to see Prince Mannerly by painting the soles of her heels scarlet with nail polish to fake the iconic red soles of the Louboutin shoe brand.
Flat Revolution
But times are irresolute. New fashion dictates more than and more women are choosing sneakers over heels, at least during the daytime. At that place is also a growing public effort to wean women off their heels for the sake of their wellness.
In 2014, Russian lawmaker Oleg Mikheyev proposed introducing restrictions on loftier-heeled shoes, claiming that they led to various deformities. According to Mikheyev, 40 percent of Russian adults suffer from flat feet, and heels are partly to arraign. "Our women shouldn't have to endure pain because they're walking in the wrong footwear," he told The Moscow Times. Mikheyev's proposal got a cold reception — it was mostly ridiculed and trashed.
Other initiatives take taken a softer, and perhaps more successful, arroyo to nudge shoe lovers to go low. Orthopedists in white coats make frequent appearances on television shows to describe the cumulative health effects of a life in heels on wearers' backs, legs and anxiety.
Several years ago, Russian state television Channel 1 also started broadcasting a daily fashion communication segment titled "Without Heels" during their morning testify. More than about manner, the segment is educational and targets women's psychology.
"We want to evidence women they tin can be beautiful without heels, that wearing heels in an inappropriate situation is more of a minus, than a plus," says Marina Izvarina, who runs the "Dobroye Utro" testify.
But the primal to getting women to switch their footwear might not lie with them, but in the hands of the opposite sex activity. "In the commencement place, women clothing heels for men," says Cosmopolitan'due south Maximova.
In a country where women outnumber men past almost 11 million, co-ordinate to Russia's state statistics service, looking good at all times is more necessity than whim. A vivid pink advertisement on a website offer courses on how to walk in heels announces: "Seventy-five percent of men prefer women in heels." No caption is given for the statistic, but it certainly reflects what many Russian women accept equally true.
"Apartment shoes were seen equally unsexy, uninteresting," says Verber. And Cosmopolitan's Maximova says: "If you go on a engagement, then heels are a must."
Guinnessworldrecords
Circus performer Oxana Seroshtan set up the world record for the longest tightrope walk in loftier heels. She walked 15 meters in stilettos, doubling the previous record distance.
Lost Irony
While changing fashion is gradually grinding down at the ubiquity of heels, Russians are likewise learning to laugh at themselves.
One of the country's virtually popular stone groups "Leningrad" recently made a video in which a daughter receives an invite from Prince Mannerly to go see a Van Gogh showroom.
With hours to go until deadline and spurred on by fantasies of marriage, the girl sets out on a hilarious quest to mask her natural appearance beneath fake eyelashes, styled pilus and painted nails. Of course, no outfit is consummate without "F*cking awesome pants and Louboutins," according to the tricky chorus.
The girl tin can hardly afford the iconic cerise-soled French shoes, so opts for fakes instead, painting the soles of inexpensive knock-off heels red with nail polish. Suffice to say, it ends in disaster.
If there was a lesson to be learnt from the video, not everyone got it. Inspired by the hit, a prominent Moscow modern art space launched a special St. Valentine's Twenty-four hours entrada granting women free entry to its own Van Gogh exhibit. The apparel code: Stilettos — Louboutins, or otherwise.
It was certainly successful: The museum'southward visitor numbers peaked. Meanwhile, hundreds of women wobbled uncomfortably in heels measuring ten centimeters.
It was an showroom that almost rivaled Van Gogh.
Contact the writer at e.hartog@imedia.ru. Follow the author on Twitter at @EvaHartog
Source: https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2016/06/17/brought-to-heel-russian-women-stilettos-and-stereotypes-a53317