Kitten heels have a bad reputation. Notoriously unforgiving and frequently spotted on schoolgirls at their first social, your scepticism is justified. As the contrary fashion merry-go-round spins, prepare to embrace a new kind of shoe, a whole load less kitteny. Out with the old, in with the...old. You know the drill.

Seems there's a gold rush going on at the moment everywhere (even the Team GB trophy cabinet) with glistening, golden shades shining from shop rails, beauty displays and shoe stores. When it comes to metallics I'm usually a silver or bronze girl although I do love a rose gold, especially for eyeshadows and jewellery.

I love busting out a silver shimmer- it's my go-to, year-round shade for adding sparkle to an outfit and I'm never without my Elsa Peretti for Tiffany open heart hoop style earrings, one of many silver chains and my beloved Frank Gehry torque ring but it's not just for jewellery. My disco ball style silver nails have been drawing lots of unsolicited compliments of late and I would lend someone my kitten for a pair of the silver Isabel Marant wedge heel trainers, pictured below.

Long before women were allowed to express themselves fully, the Marquis de Sade said that "the way to a woman's heart is along the path of torment". This was recently quoted in Claudia's Croft interview with Christian Louboutin who stated that, "a little discomfort is balanced by something else, which has to do with desire." Have the French spoken?

I've had a bad run of it recently with shoes. First my gorgeous new heels inexplicably went from a wonderful, glove-like fit to cutting off the circulation in my toes, then the triple height crepe soles of my beloved vintage pony hair creepers split in two.

In a posing situation Rosie Huntington-Whiteley is incapable of ditching her trademark 'blow up doll' pout - but there's no denying that this lady is ...

Whoever said that women like shoe shopping because they can always find something that fits, LIED. This sad fact, coupled with customers' increasing weariness of mass market, High Street designs and shoddy workmanship, has led to a booming trend for craftsmanship and customisation.

The world's most famous footwear designer has spoken out on the female species' love of sky-scraper stilettos and vertiginous platforms, in an attempt...

Night out, big heels, feet ache, desperately hoping a taxi will appear at 3am... we've all been there. So we have to sympathise a little with Princess...

I recently saw a screening of "Snow Flower", a film produced by Wendi Deng Murdoch and Florence Stone and directed by Wayne Wang (who also did "The Joy Luck Club"). The movie chronicles the friendship of two girls in 19th-Century China, and the bond between two of their descendants in present day Shanghai. It's a powerful examination of female friendship, but as I was watching the scene about the cruel tradition of bound feet, I had my own time-shift jump to the present day, thinking about what we women are inflicting on our feet and on ourselves, in the form of impossibly high heels in even the most unlikely of circumstances. In this instance, we do the binding ourselves -- and pay a lot of money for it!

The heels vs flats debate has rumbled on as long as fashion writers have had credit card bills to pay off (presumably accrued buying shoes). This deba...

About three years ago the beauty industry crowbarred the idea of cosmetic fillers being somehow beneficial for the feet of high heel aficionados into ...