ON THE CUTTING EDGE: These Shoes Were Made For Politicking
New York Times reporter Susan Dominus recently trailed 34=year old lawyer Reshma Saujani while she practiced shoe-leather politics on the streets of Astoria, Queens in her bid to challenge Rep. Carolyn Maloney in the September 14th Democratic primary, and was particularly struck by her shoes – not because they were stylish (they were), but because she wasn’t hobbled by the end of the day. Saujani let her in on a little secret:
“They’re the Kate Spade wedges,” she said, sagging slightly, as if she had only just then been reminded that she had feet. “They’re these politician-woman shoes.”
She had gotten the tip from someone who worked for Hillary Rodham Clinton. They are apparently something of an “it” shoe right now for women in politics: Ms. Saujani said that Kathleen M. Rice, who is running for attorney general, also wore them (a photograph on Ms. Rice’s Facebook page bears that out). The chief of staff for a prominent woman in Congress told me that she, too, religiously relied on her Kate Spade wedge heels (though she spoke on the condition of anonymity because she preferred not to be known for her brand of footwear).
“They’re very comfy,” said Annie Mullaly, Ms. Saujani’s finance director. “They’re like Crocs. You’ll see them everywhere once you’ve identified them.”
I know. We, the news media, are not supposed to ask female candidates about their hairstyle or their choice of pantsuits over skirts or their shoes. It is irrelevant. It is trivializing. It is sexist. “You would never write about Chuck Schumer’s shoes,” Senator Kirsten E. Gillibrand said in a New York magazine article in response to a question about her flats.
But the Kate Spade wedge heels are not just one candidate’s shoes. They seem to be the shoes of a circle of younger women aspiring to power or already in it, women directly and indirectly passing on to one another ways of navigating the particular challenges of being a woman in the public eye. A woman must look put-together, but not as if she is a slave to fashion; she must look groomed, but never be spotted grooming. …
The shoes: the Halle, which sells for around $300, has a round-toed front that speaks of 1970s-era barrier-breakers’ pumps, and a high wedged back that looks expensive and chic, appropriate for drinks at a new hotel lounge with tech entrepreneurs hungry to see their kind in politics.
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