What should I look for when buying a pair of shoes?

Vivienne Westwood, the UK fashion designer, re-introduced the high heeled platform shoe into high-fashion in the early 1990s; it was while wearing a pair with five inch platforms and nine inch heels that the super model, Naomi Campbell, took a tumble on the catwalk or runway at a fashion show. However they did not catch on quickly and platform shoes only began to resurface in mainstream fashion in the late 1990s, thanks in part to the UK band the Spice Girls, whose members were known for performing in large shoes. It should be remembered here that the United Kingdom (and European) experience of platform shoes was somewhat different to that of the United States. Britain generally is not as concerned with women's feet appearing as small as possible; for example it was not unknown in the US for women to have their small toe removed in order to wear a smaller size short pointed shoe , and the long pointed shoes of the early 2000s, that give an elongated look to the foot, were and are still more popular in the UK than in the US. Platform shoes took off in a very big way amongst most age groups and classes of UK women in the 1970s. Whilst wedge heels were popular on platforms in the summer, high thick separate heeled platform boots and shoes were 'all the rage'. Many of the shoe styles were recycled 1940s and early 1950s styles, but both shoes and boots were often in garish combinations of bright colours. The Spice Girls, as with many UK young women of the time, would have seen their mothers 70s shoes at the back of the wardrobe and would have played in them as little girls. (This kind of childhood experiences may explain why fashion seems to repeat on a twenty year cycle). The trend firmly reestablished itself in the Developed World fashions of the late 1990s and very early 21st century (although not as in the 70s amongst males!) with a much higher threshold of what was considered outrageous: mothers of 1997 to 2004 typically think nothing of buying their preschool-age daughters platform sandals that US parents of 1973 would not have wanted their high-school-age daughters wearing and UK parents of 1973 would not have wanted their prepubescent daughters wearing, and the Walt Disney Company has licensed Mickey Mouse cutouts and "Disney Princess" images on footwear that, thirty years ago, would have been considered totally inappropriate for the company's "wholesome" image.