Trend Warning: The Balenciaga Frankenfoot

We have spent the last few weeks slogging through the Fall Phone Books magazines, Vogue, W, Elle, Harper's Bazaar, Popular Mechanics. Something we thought was simply a runway trick to make fashion shows amusing seems to have shoved its way through to the mainstream, and we're a little concerned. They remind us of those clodhoppers John Travolta wore in Saturday Night Fever. Even a couple of years later they were laughable. Frankly, we're surprised that we haven't heard from The Manolo on this issue, as he has never been silent about ungainly footwear like the dreaded Uggs. What started a few seasons ago as a charming revival of chunky 1940's platforms seems to have evolved into a whole new genre of steroid-induced footwear, like the Balenciagas pictured above, designed for the lady who walks into the shoe department and says,
"Hey, what have you got that will make me look like I have two club feet?"
"Got anything here that will make it really easy to twist my ankle?"
"I wanna look like a Clydesdale!"

More after the jump

Of course, Balenciaga's Nicolas Ghesquière is hardly the only offender, although he is the trailblazer in this look. Chloe, YSL, Prada and even Michael Kors have all offered some version of this look, and rather than leaving them to the runways, stores are buying and stocking these styles in abundance. It's not yet a completely pervasive trend. Designers like Christian Louboutin have gone no further than creating pumps and slingbacks with sleek covered platforms, and no less a maestro than Manolo Blahnik has gone on record numerous times with his intense dislike of platforms of any sort so don't expect to see them from him. It's still too early to tell if women will be clomping down the sidewalk en masse this fall. They're still clomping down the sidewalk in their summer platforms. While we deeply understand that extra height is always a plus, we can only say, proceed at your own risk.