A few years ago, I was trying on a pair of Melissa shoes when the shop owner, a good friend, said my feet were too wide for the shoe.
“All that foot cleavage isn’t good,” she said, as I stared down and looked at the sides of my foot over-spilling the non-existent sides of the shoe and onto the wood floor below. This fairly traumatic life event forced me to recognize this seasonal issue, which I now spot wherever I go.
The popular definition of foot cleavage is when your toes are showing but in cases like mine – we add width, (especially when there are no sides to a shoe), the elements, and our gams well up to new proportions as if they’d undergone an augmentation.
How to avoid it? Meghan Cleary, (or Miss Meghan), shoe expert, author of The Perfect Fit: What Your Shoes Say About You and creator of Miss Meghan® footwear, says an easy way to avoid foot cleavage is to look for wider straps.
“Foot cleavage is definitely a very subjective topic as well – some people love it and think its super sexy to show the tops of toes, some people think it’s gross. So you have to determine what’s good for you and then shop with an eye toward silhouettes that will give you more support around the foot – especially in the front.”
She also suggests looking for shoes that “hold” you in at the sides with straps or a higher toe box, especially for wider feet.
She points out her own vegan crossover wedge as an example.
Here are some of my personal, anti-foot cleavage favorites that have nice toe beds and thicker straps:
Neuaura Kino
Cri Hannah
OlsenHaus Love
Image: LaurenV.