5 tips for being a gazelle in heels

Photo by Andrea Yurko on Unsplash

We’ve all had the experience falling in love with a pair of heels, deciding against our best judgment to buy them and then getting home to realize that we can’t actually walk in them, let alone dance.

Here are five tips to help you walk gracefully in heels so that you can wear your favorite new pair outside your bedroom.

Go slow and take baby steps

No matter how late you’re running for the party, don’t rush. Wearing heels will shorten your strides so instead of rushing to take bigger steps, take an increased number of small steps.

Lean back when you walk

Even though you know to go slow, your body might try to force you to go faster and you’ll end up craning your neck to accommodate. Leaning back slightly will counter this urge.

Heel to toe (not toe to heel!)

When you’re in heels, put your heel down first, don’t put your whole foot down at once. This is the best tip for making your walk look natural and elegant.

Arch that foot

If you arch your foot, the shoe will fit closer to your foot making the shoe easier to ‘steer’.

Get shoes that fit

If you’ve just splashed out on a pair of shoes in the sale, hoping to ‘wear them in’, the bad news is that walking elegantly in heels which don’t fit is going to be extremely difficult if not impossible. The good news, however, is that you don’t have to suffer or give away that brand new pair. If they’re too small, you can have them stretched by a local cobbler. If they are too big, try shoe pads to help them fit your feet better.