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"When Chris Luhur set out to start her own online shoe boutique, she had only one rule: No ankle-breakers allowed! The travel junkie and Wharton Business School grad decided that she&amp;#x27;d had enough of the toll high heels were taking on both her both physically and mentally and started Scarpasa.com, a website devoted to non-painful styles (their tag line? &amp;quot;Lower your heels, not your expectations&amp;quot;) that still manage to be chic. And although I&amp;#x27;ll probably be buried in my five-inchers, I can respect a smart idea when I see one (plus, low heels have been all over the runways and are big news this season, according to Vogue). We chatted with Chris about her new site and why she&amp;#x27;s forever said &amp;quot;no thanks&amp;quot; to the pain and suffering of stilettos: STF: How tall are you? CL: I&amp;amp;#8217;m 5&amp;amp;#8217;3&amp;amp;#8221; - so I&amp;amp;#8217;m not &amp;amp;#8220;tall&amp;amp;#8221; by any means and I still wear flats and low heels all the time. In fact, that&amp;amp;#8217;s pretty much all I wear. STF: Do you have any tips for pulling off kitten heel or flat shoes for evening? How about for us shorter girls? CL: Embellished flats are great for the evening, especially ones that are bejeweled. Wearing shoes with a prominent color like gold, silver, and other metallic colors can also spice up an evening outfit. Another thing to look for is more luxurious materials for your kitten heels, like satin. STF: What do you feel was the worst part of wearing high heels? CL: Personally, I think the worst part about wearing high heels is how much it slows you down, and I don&amp;amp;#8217;t just mean on a physical level. I&amp;amp;#8217;m always on the go - running to meetings, going to dinner, shopping, out with friends - and the worst thing is when you are at a great event and you are confined to a chair or stool because you can&amp;amp;#8217;t stand, or walk, or worse, if you have to send yourself home. Who wants to leave something great because they&amp;amp;#8217;re wearing painful high heels and can&amp;amp;#8217;t walk? STF: Do you think the stiletto trend will ever really go away? What will it be replaced with? CL: Trends come and go, but I think there will be women who will always love their stilettos, just like there are women who will always love flats and low heel shoes. STF: Who are a few of your favorite celeb low-heel wearers? Do you have to be tall and regal like Michelle Obama to make it work? CL: Michelle Obama, obviously, is a huge fan of flats. Reese Witherspoon, who isn&amp;amp;#8217;t extremely tall, also loves low heels. Audrey Hepburn and Jackie O were also known for wearing flats. Greta Garbo was also famous for asking Ferragamo to make her great shoes she can walk in - and they were mostly flats and low heel shoes. Most celebs wear high heels on the red carpet, but when you see them running around, day to day they&amp;amp;#8217;re very often wearing flats. Sign up for Glamour.com&amp;amp;#8217;s Style Tips of the Week and Beauty Tip of the Day newsletters! STF: Why do you think women are so drawn to such high heels? Are you hoping Scarpasa will help them change their minds? CL: Some women are drawn to high heels because it makes them taller. Other women like them because when you&amp;amp;#8217;re wearing high heels your posture changes in order to balance on the high heels enhancing the feminine figure. While in the short term it makes your legs look great, prolonged wear of high heels can have negative effects on health in the long run. Scarpasa provides stylish flats, low and mid-heel shoes - we hope to provide a fashionable alternative to high heels. STF: What&amp;#x27;s the most comfortable pair of shoes in your own collection? CL: I love my Alberto Fermani boots! They are sold on Scarpasa and are like butter on my feet - I could probably sleep in them. I&amp;amp;#8217;m a sucker for boots - especially ones that are made with amazing leather by artisan shoemakers like these. Check out Scarpasa.com now--Slaves to Fashion readers will get an exclusive 10% discount on their first purchase when they use the referral code &amp;quot;glamour&amp;quot;....and then tell us....are you a &amp;quot;just say no to high heels&amp;quot; kind of girl, too? Do you prefer comfort over the feeling of walking on stilts? What are your favorite flats or &amp;quot;low heels&amp;quot;? Discuss! PLUS: Hello, kittens! 20 cute low heels More Ways to Get Glamour You could win $50,000 just for registering or logging in to Glamour.com! Add Glamour to your iGoogle homepage Follow Slaves to Fashion on Twitter! Visit Shopglamour.com for cute stuff starting at just $10! Enter the latest Glamour sweepstakes! Images: courtesy of Scarpasa"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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