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"  When I took my seat at Dennis Basso&amp;#039;s Spring 2014 show this past September, I was expecting to see plenty of warm-weather minks from the famous furrier. And I was also expecting to see a dozen or so perfectly coiffed, icy-blonde socialites occupying his front row. They are, after all, the only women who wear fur in the summer. What I wasn&amp;#039;t expecting to see was those same women, they of the five-inch, single-sole Jimmy Choos, wearing flats. Metallic sandals. Pointy, streamlined loafers. Even sneakers.  Yet there they were, eschewing the boost in height and legginess that heels afford, all in the name of comfort. And it wasn&amp;#039;t just the socials. This past Fashion Week, flats were the thing. Editors and buyers forgot about looking chic for just one minute, and instead remembered what it meant to look at ease. Birkenstocks, which made a big comeback this summer, were everywhere. As were Nike Flyknit sneakers, Saint Laurent Chelsea boots, and plenty of Church&amp;#039;s brogues.  And if you think this is a trend reserved for the trendy fashion set, think again: In the last year, US women spent $5.2 billion on flats (not including sneakers)\u2013up 3.5% from 2012\u2014according to market research firm NPD group. They spent $4.5 billion on medium and high heels, down .6% from 2012. So while women aren&amp;#039;t forgoing heels altogether, they are choosing them significantly less.  It&amp;#039;s very rare that a trend suits you perfectly, but when I decided to abstain for heels entirely this fashion week, wearing a pair of metallic flats by Chlo\u00E9 instead, it felt like the stars had aligned. I should preface that I&amp;#039;ve never been much of a heels person. (I remember discovering Sigerson Morrison pointy-toe flats in my late teens and thinking, &amp;quot;These are the only shoes for me!&amp;quot;) There are many reasons why I favor flats over heels, but it&amp;#039;s mostly because I never quite learned how to walk in them. At my suburban Pittsburgh high school in the 1990s, no one really wore heels: most girls favored chunky oxfords or sneakers with their Abercrombie logo t-shirts. I loved wearing sporty New Balance with tweed cargo pants from J.Crew\u2014I thought I looked so &amp;quot;college.&amp;quot; When I actually got to college, the shoe of choice was an old standby, the Converse sneaker. So again heels weren&amp;#039;t really something I thought of very much, save for the occasional Manolo Blahnik fantasy spurred by Sex and the City.  By the time I moved to Manhattan in 2005, I owned not one pair of heels. That changed, naturally, when I took a magazine job that required me to look &amp;quot;put together&amp;quot;, where heels denoted confidence. My first real pair were from Proenza Schouler\u2014a plain black pump with a not-too-pointy toe and a two-inch hidden platform. As I became more comfortable in those, I started collecting more. The most extravagant was a pair of white, ultra-pointy pumps with a curved-block heel by Celine. They&amp;#039;re gorgeous, but I&amp;#039;ve only wore them twice\u2014with my sad heel-walking skills, I can only get a couple of blocks without stumbling. Never a good look. It was with little sadness that a twisted ankle forced me to lay off the heels this past spring. As a freelancer, I rarely have an opportunity to wear them anyway, so I was happy to have an excuse not to bother with them when I did. When September Fashion Week rolled around, I made a pact with myself that I would not attempt a heel: With more than 30 shows to attend and events on top of that, it seemed silly to even try wearing something other than comfortable flats. And I am finally confident in myself enough professionally to know that heels will not affect my colleagues&amp;#039; perception of me.  It was, of course, validating that others also said, &amp;quot;forget it&amp;quot; to flats. At least for a season. Because like any trend, this one, too, will pass, and sky-high heels will become the ultimate statement once again. But until then, I&amp;#039;m going to enjoy this little victory. With all the options out there, I really don&amp;#039;t ever have to wear a pair of heels again. And I just might not. See the 10 Pairs of Flats That&amp;#039;ll Make You Forget About Heels "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.elle.com/fashion/personal-style/a13996/heels-versus-flats/?src=rss>