Obsession with shoes and why many women secretly collect them

• Why you're never skinny enough (or the opposite) and why everyone has to weigh in on it

• Kill the mother-in-law (including Victoria Beckham)

Branding expert

openly confesses: "I'm

My

thinks I'm

because I have these same [she poses hugging five pairs of high-heeled pumps] in almost every color."

I could introduce Timeesha Duncan's husband to my brother-in-law, and they'd have a lot to talk about.

Because my brother-in-law thinks my sister has

So every time the subject of footwear comes up in any conversation, some irony appears like the tip of an iceberg in front of the

regarding the supposedly enormous and

of my sister, which no longer fits in the closet and has spread to the storage room.

If one listened to what my brother-in-law says, one would think that he and my sister will soon have to leave their home to make room for sandals, boots, platforms, flip flops, slippers, ankle boots, mules, pumps and others, come on, what a A 2010 US Consumer Reports Research Center study defined shoes as "one of the women's garments that can cause the most addiction problems."

Anyway, I think my brother-in-law would radically change his view of the matter if he met

In an interview a few years ago, she was asked how many pairs of shoes she owned and she replied, "3,000, 5,000, I don't know."

When the journalist insisted and told her that she had heard that

she agreed: "Maybe. I didn't want to say it."

She kept them at that time in a

in Las Vegas and in her house in her Florida, where she had apparently installed a computerized system that ordered them by color and other concepts.

Céline Dion with one of the 10,000 pairs of shoes she claims to have.GETTY IMAGES

Let's see, 10,000 shoes (or, what is the same, 20,000) are a lot.

There is not enough life to wear them, not even to delight in looking at them.

More 'modest' collections, such as those of

or

around 1,000 pairs, are already impressive.

Regarding the latter, her owner explained that "I love

, I have many pairs. All girls love shoes!"

Yes. Shoes are a well-known and confessed passion for many, although always with a certain blush.

has

acknowledged: "If I see a pair of shoes that I adore and they don't have my size, I still buy them."

Well of course;

Who hasn't

some shoes one

than their own in order to have them, because they loved them?

Not to mention those that squeeze much more than necessary, which you can't use later unless you empty a Reflex spray on your feet to numb them...

Spanish women and shoes

According to a study carried out by Mattel for Barbie on the footwear preferences of Spanish women, these, come on, we, kept an average of

The

-Leonese women were the ones who on average hoarded

. less, the Rioja and Navarrese, with 11 and 12 pairs respectively (I have counted mine. I surpass the Castilian-Leonese, although without exaggeration).

A previous survey, the 'Barometer of the influence of footwear on personal image', prepared by the research company My.research for the Kiwi brand, had determined that

had

and almost 70 % claimed to spend a lot of money on them.

But the key fact is not whether there are 20 or 30 pairs of shoes we own.

But the fact that, according to the aforementioned American study, of the four new pairs that each woman buys a year, at least

Why?

Well, why would it be, to

If every time a woman came home with a new pair of shoes, her partner would applaud, give her a kiss and invite her to dinner, we wouldn't be here talking about it.

The

is so widespread that women almost give it up because of a

An example: on January 10, 2010, the lawyer and then celebrity

appeared photographed with half of her shoe collection (estimated at about 150 pairs) in the Sunday newspaper of El Mundo.

When asked by

the journalist who authored the interview, if she had ever

for them, Ruiz had no doubts: "Like all... When I bring a new pair home, I try not to let it be noticed, I throw away the boxes, and I turn to the help: "New?

Well, they aren't years old...!"

The Spaniards and the shoes of the Spanish

Why

are so bothered by their partner's

is related to their classic (we'd say ancestral)

(we'd say fear) of

female

"The greatest miracle of love is to cure coquetry"

wrote in the 17th century, and our

went even further by stating that "all the evils of antiquity are to blame coquetry of women".

Wow.

That's going to be a lot, right?

Not for Navarrete.

For Navarrete, a journalist from Madrid, coquetry was "a vice and this vice is the essence of the female heart".

Well, this idea, that of the 'bad flirt' versus the 'modest good' has surprisingly survived all the social ups and downs, like a proud islet even in the consumerist ocean where our current life unfolds.

A cotton test?

Here you have it:

When someone tells you: "What a beautiful dress you're wearing."

You hasten to reply:

A) Oops, well, it's from the year boom.

B) Really?

She wasn't sure.

C) I actually bought it at a flea market [or equivalent].

D) I love it, it's from Dolce & Gabbana [or whatever brand it is].

Congratulations if you've ever answered with 'D'.

The furthest I've gotten through a lot of effort is to say "I'm glad you like it" and not give any more explanations.

If you want to keep collecting shoes, don't keep reading

It is one thing to buy shoes because you like fashion, to wear them, and another is to collect shoes and be obsessed with them.

For

and

from the psychological cabinet Introspección, "making a

, of anything, implies

that point to certain

or unresolved conflicts. All people who collect something seek an

through their collection ".

We delve into the matter.

The main

for

are two, which can occur simultaneously, experts explain: "One is to use collecting as a

, this is the case of people who spend a lot of time finding

reviewing catalogues..., that is, they are occupying their time avoiding facing other areas or deficiencies in their lives.The other main cause is

unique, even

to others, through having something that others do not have, even if that something is infinity of sugar sachets of exotic brands; that is, they seek, through their collection, an

that they don't feel about themselves or that they don't get from others".

The latter, add Ibáñez and Jiménez, is the most common case among those who

"the need to feel

and

through their varied collection, even more so if they are shoes from recognized or valued brands. That is, the

already points to a

more or less worrying depending on the time, effort and value that the collector gives to his collection.The greater the value that a person believes to have for owning many shoes, the greater the possibility that it becomes an

, a

when to start worrying

More concrete signs that can show that the problem is worrying?

"That the person does not wear the shoes so as not to damage them, having a

to the real needs of use, having them exposed somewhere to be able to show them to visitors, talking a lot about them, feeling proud of the shoes have, feel more confident by wearing certain shoes...".

All these symptoms, the experts conclude, "show a great

insecurity that the collector tries to

, that he does not solve, putting his value in the external objects that he treasures. Of course these psychological errors have a solution if the internal causes are understood , real of the problem".

So now you know: first of all, if shoes (yours) are a source of conflict in your relationship... don't even think about showing this article to your partner.

At least I don't plan to show it to my brother-in-law.

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