If you ever lusted after a pair of Louboutins (and you know you have), you MUST immediately go read this article in the Style section of NYT: “Open-Toed Fetishes (and More)” by Cintra Wilson. Heee-larious. Here’s the reaction of one couple looking for the perfect nude pumps at the Louboutin boutique in New York, upon not finding them in the right size:

A middle-aged Teutonic couple dressed like the millionaire and his wife from “Gilligan’s Island” were seething with palpable fury amid eviscerated cardboard boxes on a battlefield of mangled tissue.

“We want since two days!” the man bellowed, the brass buttons on his nautical blazer melting in fright.

His wife let out a visceral moan and gnashed her perfect teeth; her eyes rolled upward in despair as she clutched in rueful hands the wrong size. For a moment she resembled the anguished Mary of Michelangelo’s Pietà — only evil.

I think the piece captures perfectly the hype around Louboutin shoes, as objects of desire in all its anguished forms, ranging from lust to fetish. I think I’ll abide by the author’s advice regarding the Louboutin boutique:

Unless you’re Irma La Douce, don’t go looking for daywear, although there are various perversions of the espadrille in wood and leather in which it might be possible to teeter around the park.

Word!