It seems funny but people are still questioning whether toe cleavage at work is appropriate in 2021.
Toe cleavage is simply revealing parts of the toes in closed toe high heel pumps, rather than the top of the shoe covering up the toes completely.
The truth is that toe cleavage is totally acceptable in the office and just about anywhere else. In fact it is difficult to really find a time where this simple fashion feature was not appropriate in high heels.
However, not everyone seems to share this view about toe cleavage. To see why it is even an issue for the working woman at all I have looked at the issue more closely below.
In this post I explain not only why toe cleavage is generally OK at work but also why that is the case.
I also look at the views of hard-hitting male shoe designers like Christian Louboutin and Manolo Blahnik and explain why they haven’t contributed particularly helpfully to the “TC” debate.
The etiquette of toe cleavage in the office
Etiquette questions surrounding toe cleavage – the partial revealing of a woman’s toes in closed-toe pumps – were pretty common about 10 years ago.
Was it office appropriate, the internet was asked? Was toe cleavage gross or was it sexy?
And, above all, was toe cleavage professional?
In the end, most fashionistas agreed: toe cleavage was fine for work, at least in moderation (more on this below).
Shoe designers, corporate bloggers and etiquette experts all generally agreed too: toe cleavage was professional and it looked quite nice actually now that they thought about it.
In the end, I came pretty quickly to the conclusion that if it wasn’t called “cleavage” nobody would be talking about the issue at all. And yet amazingly, they continue to do so.
After all, why do we need to keep certain parts of the feet hidden? There is no more reason to cover up toe cleavage than there is to hide ankles.
Christian Louboutin’s views about toe cleavage
One reason that people are still talking about the appropriateness of toe cleavage at work was that rockstar designer Christian Louboutin entered the debate way back in the mid 2000s.
Louboutin was on the verge of taking over as the world’s leading shoe designer and he was honing a strategy of courting publicity by saying controversial things – often somewhat tongue-in-cheek.
(You may have seen Loubouin tease the media more recently by saying that he hated the concept of comfortable shoes. This sold a lot of shoes.)
Image credit: “IMG_7991” (CC BY-ND 2.0) by ericksonkee
Louboutin’s signature shoe the Pigalle was low-cut at the front and naturally exposed toe cleavage. So he was hardly going to come out against the concept when asked at the time.
However, an issue arose because Louboutin became somewhat too passionate in his support for toe cleavage!
In gushing about toe cleavage, he unhelpfully underlined his passion by variously referring to it as a woman’s “second décolleté” (neckline) and “third cleavage” (the other two being chests and bottoms naturally).
This created headlines and shock and kicked off another whole round of debate. This including introducing the term “toe cleavage” to millions of woman who didn’t even know they had an extra cleavage, let alone that it had a name!
It also probably sold a lot of shoes for Mr Louboutin.
In the end, the same conclusion was reached: toe cleavage is professional and office appropriate – it just has an unfortunately risqué name.
However, the internet being what it is, Louboutin’s views have remained around for people to read. I think this is why questions about toe cleavage in the office still come up: it is the curse of search engines!
How much toe cleavage is too much?
One question has persisted though: if toe cleavage is in, can you have too much of a good thing? How much toe cleavage is too much, or does it not matter?
The answer is that, like all issues of work place clothing, some moderation is called for. If you are falling out of your pumps because so much toe cleavage is showing, then you might need to reconsider.
However, beyond this a range is fine. Some women have longer toes than others and will naturally display more toe cleavage in pumps which will be less toe-revealing on others.
In the same way that we do not get concerned that a woman with high arches is showing more of her foot in a d’Orsay pump than a flat-footed woman, the amount of toe-cleavage really doesn’t matter too much.
Manolo Blahnik and toe cleavage
It would be impossible to leave the topic of toe cleavage without touching on the views of veteran designer Manolo Blahnik.
Blahnik is worth listening to as he even once claimed to have introduced the whole concept to shoemaking, saying that “before me, there was no toe cleavage at all.”
In the late 1990s, Blahnik revealed his “secret of toe cleavage,” which he considered “a very important part of the sexuality of the shoe.”
The secret, which became much quoted, was that “you must only show the first two cracks [of the toes].”
However, by 2011 Blahnik was sick of toe cleavage altogether, telling the WSJ: “One should not even see the beginning of the toes these days; all one should note is a tiny pressure where the shoe ends and the skin begins, or the hint of a crease.”
Manolo Blahnik’s views of toe cleavage, like fashions themselves, may have changed over the years. And good on him for having an opinion.
But the opinion of one man, a decade ago, on an aspect of fashion is hardly binding on the rest of us.
These days, one thing is for sure: fashionable or not (and at the moment I say that it is), toe cleavage is perfectly acceptable in the office, and it doesn’t need to stop at two cracks. Whatever Manolo Blahnik might have said about it years ago.