Victoria Beckham caused quite a stir at the launch of the Beckham duo's new fragrance collection at Macy's in New York. The fashion diva paired an adorable gray mini-dress with Antonio Berardi's thigh-high, heelless boots. A few other stars including Uma Thurman and Gwyneth Paltrow have been seen tiptoeing around in the Segway of shoes, but the footwear is drawing more what?s than ooohs as most wonder how in the heck they work. We have the answers for you, but to actually wear these shoes you'll need lots of practice and quite possibly a podiatrist, chiropractor and David Beckham standing nearby.

With a large and weighty platform sole under the front of the foot, you have to put your toe down first rather than your heel to maintain balance. And don't worry if it takes a while to get the hang of walking; you have to lean back quite far before you fall over. Well, that's great, but do the shoes have a built-in Icy Hot dispenser to soothe my aching calves? Let's pray the platforms are full of Dr. Scholl's gel because even if you have the BMI of Posh Spice (God bless you) that is still an enormous amount of weight to put solely on the toes.

Medical experts have noted that shoes like these should not be worn regularly or they could lead to permanent damage. So in other words, heelless shoes are what my sister would categorize as "movie" shoes; not because movie stars wear them, but because they are for going to a movie, not dinner and a movie, just a movie. Walking from the car into the theater, and then back to the car.

While the main concern is about walking, I'd like to see the instruction manual for getting into these boots. They require strong legs to operate, yet clearly only flamingos can fit into them. I can't help but think of dressing Barbie as a little girl, pulling her leggings up her squeaky, plastic legs pinch by pinch and inch by inch. I can only imagine a similar scenario when it comes to these thigh high, shrink-wrap boots, but perhaps Antonio Bernardi makes shoe horns as well.

So heelless shoes are the latest fashion trend? If you dare to trail blaze, the $6,000 price tag is all that stands in your way. If a more practical, less-detrimental-to-my-health version emerges, maybe I'll give them a try ... as long as I have David Beckham to lean on.

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