You probably don’t think a lot about how your shoes are made ... until, that is, you’ve been standing in them for two hours and you’re thinking in dire agony, What the eff kinda person thought these heels would carry me through the day ... or the next two blocks?! Despite the painful downfalls of the high heel’s structure, there’s quite a bit of science that goes into the design just in order to make the shoe work. Balance must be achieved, and a reinforced shank must be perfectly placed and angled in order to evenly distribute weight.

Ask Christian Louboutin or Manolo Blahnik about their wares, and you might get the impression that they’re physics experts more than they are fashion designers. Blahnik tells the New York Times, “‘Balance is the most important aspect of creating a 115-millimeter heel. To achieve it, I use a compass, a ruler, my eyes and my hands.’ Some designers now use a CAD, or computer-assisted design, system in their work but Mr. Blahnik said he would rather do everything himself — ‘I am a traditionalist,’ he said.”

Attention design nerds! Here’s a new blog that will have you laughing your fonts off. Clients From Hell features anonymous stories about the incompetent people and projects graphic designers have dealt with. The vignettes deal with anything from stupid misunderstandings—“After I sent a client a mockup with lorem ipsum as filler text [they responded] ‘It’s good but there is a weird language on the page. It will either need to be translated or removed.’”— to clients who fancy themselves better designers than you: “Hi, I was having a word with my nephew last night, who’s a bit of a web designer himself and I have a few new ideas for the site…”

It’s a Helvetica good time. [Clients From Hell Tumblr]

The worst is when you got an itch you can’t scratch. You know, one of those ones in the butt area or anywhere in the nether region sphere. A lot of the time the fault is due to pesky underwear labels that make it feel like you have god-knows-what up against your crack. Hanes now has the answer with a new label-less underwear line. We’re loving the cheeky campaign for the range, with “No Scratchy Labels” as the tagline. (But you know, without the “tag.”) [CyanaTrendLand.com]

Now here’s a fashion short done right—it’s campy, cute, and not trying to be pretentious. StyleCaster’s short film “Bonnie and Bonnie” features all the makings of pure fashion entertainment. Follow Bonnie and Bonnie, two awesomely dressed roommates (one if whom is “The City” star Erin Lucas), who, it turns out, look that way because they’re robbers. Oh, and lesbians. Of course. [StyleCaster]

High-class French food emporium Fauchon unveils its limited-edition eclair, featuring a design of Brigitte Bardot. Délicieux. [GoGoParis.com]

Here’s one of those celeb makeup moments that makes you go, “Hey, that’s a cool idea and looks pretty,” but then makes you think, “How would I ever really wear that?” Surely, Rihanna‘s pink eyeliner is a bit dramatic, and unless you’re going out to ‘80s night (or an award show, whatever), it probably won’t fly in most situations (work, date, daytime look). However, tone down the intensity on that fuchsia, and it can become a really pretty complement to your skin tone. After the jump, instructions on how to get a subdued pink eye. [Clutch]

Random rant: why do celebs make such a big deal about announcing “retirement” only to un-retire months later? Publicity stunt? A heated “eff-you” move that reverses itself once they cool down?

Supermodel Gemma Ward, 22 (ahem), marks the latest in comebacks—or something to that effect. Her agency recently announced Ward’s official retirement after everyone started to realize that she’d been missing from the mags and catwalks of late. The rumored reason for the young model’s departure? A desire to escape the industry’s pressure of body issues. (Noble cause.) It looks like this announcement wasn’t even a PR screw-up, but possibly just a vocabulary issue. Gemma herself posted on her Twitter page: “I’m content with my decision, but I have said nothing will be permanent.” OK, seriously? You make the “decision” to retire ... you know that’s supposed to be permanent? Then this week she told an Australian newspaper that she hasn’t quit the business.

Does everything have to be so black and white with A-listers? Why not just say you’re taking some time off? What’s that? Oh, so you say there’s big money in a comeback ... Aha! [Stylelist.com]

Most designer clothing for women is sized ridiculously small (we’re looking at you, Alexander Wang), and the sample sizes that dress the models on the runway can be even more petite. It hadn’t really occurred to us that the same extreme proportions would apply to male models until New York magazine revealed that the Olympic fencer Jason Rogers was cut as a walker from Louis Vuitton‘s Paris show because he couldn’t fit into the pants. Come on, this Hottie McHotterson is too fat for the runway?

This awesome concept entails recycling your cassette tapes to let them shine on. [Unplggd]

Most of the time convertible fashion makes a splash for its novelty factor, but then disappears because really, are you that into pants that turn into shorts with the pull of a zipper? (Please say no.) Yet Donna Karan seems to have invented the ultimate convertible garment—behold the Infinity Dress, a jersey number with some sort of drape-y strappy situation going on, which allows you to style it in, maybe not an infinite number of ways, but certainly quite a lot.

From the examples shown, it looks like you can style several different necklines, whether you want a one-shouldered, halter, or strapless cut. This spread reminds us slightly of illustrations of different types of sailing knots. Think you’d actually be able to do some of the more complicated ones alone? What do you think of Donna Karan’s multifaceted creation? [Fashion Tribes]