What To Do When Your Heel Breaks And You’re, Well, Screwed

In the hopes of avoiding lawsuits and the wrath of women everywhere, Charles David just recalled 3,200 pairs of shoes for potentially faulty heels. And thank god, because we’ve all been there: You’re walking down the street, stairs, whatever, in your heels and feeling kind of like the s**t when all of a sudden one of those bad boys snaps right off and swaggering turns quickly into stumbling with a side of crashing and burning. Rarely do we see it coming, it’s pretty much always horrifying, and sometimes you even get a sprained ankle as an added bonus. In short, few things are more sartorially infuriating than a broken heel. [WWD]

But as some famous guy somewhere must have once said, it’s not the tragedy so much as how you deal with it that speaks volumes about you as a person. We think the best way to handle the ruined shoe, street-dirtied outfit and shame combo is to laugh it off like a pro and totter back home for a change of footwear. But we’ve heard from a few victims of the heel horror who dealt with it a little differently. True tales of mortification and redemption after the jump, (and feel free to share your own in the comments)!

• “I was in Model United Nations in high school and we’d just gotten off the train when I literally took one step and the heel just snapped off. I had to have a guy piggy back me to the nearest shoe store. And my history teacher, who was in charge of us, assigned two girls with better fashion taste than me to pick out shoes for me to buy. I still have them.”—Lucie
• “I was a bridesmaid in my friend’s wedding when the pink silk, rhinestone-encrusted heel of the tacky shoe she made us buy broke in half. People tried to stifle the laughter but I don’t blame them for being unsuccessful. I sort of limped the rest of the way down the aisle, turning bright red the whole time.”—Sadie
• “My worst heel break happened while I was walking down the stairs at a restaurant on the way to meet my new boyfriend’s parents. It was great because not only did my heel break, my skirt also flew up, revealing my black lace thong. His mom was not amused.”—Lauren
• “A broken heel sent me tumbling into the street last summer. Thankfully, it was a red light so I was embarrassed but not, you know, dead. I slinked away and tried to remind myself that it could have been worse.”—Jen
• “I’ve broken a couple heels but one of them cracked while I was going down the stairs into a subway station and I broke my ankle. I tried to laugh it off but it got a little harder when I couldn’t stand up. But hey, at least I got to pick the color of my cast. That’s cool, right?”—Linda