The often stunning Caucasian nation Georgia is a swirling mosaic of cultural influences and apparel trends - and that certainly goes for a woman's footwear.

"Every Georgian girl makes her own personal decision, high heels or flat soles, for us, there is no single rule of fashion," said Nika Temurishivili, a Tblisi student. "But always, she has to keep in mind her specific life situation."

The sidewalks of Tbilisi, Georgia's charming capital, are filled with female pedestrians of all ages, in no small part because Georgia for all its charms remains a poor male-dominated country, and the relatively few automobiles that are on the road, are almost always driven by men.

Under the shady trees and on the manicured sidewalks of Tbilisi's relatively glitzy Shota Rustaveli Boulevard, on a recent sunny day, the variety of women's shoes was dizzying. Cherry red sneakers pad gaily past, with brutal 12.7 centimetre-high black spikes chopping menacingly along in the opposite direction.

Woven summer sandals topped with a delicate ankle chain skipped their way to the Metro. Black Chinese slippers picked through a crowd, en route to a concert hall. Euro clogs clomped, go-go boots stalked, and purple velvet wraparounds with modest heels clacked.

Perhaps rarest of all a single pair of sensible brown leather pumps stepped out at high speed, apparently running late.

The spectrum of shoe styles selected by Georgian women nowadays may be nothing special in New York or Paris, where stores are jammed with options and pretty much any determined woman can afford them.

But in Georgia, monthly salaries average around 100 dollars a month, and unemployment is high. The cultural tradition is that women should stay at home, dress modestly and, as far as shoes and hems are concerned, a girl should by all means avoid attracting male attention to her legs and feet.

"Well, of course we are proud of our Caucasian heritage, but this is the 21st century after all and the times are past when a girl spends her days waiting for a man to kidnap her away into marriage," said Nino Kalikashadze, a nurse, explaining her burgundy Italian slip-ons to a Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa reporter.

"If I want to go outside it's fine, and if I want to wear pretty shoes that's fine too."

"And a clever girl can always find ways to beat the prices, I don't think many of us shop in the name-brand stores," she added.

At the Tbilisi city bazaar, a mass of stalls and hawkers and ragged concrete near the train station, not far from an ancient gold exchange mentioned in 11th century Arab manuscripts, are aisles and aisles of women's shoes.

Salespeople in the stalls in the Tbilisi market shoe section, one of the largest goods areas in the entire bazaar, conceded some product (but never their own) is European knock-off manufactured in China or Turkey, selling at one-quarter to one-third of the retail value of the real article.

Tamara Bakshmaria, a homemaker, was with her sister inspecting ankle boot possibilities.

"I can't buy anything shoddy, it has to hold out," she explained to a vendor. "They have to look nice but you know how our sidewalks are. I need strong leather and good construction."

A sad but true fact of walking in Georgia is that, beyond the very centre of Tbilisi, sidewalks are often gritty, beaten-up, and often alternating between mud and gravel.

"That's why you don't see Georgian women wearing high heels and short skirts the way you do in Moscow and Kiev," explained Zinaida Guliashvidze, a Bourjomi city resident. "Sometimes walking on our sidewalks is like climbing a mountain ... you try that in spikes and see how far you get."

Guliashvidze said she favoured "good walking shoes that keep a shine." The retired physics professor - with some emotion - rejected as scientifically groundless an allegation commonly heard in Russia and Ukraine, to wit that Slavic ladies' legs are longer and more shapely than their Caucasian counterparts', which is why high heels are de rigeur in Kiev and Moscow, but only optional in Tbilisi.

"Our culture is more modest, that's why we wear slightly lower high heels," she said. "But our beauty is second to none."

Samira Samashkalani, a hair dresser, was nonetheless spotted a day later striding down the ragged main sidewalk of the provincial capital Gori, in a red miniskirt and matching heels appropriate only to a discotheque in most EU countries.

"We have democracy in Georgia ... I can dress any way I want," she said. "And today I wanted to put on high heels."

(DPA - Expatica July 2008)

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