"My patients don't merely want their feet to fit into stilettos comfortably; they want them to stop traffic," says Levine
Over the years, Park Avenue , podiatrist to the fashion flock Suzanne Levine, D.P.M., has delivered her share of flirtatious feet, too. "My patients don't merely want their feet to fit into stilettos comfortably; they want them to stop traffic," says Levine. "Besides, is there any greater fashion faux pas than gnarled, unsightly feet-particularly in a pair of spiky, open-toe shoes?" Levine, who regularly performs surgery in her own three-and-a-half-inch Manolos, is obsessed with flawless feet and has made it her mission to grant them to her similarly detail-driven patients via a series of cutting edge, technoluxe treatments. "Designer high heels like Sergio Rossis may be gorgeous, but they're very slight-soled," explains Levine, who injects collagen into the balls of feet in order to provide extra cushioning. "As you age, your feet become less plump, making these delicate shoes less and less comfortable to wear." She also uses the near-infrared 200-milliamp Lyra laser to zap spider veins, correct hyperpigmentation and uneven skin tone, and permanently remove unwanted hair ("You wouldn't believe how many Hollywood starlets come to me with hairy toes," she says). In addition, Levine operates on bunions, hammertoes, and corns-which, while they do not always cause pain, don't exactly encourage one to slip into Mr. de la Renta's mile-high metallic gold sandal, either. 111e results are astounding, as hundreds of Levine's "before" and "after" Polaroids show. Toes look plump and rosy, like a child's; nails are healthy, even, and so pristinely white they practically glow.
But caveat emptor: Feet this glorious require meticulous maintenance. So Levine's patients book monthly Foot Facial appointments. The $225 service includes a vigorous mineral oil and kosher-and-Epsom-salt scrub, a 40 percent gIycolic-acid peel, a slathering of a complex mineral cream (a collagen-building copper cream applied with an ultrasound wand for better absorption), callus-blasting microdermabrasion, and the careful removal of any final vestiges of dry skin with a sterile surgical scalpel (Never let a salon pedicurist near your feet with a razor blade," cautions Levine. "That's like letting your facialist give you a facelift"). Finally, a deeply hydrating marine mint mask is applied and nails are buffed, clipped, and bleached. The demand for this treatment has become so great that Levine was inspired to create a take-home version (more affordably priced at $45 for a limited time), including the complex mineral cream, pumice-rich exfoliant, minty moisturizer, and bleaching serum, which is set to launch this month at Saks Fifth Avenue and on QVC.
Yet, if surgeons are performing toe-shortening procedures today, will foot-binding be on the menu tomorrow? "If it doesn't hurt, don't fix it," says Helena Reid, D.P.M., a podiatric surgeon in Moline, Illinois, and a member of the American Podiatric Medical Association. "When I operate, my goal is to alleviate pain. The risk with all podiatric surgery, no matter how minor, is that it fundamentally alters the structure of the foot and the way you walk, which may cause new calluses and pain you didn't have to begin with."
Thankfu1ly, some of the more remarkable new foot makeovers don't require surgery at all. Upscale spas now employ highly skilled nail technicians whose job it is to troubleshoot as well as to polish and me. After what she assumed would be minor surgery to correct ingrown nails on both big toes, Amy Leibowitz, a 23-year-old publicist for Jimmy Choo, was left with seriously misshapen and discolored nails. Her doctor told her it could be months before they healed, and Leibowitz waited in vain. "I represent a designer who built an empire creating sexy sandals, and I spent a year in socks," says the slender, Chloé-clad New Yorker. "When my boyfriend came over to watch TV, I would scrunch my toes between the couch cushions. It was ridiculous."
Reluctant to let the fate of her feet rest in the hands of yet another doctor, Leibowitz turned to the expert pedicurists at Buff Spa in Manhattan's Bergdorf-Goodman, where she was given intense bleaching treatments and silk extensions to cover the damaged nails. "It changed my life," she says of her biweekly treatments. "I have normal feet again."
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