Mary Jane Caldwell | A Shoe In

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In a high-crazed fashion world, women are expected to look and dress in a certain way if they want to be taken seriously in this “man’s world.” However, pain is not beauty, and that is exactly what Mary Jane Caldwell, founder of Lady Jane Shoes, is all about. She gives pain and blister-filled high heels the boot, and replaces them with an even sexier stiletto. Think Carrie Bradshaw, but much more smarter and shoe savvy.

Having always had a love affair with heels, Mary Jane admits to wearing high-elevated shoes for almost every occasion.

“I love to get dressed up in high heels,” gleamed Mary Jane. “You can buy high heels in almost any style to accompany anything—even the beach if you wanted, too.”

However, Mary Jane’s high-heeled happiness begin to fade about 10 years ago when she couldn’t find a pair of shoes that she could make it through the evening in.

“I started to hold myself back,” explains Mary Jane. “I turned down invitations … because I knew I would have to be on my feet all evening.”

That’s when Mary Jane knew she had to do something. She began to look for shoes, no matter the price, that she could wear and not hurt. Turns out she couldn’t find any. In the meantime, she kept the concept of a “pain free” shoe in the back of her mind. That was until an all day event for her husband’s charity dinner.

“We had to set everything up and be all dressed up, then there was cocktails and we were on our feet at the auction and we even stayed to tear everything down,” recalls Mary Jane. “By the end of the night I was crying … I couldn’t sleep that night because my feet hurt so badly; I couldn’t even get out of bed the next morning. That’s when I knew I had to do something!”

And she did! After five years of researching, talking to doctors, experimenting with fabrics and different materials and manufacturers, she finally found a designer and distributor that would listen to her ideas. After all the hard work and pain packed evenings, Lady Jane Shoes was born.

“It wasn’t easy … I went to the drawing board many times,” recalls Mary Jane. “But I finally found a designer that designed shoes for performers and he understood the dynamics of that kind of shoe.”

Lady Jane Shoes is truly unique in its style and make. Each platform is made from a special material developed by NASA (yes, think astronauts and rocket ships) to absorb shock absorption.

“It really does absorb the impact,” says Mary Jane. “People don’t realize that when you raise your heel only three inches you are putting seven times the impact on the bones in your foot; it’s almost like running.”

Having come from a background in psychiatric social work, Mary Jane felt that this was almost a woman’s issue.

“These shoes [painful ones] are undermining us in different ways,” says Mary Jane. “Why do you wear a pair of shoes? You wear them because you want to have more confidence and presence. You want to feel sexier and sophisticated, because you want to give that projection to the world. If you are worrying if you can walk across the room without teetering, you are not confident. If you are coping with pain, you don’t feel sexy, you don’t feel sophisticated if you can’t interact with the world.”

Mary Jane knows women and she knows shoes, but she still can’t quite figure out why even the most beautiful and successful of women put themselves in such agony and in such a stereotypical role.

“I remember watching the Oscars one year, and they stopped Meryl Streep (Mary Jane’s dream celeb client!) on the red carpet and ask her what the best thing about Oscar night was and she said getting inside, sitting at a table and taking off her Jimmy Choos,” exclaims Mary Jane. “ Here is a beautiful and successful woman, who can have anything she wants, who is being honored and what’s on her mind, getting in there and sitting down. That’s my story right there!”

And for what? Why do women go after “the look” even though it means pulling herself out of the action and onto the sideline, just to be on trend or sexy.

“Women have to get over this idea that they have to have extreme fashion to look good,” says Mary Jane. “When it comes to fashion, if some designer says wear this, they do without a second thought, because it plays to the insecurities that all women have. Women are beautiful; women have personalities that come through, and you don’t have to torture yourself to be beautiful; you already are.”

And that’s just shoe biz for ya!

Lady Jane Shoes can be purchased at FJ Lancaster Custom Clothiers or through Mary Jane’s site.