too many shoes

Too Many Shoes??!?

According to a recent study by ShopSmart magazine, the average American woman owns 19 pairs of shoes, with 15% of women owning 30 or more pairs. "My theory is that you need as many shoes as you do moods," says Meghan Cleary, shoe expert and host of HSN's "Shoe Therapy. "I believe that shoes reveal more about a woman's mood than anything else she puts on her body."
Note: Cleary keeps over 100 pairs in her West Village apartment, and 20-30 more in her office.
"Every year, there are 10 or 15 pairs I don't wear a lot, and they just take up space in my apartment. Otherwise, I would be eating my breakfast cereal in a shoe if I could."
Beth Harbison has another take. "How many shoes is too many? It's all in the eye of the beholder.
And the beholder is usually the husband," says the author of the new novel "Shoe Addicts Anonymous," which hits stores April 1 and revolves around four very different women who bond over their love of footwear.
So why are we so obsessed? "Your shoe size doesn't change no matter how much weight you gain. Your feet can always look good, no matter how the rest of you looks," explains Harbison. "The only time it's a problem is when you have those shoes that are like your 'skinny jeans.' They are just a half-size too small, but you can't get rid of them because they are too fabulous." "If it's impairing your life because you're spending so much time, energy and money, then it's a problem," says Dr. April Lane Benson, a psychologist who specializes in compulsive buying disorder. "Otherwise, in terms of actual numbers, it's too arbitrary to draw a line in the sand."