職業女性福音：可以隨意調整高度的高跟鞋
Tanya Heath is on a double mission: to prove women can wear heels without ruining their feet, and that her answer to their plight, a heel that switches from high to low, can be made entirely in France.
塔尼婭-海斯身兼雙重任務：一要證明女性可以穿着高跟鞋而不傷腳，二要證明她對女性們的這一困境有解決的辦法：一個可以由高變低的鞋跟在法國完全可以實現。
The Paris-based Canadian started with a simple idea. When your shoes start to hurt -- half way through a party, a wedding or a workday -- press a button in the sole, slot out your dressy high heel and replace it with a walking version.
這位旅居巴黎的加拿大女性開始的想法很簡單。不論是參加聚會、婚禮，還是某天工作的時候，當你的鞋開始令你腳疼時，按一下鞋底的鍵，收起你那雅緻的高跟，換上適合走路的鞋跟。
"I'm a feminine feminist," is how the 42-year-old sums up her philosophy. "My shoe is designed to be sexy -- but on the woman's terms."
“我是個很強調女人味的女權主義者，我的鞋要設計得性感，但這得女人說了算。”42歲的她是這樣總結她的設計哲學的。
"You can do your two-hour meeting, and then you just take off your high heel," she explained at the Ethical Fashion Show in Paris this month. "You're getting relief -- and you're getting home."
“你可以開上兩個小時的會，然後去掉高跟換上適宜的鞋跟，” 她在本月巴黎的道德時裝秀上解釋說，“你得到了放鬆，就像是在家一樣舒適。”
So far so good, except the trick -- which no one had quite figured out until now -- is how to keep the shoe balanced and comfortable both on tip-toe and when you tilt it back to sit on a low heel.
到目前爲止一切都還順利，除了有一個問題需要解決：如何在穿着高跟鞋和把它傾斜到低跟的時候，都能使鞋既保持平衡又舒適——直到現在也沒有人真的想出辦法來。
Fruit of three painstaking years of research, Heath's patented answer to the riddle is billed as the world's first multi-height heel, a luxury leather shoe that switches seamlessly from 3.5 to 1.5 inches.
三年的精心研究換來了成果，海斯對這個難題的破解方案已申請了專利，號稱是世界上第一款鞋跟高度多變的奢華皮鞋，其鞋跟高度可以從3.5英寸到1.5英寸之間無縫變化。
From pastel pink patent sandals to strappy dancing shoes or demure lace-ups, with either stiletto or chunky heels, high or low, the shoes are pitched at the high end of the market, starting at around $320 dollars.
從申請了專利的淡粉色涼鞋，到綁帶的舞鞋，或者莊重的繫帶靴，不是細高跟就是粗跟，鞋跟或高或低，這種鞋被定位在高端市場，一開始的售價約爲320美元。
With models harking back to the 1920s, Heath wanted a "deliberately nostalgic" style to offset the "gee-whizz technology".
通過使鞋的式樣迴歸到20世紀20年代，海斯想要一種“刻意懷舊”的風格來襯托其“絕妙的技術”。
A passionate heel-wearer, Heath's project was born partly of personal experience, having suffered foot deformations from heels, like an estimated 38 percent of women worldwide.
海斯酷愛高跟鞋，她的這個想法一半是源自自己的親身經歷，她因穿高跟鞋而腳部變形，估計世界上有38%的女性也有相同體會。
"I had had enough of aching feet, and I refused point blank to wear ballerina flats," she joked. But she also wanted to show shoes could still be made in a high-cost economy like France.
“我受夠了腳疼，並且我也絕對不穿芭蕾平底鞋，”她開玩笑說。然而她也想表示，這些鞋仍可以在成本高的經濟體中製造，比如說法國。
In 1996, Heath left a job as policy analyst at the Canadian foreign ministry for a new life in Paris, following her oil executive fiance, a "camembert and champagne" lover who refused to be based anywhere else.
1996年，海斯辭去了加拿大外交部政策分析師的工作，跟隨作爲石油高管的未婚夫前往巴黎開始了新的生活。她的未婚夫酷愛卡門貝乾酪和香檳酒，不願在其他任何地方定居。
Once there she learnt French at business school, worked in management and high-tech, then private equity, all while raising three young children.
她曾在那裏的商業學校學習法語，從事管理、高科技，然後私人募股方面的工作，養育了3個小孩。
