July 12, 2001

Treats for the feet

Calluses, bunions and chipped nail polish aside, there is something alluring about dressing up the tootsies in jewelry, even if it's just to camouflage the imperfections.

And this form of body adornment has reached a new level -- celebrated with friends in the private environment once reserved for makeup and plastic-container parties.

Toe ring parties appeal to women of all ages -- from grandmothers to grandchildren -- and the fad seems to be spreading throughout central Indiana.

In some cases, the "fashion show" is paired with other forms of entertainment.

Recently, friends of Linda Roberts gathered in the basement of her Noblesville home for a toe ring party presented by Kristi McKittrack, a certified nail technician and owner of the Grand Illusion Salon in Noblesville who does this as a sideline. Karaoke became the perfect accompaniment for the evening's fun.

"I hate feet. They're just plain ugly. I try to paint my toes to make them look better, but there's only so much you can do," said Lisa East, 25.

She came to the party, ready to invest in the jewelry if it was guaranteed to perk up her toes.

The rings come in a variety of shapes and sizes, and McKittrack uses ordinary Windex glass cleaner to help glide the ring over the toe for a perfect fit. When she had difficulty sliding a perfect gold circle onto East's second toe, East laughed and said, "Believe me, it doesn't hurt as much as most things." She has a pierced tongue and three tattoos.

As the ring at last slid onto the toe, McKittrack jokingly said, "With this ring, I thee wed."

She claims the only hazard of her job is when she runs into a client who is ticklish. "If I go home with a black eye, my husband knows that someone just couldn't sit still.

East's friend Michelle Schildmeier, 24, modestly hid her own feet with socks: "I don't want other people seeing my toes, and I don't want to see other people's feet, but a toe ring with a pair of sandals is what summer is all about."

Most of the guests first met their hostess at a local fitness center. A few previously owned toe rings, but most were introduced to the jewelry for the first time at the party. Curiosity brought many to Roberts' house.

"This is just part of our social club," said Roberts, 47, the mother of two adult children. "We work out together, we walk together, we sing karaoke together, and now we're trying on toe rings together. It's not easy to find toe rings, you know." Roberts, who moved to Indiana from Texas, said she bought her first toe ring in Dallas.

School counselor Lee Dyer, 52, attended the party with her daughter Meggan, 25.

"I heard someone say that they've heard of parties for Tupperware, baskets, candles and cookware, but never for toe rings," said Dyer.

Students don't notice

She wears toe rings to school, and many of her students don't even notice.

"I think toe rings are indicative of the fashion trends today. They've come from way out and worked their way into the mainstream. It's so common now, and it's really pretty subtle."

Most of the women said the gathering was different from other home parties they had attended because there was no formal sales pitch or presentation.

McKittrack, 31, says she doesn't have to push her merchandise -- it sells itself. She began offering the toe ring parties about a year ago after attending one herself given by people who learned about the parties from someone in Florida.

McKittrack, who has a retailer's license, doesn't know of many other salons or individuals who throw the parties locally. She's done about a dozen.

Her rings range in price from $6 to $13; ankle bracelets run from $14 to $32. Both the rings and the bracelets come in sterling silver or gold filled. She also sells shoewels -- an ornate sling-type adornment that wraps around the ankle at one end and the toe at the other end. It looks like a sandal without the sole. One woman joked that shoewels are a "thong for the foot."

McKittrack averages about $300 worth of jewelry sales per party. The hostess gets 10 percent of the sales to spend on her own jewelry.

Some local stores also are finding toe-ring customers. At Claire's Boutique in Washington Square Mall, Lavon Osborn sells anywhere from 10 to 20 toe rings a day to females between the ages of 13 and 40.

At Castleton Square, Shannon Murphy recently sold out of the most popular toe ring at Spencer Gifts -- two flowers crossing at the top of the toe with blue and white rhinestones.

"We have a lot of teens buying the rings, but we've been surprised by how many middle-aged women are also buying them," said Murphy, a store manager. "Most women want to wear their sandals, but they want something pretty for their feet."

Blast from the past

One of the women at Roberts' party, Trudy George, 62, believes toe rings and ankle bracelets, like many current fashion accessories, are a blast from the past.

"I don't think it's a big deal to be a senior citizen wearing a toe ring or an ankle bracelet. Even back when I was in high school a lot of people wore dog collars around their ankles.

"It was like going steady. Fads come and go. Just look at how the madras plaids are back in style now."

Kara Krueger, a 39-year-old massage therapist, wasn't sure she was going to buy a ring until her friends encouraged her.

"OK, they tell me it's sexy. I've been married 16 years, so I guess I'll get one to celebrate my anniversary," she said.

Another of McKittrack's customers dropped $75 for rings and ankle baubles.

"I told my 14-year-old I was coming, and he didn't believe me," said Deb Frankel, 45. She had a ring once before, but it was "a cheap adjustable one" that always got caught in her carpet. "Now that was a real crisis," she said, laughing. "When I started trying these on, I liked them all and I couldn't make up my mind. It adds up."

The most popular look is a set of three rings. One gold and two silver or one silver and two gold, worn on the second toe, usually on the right foot (the limb that most generally dangles when the legs are crossed). McKittrack advised that "less is more" when her guests were in a quandary over how many rings to wear on one foot.

Some, however, make a statement by going overboard.

Jennifer Gustin, 26, touched up her nails with fresh red polish and, just for fun, McKittrack piled on the jewels.

"You know I've always thought my feet were really ugly, but with all this stuff on them, they're really kind of pretty," Gustin said.

http://www.indystar.com/print/extra/thu/articles/toering13.html 
Copied here without permission due to the fact these articles disappear off these sites too often