The £1,800 fashion sensation: the amazing high heels that don't have a heel

But the sensible girl would team these shoes with a crash helmet and an instruction manual.

The 5 1/2in creations by Briton Antonio Berardi can hardly be described as high heels, since they lack the most important part - a heel.

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For the bargain price of £1,800, the wearer will get to totter around with all her weight balanced on a thickened platform sole.

Unsurprisingly, fashionistas are jostling to buy a pair.

Stars including Gwyneth Paltrow and Uma Thurman invested in a black patent version costing more than £1,100, shortly after they were unveiled in Berardi's spring/summer collection in Paris.

And Victoria Beckham apparently has a snakeskin pair.

They are going on sale in Browns stores in London, where they have to be ordered up to five weeks in advance.

Lincolnshire-born Berardi, 39, said he was inspired by Latin American music and 1980s post-modernism, adding: "When you walk, it is almost on tiptoe. You look really dainty."

A spokesman for his Paris-based fashion house said: "The shoe has a bigger platform sole which stretches back further than normal and gives support under the arch of the foot.

"When walking though, you have to put your toe rather than your heel down first and you cannot wear them for very long.

"They are not dangerous because you would have to lean quite far back before you fell over."

Podiatrists, who have already warned about the health impact of high heels, were less impressed.

Michael Paynton, chairman of the British Chiropody and Podiatry Association, said: "The heel is there to stabilise.

"When you elevate the rear of the foot it makes you lean forward, which is bad for both the back and the foot.

"The front of the foot ends up taking the weight of the bulk of your body, which can in turn do damage to the tendons in your legs by shortening them.

"I certainly would not recommend these shoes."

The Berardi shoes were joined on the season's catwalks by stilt-like sandals from Alexander McQueen, Nina Ricci heels shaped like a bear's claw and Yves Saint Laurent strappy sandals with a reed-thin metal sole.