Really?

Do women really wear high heels with swimsuits and negligee? Is it really a woman's "favorite" look? Do women really love the stiletto heels half as much as Oprah's guest says they do?

Yesterday on Oprah, I met the people behind the big names: Barbie, Marc Jacobs and Jimmy Choo. I missed most of the Barbie piece, but I'm pretty sure we were introduced to the woman who was the inspiration for the original Barbie doll. Marc Jacobs: blah blah blah...fired from some big design house for his grunge show, the 'mastermind' behind Louis Vuitton, has his own lines, working two jobs, in recovery from drugs/alcohol abuse/addiction, blah blah blah...Oprah was practically slobbering all over him. Tamara Mellon: British genius designer behind Jimmy Choo as in Jimmy Choo shoes. (You can read more about these amazing stories -- said with sarcasm and major Oprah drama -- at Oprah's website. Click on the "people..." link above.)

Yes, I was sucked into another Oprah show totally against my will. The thing that I am stuck on, however, is the shoes.

First: ouch.

Second: As models were parading out on stage wearing various "hot shoes," I couldn't avoid being intrigued by how some were dressed.

Third: Wearing stiletto heels with either negligee or swimsuits, I am left wondering "really???" Particularly because the comment was made that this is a "favorite look" of many women. Now...I concede that the comment may have meant that the shoe itself was the favorite look, but I really don't think so.

Finally: Even at my hot and sexy sveltest a hundred years ago, I would never have been comfortable wearing stiletto heels...any heels for that matter...with a swimsuit. (I tried it once for fun in the privacy of my closed door bedroom. It wasn't for me. It was ridiculous.) And I always figured that it was just too absurd to even think about wearing heels with pajamas, nightgowns, or sexy negligee. How often do we see people dressing like this, anyway? Granted, witnessing a real life heel/swimsuit combo would be the one presenting the public opportunity if it were something that women were doing frequently.

Maybe I'm just living in the wrong town. Maybe this is happening in other hot spots of the country like L.A. and NYC or even the country clubs. Even so...I find it odd that the show opened with Barbie and closed with Jimmy Choo shoes. Barbie's feet are in the permanent pose of a Jimmy Choo shoe. Maybe Barbie is really the genius behind the Jimmy Choo shoe empire--having dictated to women all over the world what a sexy shoe and accompanying "sexy ensemble" should look like...that the only shoe you can and should wear with a swimsuit or negligee is a stiletto heel. (I know...quite a complicated and nearly subversive conspiracy of sorts.)

Don't get me wrong. This is not something I'm looking for. It's not something I want to see. It's something that I find absurd. Unbelievable even. Do women really do it or do designers and the media just want us to think that this is how you dress to attract men? Or do designers really believe people dress like that in real life just because that's how people are dressed on TV?

We may never really know the answers to these timeless questions. And, of course, you may be wondering, "Oprah again, Christine? Really?" Sometimes it's mesmerizing. But I still don't like her and stand by everything I've ever said about her. Really.