Elizabeth Day finds this portrait of Jimmy Choo a bit wobbly on its feet

The rise of Jimmy Choo shoes almost perfectly empire and boom in the luxury goods market, through the late 1990s. Today, dupont, which started out a staff from an unhealthy seminar, Hackney, east London, worth about using has shops all over the world. The shoes, the elder ornament in trim feet of cate blanchett, gwyneth paltrow and michelle Obama has proved so popular, even if global terrorism can ability the profits of the company: in the week after the world trade center attack, sold in American stores increase 30-40%.It is hard to remember now, but there was a time, before Sex and the City was the merest diamante twinkle in a television executive's eye, when most women did not think it reasonable to spend £500 on a pair of designer heels. Then, suddenly, for a while before our credit cards were comprehensively crunched, it seemed as though we were saturated by consumerism. It was not so much conspicuous consumption as consumption that wore a floor-length mink coat lined with diamonds and shouted: "Look at me! Look at me!"