Sometimes, a design just bugs you. There are times when I can’t put my finger on exactly why that is, and for the past few days, the Giambattista Valli Cone Heel Platforms have been one of those cases. Even though I’ve liked similar shoes (most notably from Prada) in the past, something about these was just not my cup of tea. My general respect for Valli motivated me to try to like the shoes, but it just wasn’t working. Yesterday, though, I finally figured it out: the problem is the fact that the heel and the upper match, but the platform does not.

In general, I’m ok with multicolored shoes. More than ok with them, in fact! The color structure of this design, though, simply makes it look as though someone mis-measured the heel during construction and then stuck a random chunk of material from a different design under the toe box to level things out. Sort of how you stick a book under the leg of a wobbly table.

The color match between the upper and the heel highlights exactly how tall the shoe is and how ridiculous platforms have gotten, which is not the first thing you should think of when you see a pair of expensive shoes. There should be visual ease to even the most painful of shoes, and these just don’t have it. Buy through Neiman Marcus for $995.