This is how long it takes for stilettos to start hurting

TONIGHT is the most popular night on the calendar for Christmas parties - and this is how long ladies will last in their stilettos.

This looks like hour three.

CRUSHED toes, throbbing soles and blisters are the price many women pay for a night out on the tiles.

But a survey has found that wearers of high heels start feeling the pinch less than three hours after putting them on.

According to a study, women's feet start aching just 2 hours and 47 minutes into a night out - with most ditching stilettos for bare feet or 'back-up' flats before midnight.

Around 2,000 women were questioned for the survey by Debenhams ahead of tonight's busiest date of the festive season for parties.

Of those who went out at 9pm, most had given up on their vertiginous heels by 11.47pm. More than half said they copied celebrity stiletto lover Victoria Beckham by wearing gel pads inside their shoes to increase comfort.

Two thirds carry a pair of flat pumps in their handbag for when their feet could take no more, while a third said they often finished the evening dancing in bare feet.

The same number bought comfortable high heels with wider, more stable heels. Professor Karen Pine, of the University of Hertfordshire, suggested that "a thicker heel can give a feeling of more stability by counterbalancing those extra inches of height." So wedges all round?

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