About
Hi, my name is Meghan Cleary and I like shoes.
When I was five, I saw a pair of baby blue wedge embroidered espadrille sandals at KMART (which is where one shops when one is five and going along with your mom to do errands in the Michigan suburbs) and I was absolutely besotted. Somewhere in my developing brain, I just knew that those shoes could be deeply transformative, could turn me into a new person, with a new identity. Being five, I bothered my mom until she bought them for me. And when I put them on, it was true, something about me did change. Whether it was how I stood or carried myself, or just seeing how they looked with my super cute pink chiffon dress, I was deeply affected by these shoes.
Flash forward to now. After interviewing countless celebrities, everyday people, and shoe designers all around the world, and having tens of thousands of women (and men!) confess and pour out to me their innermost secret shoe desires (or sometimes just the wish to find the perfect black ballet flat) I founded a footwear company called MeghanSAYS. I also write a syndicated column called In Her Shoes, post here my own blog, talk about shoes on TV and produce content focused on reaching women – the most powerful consumer demographic today.
For what lies beneath when anyone talks about their shoes are questions and answers about identity, and universal truths about who we are, who we want to be and everything in between. With a lot of irreverence and fun thrown in just for good measure.
Meghan
Professional Bio
Meghan Cleary is the internationally recognized footwear authority whose insight on everything from the latest shoe trends and their cultural meaning, to the hottest footwear designs, to red carpet stilettos at the Oscars® and Emmys®, has appeared in more than 4,500 media outlets throughout the world. She is the founder of MeghanSAYS footwear at Nordstrom and a Contributing Editor at Pret-a-Reporter for The Hollywood Reporter/Billboard magazine where she contributes her syndicated column In Her Shoes and roundups on celebrity shoe sitings. Known for coining her signature trademark phrase, “what your shoes say about you” in 2005 with the publication of her first book, The Perfect Fit: What your Shoes Say About You, Meghan has analyzed presidents, world leaders, celebrities, fashion icons and everyday people with her uncanny insight. Footwear consumers pour out their shoe stories, desires and problems to her on a daily basis, and Isaac Mizrahi dubbed her the “shoe psychologist”. Indeed, once she penned her seminal Shoe Therapy(C) Story articles, she cemented herself in public consciousness as the Shoe Therapist giving Shoe Therapy to women across the country, at events and on her show Shoe Therapy®,
Meghan’s second book, Shoe Are You?® (illustrated by Mary Pressel Cline and designed by Peter Ratcliffe), quickly climbed to number four in Fashion on Amazon and was featured on LUCKY, the Nate Berkus show, Real Simple, People StyleWatch and everywhere in between.
Meghan has traveled the world pursuing her passion for footwear interviewing shoe designers, learning about lasts and construction and materials, predicting footwear trends, giving tips on how to wear high heels, hosting shoe fashion shows everywhere from Macy’s to Nordstrom to Bergdorf Goodman, and talking to celebrities about their shoes on the red carpet for everyone from E! to TV Guide Network.
As a creator of multi-platform content and products, Meghan was a Consulting Producer on the internationally acclaimed documentary, God Save My Shoes, directed by Julie Benasra, created and produced the first social media campaign for the Italian Footwear Association, the pioneering show, Shoe Therapy®, which broadcast to 85 million households on HSN, served as a casting consultant for Lifetime’s Project Accessory, and her capsule shoe collection and signature Miss Meghan® bootie was the highest selling footwear item in SHOPNBC’s history. She was a contributor to ESPN’s book 23 Ways to Get to First Base, and Shoes: A Love Story from Blackwell Press. Her first book was translated into Croatian, and both of her books have been distributed around the world from Turkey to Australia.
For ten years she served as contributing editor at luxury trend publication JCREPORT discovering emerging footwear designers like Sophia Webster, Nicholas Kirkwood, Chelsea Paris and Jerome C. Rousseau.
Hedge funds, institutional investors and universities around the world regularly call on her for her market, merchandising and footwear trend forecasting, and her coverage on shoes and shoe trends has been cited everywhere from the Fashion Institute of Technology to WGSN. As a spokesperson she has represented Dr. Scholls for Her, Maybelline and Jones Apparel Group, among numerous others. She speaks around the U.S. and globally at events on everything from social media to women entrepreneurs to how to own your power in and out of Stilettos.
Meghan is a proud member of Two Ten’s Women in Footwear (WIFI).
To view Meghan’s TV reel click here.
About Shoe Are You?®
Created in 2005 as a podcast interview series, Shoe Are You?® is a book series, a video interview talk show, sometimes a shoe giveaway and a blog. But most of all, Shoe Are You?® is connecting with, and getting to know people through the deceptively revealing lens of one of the most ubiquitous and utilitarian objects on the planet: the shoe.
Get a free Shoe Are You?® Stiletto Handbook by entering your email address here: