Certain high heeled shoes should be categorised as a mood-altering drug. What other item of clothing can immediately transform you into a rock chick, femme fatale or boardroom-stalking amazon? Unfortunately, in Amsterdam this is the one drug that is almost impossible to find. Most of the high heels available are either of shoddy quality or outrageously pricey. Sometimes both.

A young entrepreneur named Manuela has come to the rescue of the shoe-deprived women of Amsterdam. Having finished her Masters in Business Studies, she was casting around for ideas to start her own enterprise when she thought of importing the designs of shoe label DnV. The shoes are manufactured in Romania but sources all her materials in Italy. The shoes were previously only available in Romania, Austria and Germany, but now also in Amsterdam thanks to Manuela’s new shop: MuMu’s Shoes.

I came across the shop one Sunday afternoon just after it opened. Manuela assured me that you can walk in DnV shoes all day without discomfort. I was somewhat dubious given that the red pair I was trying had a five-inch heel. For the unintiated, this is the Mount Everest of heel heights. Any higher and you need helpers to keep you upright. I still ended up buying them and proceeded to wear them for all occasions, appropriate or not, for the next couple of weeks. The ‘red peril’ (as I call them) caused gasps all over town, with the best compliment coming from one friend who compared them to Vivienne Westwood’s designs. They are remarkably comfortable given the height. The one hazard turned out to be cycling, since you can’t feel the pedals through the platform. Extra caution is advised.

MuMu’s shoes are not cheap (prices start at €149), but in terms of value for money, they’re well worth saving up for. They’re the best-constructed heels I have ever worn and finally allowed me to achieve supermodel height. According to Manuela, the most popular purchases have been shoe boots and black stilettos, but a wide range of designs is available.

The shop is located at Herengracht 360 and is open Tues-Sun 10.00-18.00, with a late evening Thursday.