<http://schema.org/articleBody>
"  It&amp;#039;s snowing in London today, not heavily, but just enough to make Londoners squirm with delight. Snow is not usual here; it&amp;#039;s so infrequent that a majority of the people don&amp;#039;t own proper snow boots, so when mother nature dumped over two feet of the stuff last winter in a surprise blizzard, the intensity of which hadn&amp;#039;t been seen in 18 years, and brought the city to a grinding halt, Londoners were slipping and sliding all over because of faulty footwear. Sneakers, boots, and flats just don&amp;#039;t cut it in 24 inches of powder.  It got me thinking about how shoes have a big job to do: Whether they are meant to make you look good or protect you from the elements, they have to come correct and perform their function, otherwise the repercussions could be horrible. So, what are the most uniquely functional shoes of all time? For me, it would have to be the shoes that Michael Jackson wore to do the &amp;quot;Smooth Criminal&amp;quot; lean in his 1930s-mobster-inspired video. Always wondering about how MJ actually pulled of that amazing lean, the Business of Fashion provided the answer in a post from July about the patented technology behind the shoe. Apparently, the King of Pop and his costume designers patented this technology in 1993 called &amp;quot;Methods and Means for Creating Anti-Gravity Illusion.&amp;quot; The shoes were actually attached to the stage and allowed MJ and his dancers to lean at gravity-defying angles, mesmerizing viewers worldwide.  No wonder I could never do it at home. \u2014Rebecca Suhrawardi Austin    Follow ELLE on Twitter. Become our Facebook fan! "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.elle.com/fashion/news/a3315/london-snow-inspires-thoughts-of-michael-jackson-1415/>