A History of High Heeled Shoes
Every woman owns at least one pair of high heels, whether it’s the classic stiletto heel, platforms or wedges.
No other shoe portrays leisure and sophistication like the high-heeled shoe does.
They are designed to elevate the wearer, lengthen legs and give a woman a sexy sway when she walks by.
High heels have had their ups and downs over the years but where did it all begin?
Early High Heels
The earliest known recording of anything resembling high heeled shoes dates back to 3500 B.C. Upper class Egyptians wore an early version of the shoe as leather pieces held together with laces and arranged to look like the Ankh, which represents life.
Both upper class men and women wore heels while the lower class had to go barefoot. Egyptian butchers had a slightly less glamorous reason for wearing heels as their shoes helped them stay above the blood and guts of dead animals.
In ancient Greece and Rome platform sandals, known as kothorni, made from high wood or cork soles were especially popular among actors. Wearing shoes of different heights showed differences in social status or importance of characters.
High heels in ancient Rome were also worn by prostitutes, who could be easily identified by their footwear.
Extreme Platform Shoes
More extreme versions of early platform shoes were created in Turkey and were found throughout Europe from 1400 to 1600. These platform shoes, known as Chopines, were the ultimate high shoe.
These incredible shoes had cork or wood stacked as the heel and meant that women had to use canes or servants to help them stay upright and walk. Now that’s dedication.
The Venetians made the chopine shoe a status symbol to show wealth and status of a woman, probably because they required so many servants and fancy canes to help them get around.
The popularity of high heels really took of in the 1500s, but more as a practical device rather than a fashion accessory. The “rider’s heel” was used to help keep both men and women riders from slipping from stirrups when riding a horse. This was a more reserved heel at just one and half inches high and looked very much like the modern riding boot.
High Heels as Fashion
But it was the French who gave way to the more stylish heels that were higher, thinner and more fashionable that functional.
Catherine de Medici is believed to be the woman responsible for first using fashionable high heels. The reason? To attract a man of course.
When Catherine was 14 she was engaged to the Duke of Orleans, who would later become the King of France.
Barely five feet talk and not considered much of a beauty, she felt insecure about being Queen and having to compete for her King’s affection with his mistress, the tall and beautiful Diane de Poitiers.
She wanted a way to dazzle her court and catch the eye of her King, so Catherine donned two inches heels. The added height gave her a towering physique and an alluring sway as she walked.
Catherine’s heels were a big hit and by 1580 fashionable heels were popular for both sexes. Our own resident royalty Mary Tudor, or Bloody Mary as she’s famously known, was a fan of heels and would wear shoes as high as possible.
Heels were made popular for men in the 1700s by King Louis XIV who would often wear beautifully decorated heels, called “Louis heels”. Louis declared that only nobility could wear heels that were red and that no one’s heels could be higher than his.
High heels were popular right up until 1791, when Napoleon banished high heels during the French Revolution in an attempt to show equality. The demise of the heel meant that shoes could now be made for left and right feet which made them much more comfortable. From this period right up to the 1930s there were just four types of heels for women’s shoes: the knock-on heel, stacked heels, spring heels and the Louis heel.
Rise of the High Heel
The invention of the sewing machine in the 1860s saw heels become fashionable again as the machine allowed a greater variety of heels to be designed. When high heels made their come-back most women were comfortable in 5 or 6 inch heels.
High heels have enjoyed a widespread popularity since the revival of the fashion industry after World War 2 in the 1950s. Christian Dior and shoe designer Roger Vivier worked together and created a low cut Louis shoe with a narrow heel called a stiletto.
This new exaggerated slender stiletto heel was first mentioned in London’s Daily Telegraph in 1953 but they were often banned from public building because they damaged the floor.
Despite the new stiletto design, during the 1960s and 70s lower heels were the preferred choice. It wasn’t long before the hippie era revived the platform shoe instead.
By the early 1990s high heels were back with designers such as Jimmy Choo and Emma Hope paving the way.
Today women are spoiled for choice when it comes to shoes and even have the choice of hybrid shoes like “heeled flip flops”.
They allow for an exciting range of fashion choices and without a doubt, heels have not disappeared and are certainly not going anywhere.
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