HIGH HEEL HISTORY

From Chinese lotus shoes to today's stilettos, exaggerated styles have been a part of shoe design throughout time. High heels as we know them started somewhere during the 14th century, when the gentry and noble amongst mankind started to put wooden slips, or "plattens", to the bottom of their footwear to protect it from getting dirty. In more recent times shoes have typically served as markers of gender, class, race, and ethnicity. However no other shoe has gestured toward leisure, sexuality, and sophistication as much as the high-heeled shoe.

The origin of the high heel shoe goes back in history many centuries. Some of the earliest pictures of shoes were seen on ancient Egyptian tombs dating back to around 4,000 BC. These were pieces of leather laced onto the feet and worn mostly by the higher class.

Although generally flat-soled shoes, in some murals depicting both male and females from the upper class in ceremonial dress they were wearing heeled footwear. Interestingly, it is belief that Egyptian butchers also wore a heeled shoe but for the more practical reason of keeping their feet above the blood and gore of the slaughter room floor.

The idea of a high heeled shoe was similarly popular in Ancient Greece, where Esquilo, the first great Greek theatrical author mounted his actors on platform sandals of different heights to indicated varying social status or importance of characters. These shoes were called kothorni, later known as buskins in the Renaissance. Almost in contradiction to Greece and Egypt, in ancient Rome where the sex trade was not illegal the wearing of high heels readily identified female prostitutes not the social status of the noble class.

By the 1500s shoe design changed to the production of a flexible upper shoe and a stiff sole. This led to the heel becoming a part of the actual shoe for practical purposes such as to stop the shoe slipping from the stirrup whilst riding a horse. In the mid 1500s the simple riding heel once again underwent a change to become a fashionable item.

A definite precursor to the high heel was the “patten”, or a wooden sole that was attached to the shoes of both men and women to keep expensive shoes out of the dirt and grime of the street. In the 1400s in Turkey similar designed platform over shoes known as “chopines” were used by women and soon became a trend spreading throughout Europe into the mid 1600s. The Chopines were a stacked heel of wood or cork and would vary in size from 7 inches to 30 inches and the woman often required assistance from a cane or a servant to walk safely. In Venice particularly, the height of the chopines advertised a woman’s wealth and status and although they became prohibited in Venice in 1430 the trend continued to spread. Throughout the ages and across the globe platform shoes, clogs and foot high sandels continued to be the precursor to the two-peice high heel with Emperors, courtiers, concubines and odalisques wearing them to appear dominate or submissive depending on the circumstances.

The actual invention of the high heel is attributed to Catherine of Medici in Paris, in the 16th century, who used them to add height to her short stature by lengthening her legs and therefore increasing her beauty before marrying the powerful Duke of Orleans. Her influence then as the new Queen of the French Court introduced the two-inch heels into fashion amongst the

European aristocracy. By the 17th century, the English Parliament punished as witches all women who used high heels to seduce men into marrying them. Later, and named after their inspiration, Louis XIV, the “Louis” heel became popular with both men and women. Some of the shoes owned by Louis XIV had five-inch heels resplendent with miniature battle scenes. In 1793 Marie Antoinette, so fond of her fashion and shoes she is said to have spent the fortunes of France on them, went to her execution wearing two-inch heels.

The tradition of handmade shoes, like the famous designer, is to a great extent a European phenomenon, in countries such as England and Italy. Also in France, where footwear design was intimately related to dressmaking, whose Parisian industry was founded by the Englishman Charles Frederick Worth in 1858, and was the first of prominence in the world of fashion, to the point where he dressed the whole of European royalty.

The industry of mass-production of footwear had its beginnings in the USA, where what began as a family activity of colonists from New England, ended in the appearance of the first shops in the middle of the 18th century.

Although the heel lowered greatly in the 1790s it still could be found as the slightest wedge or spring heel reminiscent of the classical Roman sandal. The rise of the heel as a popular fashion statement occurred again in the nineteenth century but was cut short with the depression of the early twentieth century and the demand for comfortable flat long wearing all-purpose shoes.

From the 1850s to the 1950s the heel stayed around and below two inches with events like world wars making it difficult to get the resources needed for elegant shoes and luxury items. But the 1950s saw the arrival of screen sirens such Marilyn Monroe and the shoe that encouraged her seductive wiggle, which was the stiletto. The stiletto was invented in Italy and shares its name with a short dagger like knife. Also in fashion was the kitten heel, which looked much like a miniature stiletto. While the stiletto was the Marilyn of the shoe world, the kitten heel was the Audrey Hepburn.

Shoes became chunkier and thicker again in the 1960s with a trend toward boots and shoes with pointed or squared off toes and thicker lower heels. But it was the introduction of the miniskirt that melded the stiletto heal and the boot together to enhance the look of bare legs that saw the return of titillating heels. The 1970s saw another dramatic about-turn in heel style. The slim stiletto was shunned for the chunky platform sole. This was the new Flower-Power breed of the kothorni and chopine shoes of earlier centuries, and was worn by both men and women.

It was really the 1980s that self-expression came into the choice of heels. Women shunned cultural meaning and social expectations and began wearing high heels for themselves. They claimed they not only gave them height but also power and authority socially as well as in the workplace. The 1990’s gave rise to very high heels and the sophisticated look of expensive designer heels that were trade-mark in many television shows and Hollywood movies. By the end of 1990s the desire for expensive high heels began to decline and the need for comfort drove a change in the market yet again.

The high heel has certainly not disappeared in the 21^st century with influences such as the television show Sex and the City the high heel has regained a sense of prestige. Although there are many choices of shoe available today the high heel still has a place as a fashion and beauty statement as well as a symbol of authority and influence.

Historically high heels have reflected nobility, authority and wealth and have had measures of dominance and submission aligned with them. Ever impractical, they are almost like a fetish sometimes, with many women owning more than they could possibly ever need. In a high heel shoe, an ordinary woman can feel transformed. It is almost impossible to cower in high heels, impossible not to strike a pose. I suppose part of the pleasure of wearing high heels is how they make you feel and it is therefore understandable how they have survived throughout the ages.