Feminists who rebuke heels, hold your horses. Elizabeth Semmelhack is the curator of the Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto and author of Heights of Fashion: A History of the Elevated Shoe (Periscope 2008, $32.95). She explained that heels started with men.
Stilted platforms go back to ancient Greece and Roman bathhouses.
High heels with a pointed heel and a sloping pitch were first worn by men as riding boots in 9th-century Persia.
During the Renaissance, women wore mega-high chopines – platforms stacked heavily at the toe – reaching about eight inches high (some were rumoured to reach up to 20 inches). The height “had to do with a display of family wealth and conspicuous consumption,” Semmelhack said.
Chopines were eventually adopted by prostitutes in Florence and Sicily.
The high-heeled men’s riding boot fad was revived in the 1500s. Queen Elizabeth wore them, too, as she “acted” as a man.
In the early 1700s, King Louis XIV teetered in ornate 5-inches heels. By then, shorter heels were already becoming popular with women.
Desperate times call for higher heels. Heels soared during the Second World War, when metal rods could maintain a strong yet narrow structure. Previously, heels were made from wood and could only go up to three to 31⁄2 inches, Semmelhack said.
Heels proceeded to get higher and lower, alternating from rounded and pointed toes. They also took on several connotations that echoed their history: glamorous, powerful, oppressive, sexy, and illicit.
The platform shoe also had its moments. In the disco era, men like John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever re-emerged with lifts, a style that evolved with rock stars like David Bowie and Prince.
In 1993, supermodel Naomi Campbell took a tumble on Vivienne Westwood’s runway thanks to a pair of show-stopping heels.
Who can forget Carrie Bradshaw of Sex and the City? She inspired many women to feel sexy and liberated with the help of Manolo Blahnik and Jimmy Choo.
