Over the years, high-heeled shoes have evolved from Persian horse riders to the modern- day woman.

Genesis

 

High heels date far back to the 10th century in Persia (Modern-day Iran). The majority of them were horse-back riders. They noticed that their feet kept slipping from their stirrups thereby affecting their balance. So heels were invented. The first pair were only one-inch high.



 Egyptians were also known to wear platform gladiator sandals. Their butchers also wore heels to prevent staining their feet with offal blood.

"In 1599, Abbas sent the first Persian diplomatic mission to Europe - it called on the courts of Russia, Germany and Spain. A wave of interest in all things Persian passed through Western Europe. Persian style shoes were enthusiastically adopted by aristocrats, who sought to give their appearance a virile, masculine edge that, it suddenly seemed, only heeled shoes could supply" says William Kremer from BBC.

Heeled shoes were uncomfortable and therefore deemed impractical for every day life. Only the elite (upper class) could afford to wear shoes which you could practically do nothing in.

The idea was that if you could wear shoes that you could obviously not work in, you didn't need to do much, therefore you were well-off a.k.a rich. So heels became a status symbol in the 1600s, adopted by the aristocrats.

Eventually, the shoes spread to the lower class. Of course, the elite had to look for a way to distinguish themselves so they made the heels even higher. Therefore, the high-heel was born.



 Later on, women jumped on the trend, making heels a unisex thing. And the Men also had to be distinguished. Of course! They needed their Masculinity intact, so the styles started to differ. The male heels were designed to be sturdy block heels while the female ones were slimmer and designed to be dainty.

In the 18th century, men deemed heels as impractical and as at 1740, they abandoned them. (I personally feel that it was because heels were now associated with women).

In 1789, with the French Revolution, frivolousness and aristocracy died and heels along with them. Heels were out of demand and therefore, faded.

In 1860, high heels became popular for women again with the invention of the camera. Pornographers brought the trend back with a bang! They had their models pose nude with high heels on.

While lower heels were preferred in the late 60s and 70s, higher heels returned in the 1980s and 1990s.

Flash forward today, high-heels can be found in many a woman's wardrobe. They provide the lift (not necessarily pertaining to height) and the much needed confidence.

Controversy

When the trend came back, high heels weren't necessarily embraced with open arms. Since pornographers brought them back, there was a lot of controversy on the topic. Feminists argued that high-heels, invented by men, objectified women. Others deemed them impractical.


 "Women, in contrast, were seen as emotional, sentimental and uneducatable. Female desirability begins to be constructed in terms of irrational fashion and the high heel - once separated from its original function of horseback riding  - becomes a primary example of impractical dress." Says Semmelhack, author of Heights of Fashion.



Semmelhack continues that "In the 1630s you had women cutting their hair, adding epaulettes to their outfits...They would smoke pipes, they would wear hats that were very masculine. And this is why women adopted the heel - it was an effort to masculinise their outfits."
This, in my opinion, were their efforts to be taken more seriously.

Some people felt that high-heels were erotic adornments for women, so women who wore them were  seen as indecent or loose. The association with pornography, in my opinion, is totally responsible for this.

Doctors argued that high-heels were dangerous to the feet and caused serious damage.

Cool Facts

 ⦁    In the early 1700s, France's King Louis XIV (The Sun King) would often wear intricate heels decorated with miniature battle scenes. Called "Louis heels,"  they were often as tall as five inches. The king decreed that only nobility could wear heels that were coloured red (Les talon rouge) and that no one's heels could be higher than his own. (History has it that he wasn't particularly tall.)

Final word

Fashion is always evolving. Maybe someday men will wear high-heels and even now, they're wearing gladiators again.

Your thoughts?

Did you find the article interesting? Do you have any other cool facts to add? Would you like to suggest a correction? What would you like me to do a "From the Archives" post on next?
 Let me Know in the comments.

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