A look into where the fabulous ladies heels originated!
High-heeled shoes have always been an object of pleasure for women, and equally of desire for men. They are considered a reflection of elegance, style and sexuality world-wide. This is partly because wearing heels give a lady the appearance of longer, toned and slimmer legs. Wearing heels also tends to shorten the extent of your step, projecting an impression of a speedy, confident walk, commonly known as strutting your stuff!
The fact that high heels are harder to walk in also makes the lady more conscious of how they are walking, with a heightened awareness in holding their posture upright and at least looking comfortable! The way heels make you walk also encourages the shoulders to drop back and the hips to wiggle a little; the other main reason heels are historically the sexiest type of shoe for a women. Think of the phrase 'catwalk confidence' – which relates to how models strut down the catwalk; one of the most famous being Naomi Campbell who famously fell over on the catwalk whilst sporting a pair of huge Vivienne Westwood heels. Ladies heels come in wide range of shapes including including stiletto, pump (court shoe), block, tapered, blade, and wedge.
Heeled shoes are not a recent invention. They were worn by upper classes in Egypt around 3500 B.C. Platform sandals known as 'Kothorni', were in vogue amongst actors in Rome and Greece. They wore shoes with high soles made of wood or cork of varying heights to portray different characters or variable social status. Around 1500 AD, European aristocrats used heels measuring 4cm as an add-on to their shoes to get a firm grip of the stirrup and keep their feet in place. This riding heel became a style statement, especially in courts.
However, real high heels originated from the Italian 'chapiney' or 'chopine' style, and were shoes mounted on platforms 15 to 42 cm high! They were made fashionable and functional by Catherine de Medici, in Paris in the 16th Century, who used them to increase her short stature. During the 17th century, women wearing high heels were punished by the English Parliament as it was considered a way of attracting men. And Napoleon banished heels to bring in equality among all people in the 18th Century. In 1860, high-heeled shoes gained popularity again and were worn extensively in the late Nineteenth Century.
Although many women in the early Twentieth Century began to opt for a more comfortable style, with the popularity of flat-soled shoes now growing, the infamous Stiletto came onto the scene around the 1950s, and has been here to stay ever since. They were embraced in the 1960’s as partner in crime to the mini skirt, before the platform heel took over in the 70's. Since then high heels have stuck firmly on the feet of women across the globe, and are often worn everyday, including for work, by many.
It seams the power of the heel wins over comfort any day, for women everywhere, even as high heels have faced major controversies in the medical field as regular wearing can cause foot pain, deformities, and a multitude of accidents caused by unsteady steps! A girls relationship with her shoes is probably only second to that of a diamond(!) so we can pretty much guarantee we will be tottering around on sky high heels till the end of time.
