heels

[high10]

why high heels are designed mainly for women

[genebujold]

Well, originally, they weren't. In fact, for a time men were allowed to wear them, but women weren't!

Read on (I edited out the non-heel-specific parts of shoe fashion history, and my comments are in parentheses.)

Approx. 4000 B.C.

Earliest depictions of shoes (flexible leather pieces held in place with lacings) in ancient Egyptian murals on tombs and temples.

(This is the same form that most peasants would continue to wear throughout the ages, up to and including throug the French Revolution, an important event in high heel fashion history - see below)

Approx. 200 B.C.

Platform sandals called kothorni, with high wood or cork soles, become popular among Roman tragic actors.

1189-1199

Knights of Richard the Lionhearted begin to wear sollerets, downward-curving pointed toes, to keep their feet from slipping out of stirrups.

(Whether you're wearing a riding heel or a shoe where the toe is forced downwards, the effect while riding is the same - it keeps the feet in the stirrups. But walking is a lot easier with a riding heel.)

Approx. 1500

Shoes begin to be made in two pieces, with a flexible upper attached to a heavier, stiffer sole. This leads to the introduction of the heel, devised as a better way of keeping a rider's foot in the stirrup. Heeled boots for men quickly become fashionable.

(That's 500 years ago, folks... Quite a history!)

1533

Short-statured Italian bride Catherine d'Medici, married at 14 to the Duke of Orleans, wears shoes with two-inch heels to exaggerate her height. The high heel may have been invented by Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519).

(It took a genius to invent a ladies' high-heeled shoe? Perspective - men wore heels for more than 30 years before women began wearing them.)

1553-1558

Mary Tudor ("Bloody Mary"), another vertically challenged monarch, wears heels as high as possible. From this period until the early 19th century, high heels are frequently in vogue for both sexes.

(Perspective - twenty years later, someone upped the ante. Then, for nearly 300 years, both men and women wore heels!)

1628

Pilgrims arrive in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. A law is passed prohibiting "excess in bootes."

(The first ruling by the "Moral Majority." Thus began the decline of heels here in America - for both sexes.)

1660

French shoemaker Nicholas Lestage, so clever at his trade that some accuse him of sorcery, becomes shoemaker to Louis XIV. The heels of Louis's shoes, some decorated with miniature battle scenes, are as tall as five inches. High "Louis" heels are also fashionable for ladies.

(This clearly counters claims that the heels worn by Frenchmen never topped 3 inches. Of course they did! But you'll never see that in the movies, as it's not "politically correct.")

1793

Marie Antoinette ascends the scaffold to be executed wearing two-inch heels. However, in the wake of the French Revolution heels become lower than at any time in the 18th century.

(This is a critical point in high heel history. Peasants shoes were those "leather pieces held in place by lacings" mentioned above. Only the rich could afford the services of a cobbler, required to make a good, sturdy high heel. The Revolution was largely against the oppression of the poor by the rich, who were often referred to as the "well-heeled." Thus, post-revolutionary France was full of disdain for anything that reminded them of the rich, including high heels.)

1794

Quincy Reed opens America's first retail shoe store in Boston. Around this period, Marc Isambard Brunel (1769-1849) invents machines for cutting soles and riveting them to uppers.

(This is another key point - the machines made flat shoes far less expensive than the cobbler-required high heeled shoe.)

Early 1800s

Flat shoes and Grecian-style sandals become popular.

(Alas, since 1500 high heels have been worn by both men and women for more than 300 years. Compare that to today's "fashion history.")

Approx. 1865

The "sneaker" or plimsoll, a canvas-topped, rubber-soled shoe, is invented for badminton and tennis. Ladies' heel heights vary but stay below two inches during the rest of the century.

Approx. 1955

Tall "stiletto" heels for women's shoes, invented in Italy, become a fashion rage. Very pointed toes come into vogue for both sexes.

(Invented in Italy, and popularized by the likes of Sophia Loren!)

1970s

Return of the platform shoe.

(Primarily for women, but a failed experiment in the resurgence of higher heels for men.)

Website Comment: As to the future, who knows what's in store? Fashion has a habit of repeating itself..... But as you can see, initially heels weren't just a female thing, but were started for both sexes. At one point, women weren't allowed to wear heels. Admittedly, with the birth of the stiletto in the 50's, they became another weapon in the female arsenal!

Since the website didn't finish it, I will:

1980s

Punk fashion catches on, with some elements going mainstream, primarily the use of black leather for pretty much everything.

1990s

Men began wearing earrings in droves, and started wearing alternative clothing to a much greater degree. Rob Roy and Bravehearts popularized kilt-wearing, even by non-Scots, and others adopted skirt-wearing as well. Emboldened by the blurring of the lines between men and women's fashion, more men began wearing heels, as well, even those the vast majority of heels are designed for women.

2000s

The rapid rise of the Internet brings widely scattered people of similar interests together, further accelerating the encouragement of men who wear heels, skirts, and other alternative clothing styles, as well as women who're themselves into particular fashion subcultures. Fashion becomes less about "fitting in" or "keeping up," but rather begins to widely celebrate diversity, being different, and individuality. The sigma of morality attached to nonconformity subsides, and people become more free to wear whatever they want to wear, without worrying about what others think about it - and the others get used to it and stop thinking about it!

[new_look]

if only most people were intelligent enough to think in the same way as your final statement. Unfortunately the reason people have to search the net for help, is because they are afraid of being rediculed fo being different by a somewhat uneducated thin minded portion of our society. There are the Firefox's and heelfans etc of the world who dont care what people think opinion wise, and i myself get into that frame of mind sometimes, but even heelfan has encountered a gang of drunken yobs in brostol, and being bellowed at for wearing heels ultra exposed in Oxford st, which i would say and im sure a lot would agree, these are the type of things wed like to not happen, but in society as it is, people do. I do hope that society advances to give men their true freedom of choice without having to result to feeling wierd for wearing clothes which have been designed with one sex in mind. daz

[Heelfan]

Yes, it's true that those two incidents did occur, but let's not over-exaggerate them lest we put-off the shyguys and the new street-heelers. The second incident was harmless enough, and it was only the first one (surrounded by drunken yobs at pub closing time in Bristol city centre) that became remotely threatening. I first mentioned them on the Forum to actually encourage street-heeling guys, by demonstrating how they were the ONLY incidents I've had in my fifty happy years of street-heeling. And as Xaphod pointed out to me, I wouldn't even have suffered that latter ordeal if I hadn't been stupid enough to wear my 4 1/2" blade-heels right past beered-up yobbos in clubland. In moderator Firefox's many years of fairly continuous street-heeling (inside and outside work), to my knowledge he's never suffered any problems whatsoever! In summary, I wouldn't have changed my fifty years of street-heeling (1954 to the present) for the worlds and don't think Firefox would either. We both think its a bit sad when shyguys post that they're trying to pluck up the courage to put on their 2" block heels and creep out at midnight to change their dustbins with no one looking. All the demons and gremlins are only in their minds. If only they would say "Sod it" and plunge into a busy public place in daylight proudly wearing a wicked pair of 4" to 5" heels like we do, they'd soon realise that the world doesn't come crashing down, and they'd feel on top of the world! It's great guys! GO FOR IT! Cheerfully yours, Heelfan

[new_look]

i agree with your statement and didnt mean to sound as negative as it appeared. I only meant that if the world was perfect enough that we didnt worry of violence/pisstaking, then the shyguys as we put them, wouldnt be shy as they would have nothing to be afraid of. Obviously there is fear in the minds of people. I can imagine because violence can happen as a result of the simplest things nowadays, especialy by someone drunk, and the way people try and better their own image by reducing that of others, it is hardly unusual that people wouldnt expect some backlash from wearing heels when it isnt commercially accepted (ie produced in the mens dept) As you say the way to get around is to overcome the fears, and think sod what people think. (something i admit I am still working on) Also advoiding any potential trouble that is obvious, ie like your experience round clubland. daz