History of High Heels
History of
women's high heels shoes - High heel shoes are defined as footwear having a
heel higher than a toe. Throughout their history, they have acted as a symbol
to distinguish between sex and social class. Moreover, to the contemporary
versions, they are considered symbols of sexuality and fertility.
They give off
contradictory images because they make a woman appear that his movements will
be easier and more elegant as he seems to have been half-walked in a standing
position. However, in practice, high heels are long steps and make walking
slower and less stable. While the current version is used for clothing purposes
only, high heel precursors do have functional value, but that does not
necessarily stop them becoming indicators of social status.
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High Heel
Shoes in Ancient History
In ancient
Egypt, wearing shoes may have served to separate the lower classes of the
nobility as normal people walked barefoot while the rich usually wore flat,
leather shoes. Moreover, murals from about 3500 BC describe aristocratic
members wearing shoes very similar to high heels. Shoes worn by men and women
and probably mostly used for ceremonial purposes. In more practical
applications, shoes with extended heels are also worn by Egyptian butchers who
want to keep their feet out of the reach of the blood of the animals they
slaughtered.
In ancient
Greece and Rome, the perpetrators often wore shoes known as Kothorni which had
a high sol wood or cork. The height will vary so that the higher the sol, the
higher the social status of the character being played. It was possible during
the Roman period that the first high heels became part of what we now call
women's history and raised gender issues when they became synonymous with the
sex trade. Prostitution is legal in ancient Rome and women began wearing shoes
with heels as a way of identifying their professions to potential clients.
During the medieval period, high
heels will be mainly used for practical reasons. Both men and women wear wooden
shoes and in an effort to keep expensive and fragile footwear from muddy
streets and protect them from uneven surfaces, people will walk on heels known
as patens attached to shoes.
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The
chopine, Feminism and Class differences
The chopine or shoe platform was
found in Turkey at the beginning of the 15th century and is very popular
throughout Europe for the next 200 years. Chopines are only worn by women and
mark a turning point in the history of fashion women as they have very little
practical use but are only considered stylish and attractive. In some cases,
the heel will be up to 30 inches high meaning the wearer must use a stick or get
help from a servant to walk.
The chopine becomes a status
symbol for high class women in Europe and can be decorated with golden straps,
embroidery and decorative leather work. According to costume historian Kevin
Jones of the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising in Los Angeles,
women buy they have a broad say in the appearance of shoes and will tell the
artist what ingredients are used and how high the heels should be.
Despite the choice and individualism
it gives women, it is believed by many that chopine sees the beginnings of
footwear being a issue of women's rights. It is thought that the practice of
wearing shoes that are increasingly difficult to walk in are encouraged by
husbands who believe intricate movements will impede the possibility of a wife
having a forbidden contact with another man.
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The Rise
of the High Heel is modern
At the beginning of the 16th
century, high heels as we know today appear to exist even though mostly used by
men and women. It is believed the shoe appears inadvertently and developed as a
result of repetitive repair work on the heels of shoes that will eventually
lift them and build into high heels.
Throughout the 1500s, more
practical applications saw the growing popularity of heels. Both men and women
wear riding shoes with heels, usually about 1 inch tall, which helps prevent
them from slipping off the stirrups. But even this use soon took on the more
fashionable elements and became popular for having higher heels and thinner on
horse boots, especially among the higher classes.
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High Heel
Shoes and Early Modern France
During the European revival, high
heels were a symbol of the fashionable status imposed by men and women of the
privileged class. It is believed that the idea of wearing
high-heeled shoes as a fashion statement was started by Catherine de Medici
(1519 - 1589), who wanted to impress the French court when he married the Duke
of Orleans, the future king. In an effort to improve the short stature and add
charm to the plain look, she wears shoes with 2 inch heels and the idea of taking
off. In the second half of the 16th century, wearing high heels was so
synonymous with the aristocracy that class people were said to be "well
heeled".
In France at the beginning of the
18th century, King Louis XIV made it illegal for anyone not of a noble class to
wear red high heels and no one could wear them higher than his 5 inch heel.
Over the course of several centuries, the heels have become longer and slimmer
and the idea of erotism from feet and footwear grows with it through
art, fashion and literature.
As the heels in France were a
symbol of higher class status, Napoleon had them banned after the French
Revolution. From the 1790s, the heels were greatly reduced and replaced with
thin slices or spring heels.
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Sexuality
and High Heel
In many parts of Europe there is
more and more emphasis on wearing heel raising to add a more sexually and
sexually desirable effect on the feet, legs, body and posture of the wearer.
But in the New World, this sexuality of footwear does not look so positive
light. In Puritan Massachusetts Colony for example, a law that has been passed
that prohibits women who use shoes to seduce a man, in fear of trying to magic.
Attitudes to women's fashion will gradually improve in America, but it was not
until the mid-19th century that they stuck with Europe in actually allowing women
to embrace fashion shoes.
From the mid-19th century, high
heels grew in popularity and became more and more widespread as a fashion
accessory. The discovery of a sewing machine makes it possible to make a much
larger variety of heeled shoes that are also added to the appeal as those who
can afford luxury items want to stand out from those who cannot.
For Victoria, the arch of the
foot is a symbol of a curved woman and the heels also make the foot look
smaller and daintier. This increases the attractiveness for many women as a
great leg is considered to be suffering, associated with older elderly mum and
lack of femininity.
Heels now often come as high as 5
or 6 inches and are advertised as good for health because they make walking
less tiring and are also seen as a good remedy for back pain. But the sexual
connotations of footwear do not escape the attention in European countries and
some activists from religious communities still want them banned because they
are believed to be a female device can be used to bewitch humans into loving
it.
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The High
Heel in the 20th century
Perhaps influenced by the movement
of suffrage and concern for women's rights, fashion shoe at the turn of the
20th century in general became more plausible and shoes became flat as a result
of demand for more comfortable footwear. After a revival in the roaring 1920s,
high heels again dipped in popularity over the years of the economic crisis in
the 1930s and years of war and post-war 1940s, when luxury goods were in short
supply.
But from the 1950s, through the
influence of emerging fashion designers such as Christian Dior, the fashion
world came into its own and took off as an industry. More and more shoe designs
began to appear in stores and with Hollywood actresses and role models such as
Marilyn Monroe modeling high heels both inside and outside the film set, their
popularity soared.
High heels are now an integral
part of the cabinets of most women from the West, regardless of their social
status, but footwear soon becomes a controversial issue on the issue of women's
rights. In 1960, feminist groups began to criticize high heel shoes, seeing it
as a device created by people who slow the progress of women, both figuratively
and literally.
Nevertheless, the shoes continued
to grow and in the 1980s, the traditional feminist view of high heels began to
fade. Proponents of women's suffrage now believe the sexual connotations of
shoes can offer pleasure for women as well as men and women in general allow
experiments with appearances that can challenge cultural norms on class issues
and gender segregation. The new feminist thinking believes that the heels give
the wearer a heightened sense of power and authority and that women wear them
for themselves, not just for men to admire.