IT IS NOT A SIMPLE SHOE WITH A HEEL

• AliveShoes
• shoe history
• heeled shoe
• femininity

Did you know that heeled shoes were originally created for men?

If now the high heel has historically been synonymous with femininity, charm and sex appeal, once upon a time things were really different. In fact there was not court ladies or queens who were wearing heels, but soldiers, aristocrats and even royals of everything the world, strictly all men.
Throughout history, elevated shoes have been worn initially by ancient Greek actors during their theatrical performances and by Persian soldiers to fix their feet in stirrups while holding onto the saddle with greater ease.Between the end of the fifteenth and the beginning of the seventeenth especially in Venice, high heels began to be worn also by women of the European upper middle class in the “chopine" version, that is very high wedges that now look so much like some loved by the singer Lady Gaga.

These shoes were so high as to reach even 54 centimeters of sole, thus requiring the aristocrats to always have a waitress at their side who acted as a stick / support, in order to avoid any falls.The purpose of these shoes was to indicate a social status of a certain level, since the higher the heels, the greater the amount of fabric. which was used to make the dress, thus becoming much more expensive and not affordable for everyone.
Another turning point for heels took place in France in 1673 when King Louis XIV, of short stature, had the first pair of shoes with heels and red soles made, practically the ancestors of the iconic Louboutin, dedicated to the exclusive use of Parisian shoes court, then becoming more and more populated among all the nobles and ending up being copied even by the 'aspiring aristocrats'.

At the turn of the 1800s and early 1900s, in the middle of the Victorian era, high-heeled shoes became more and more for the use and consumption of women while men slowly abandoned them. With the arrival of sewing machines and photography, heels began to have more and more importance, being recognized as a symbol of femininity, an idea that was strengthened in the 40s and 50s with the arrival of the pin up which never got off their very high heels, now synonymous with glamor and sex appeal.