A brief history of the heel

I recently became curious as to when the current stripper style shoe came into being. The six clear Lucite or white platform stiletto. Not too surprisingly there is zero information on this particular subject. At nothing I could uncover with a solid fifteen minutes of research with Google. I’m going to continue the research but I haven’t quite figure out where to look. In the mean time this is what I did find, a brief history of the heel. Note: most of the information I got from the Shoe Diva web site (http://www.geocities.com/fashionAvenue/1495/contents1.html) Check it out for more information.

It appears that the platform heel got its start in ancient Greece and Rome. Besides democracy, aqueducts, and olive oil we have the heel to thank them for as well. They were called kothorni and were worn by actors. In theater at the time height was equated to status or gravitas of the character. One interesting thing about Roman society is that actors had similar social perceptions strippers have now. People love to watch them, definitely wanted to go party with them, but did not want to be scene with them in polite society. Actor was not a profession any good Roman aspired to. This is part of the reason why the Emperor Nero was so hated by the Roman elite. Nero had to nerve to think himself an actor and would put on performances forcing the Roman upper class to watch. Nero, Emperor of the largest and most powerful empire in the world, absolutely infuriated the Roman elite when one of their own became an actor. In current terms this would be like President Obama addressing congress “Before I begin my state of the union address, I want to show you a couple of my new pole tricks”! While I would find it refreshing to have a president with both humor and chops to do poll tricks, it probably wouldn’t be received well by most.

There are also some sources that claim internet that butchers in the Roman era also used high heels to keep their feet clear of the blood and gore that accumulated while they work. Two thousand years later they are still being worn in meat markets, albeit the markets are now clubs and bars now.




As the Roman Empire declined and fell, so did the height of shoes. The European continent descended into the dark ages and shoes became merely functional again. It would be in the Renaissance, the age of enlightentment, before the high heel shoe would reappear. In Italy, ground zero for all high heel fashions it seems, a shoe style called Chopine or Chapiney. These shoes ranged from 6 to 16 inches in height. I kind of have a hard time believing somebody wearing 16 inch heels in a world with cobble stone streets but who said fashion had to be safe or comfortable. In 1430 they were even outlawed in Venice. I can’t find a reason why, perhaps they were punching holes in the gondolas and sinking them. That’s bad for tourism. The invention of the high heel is sometimes is credited to Catherine of Medici. She was short in stature and betroth to the Duke of Orleans, eventual king of France. Necessity is the mother of invention, while she didn’t really invent them she did make them more acceptable to polite society.

The high heel still wasn’t accepted completely though. In 1670 British parliament forbade the wearing of heels, makeup or false hair. The wearer of high heels could be prosecuted for witchcraft. The dark ages for heels weren’t quite over yet. It would be the 1930’s before the heel would make it return. Again in the epicenter of high heel world Salvatore Farragamo began to design shoes in Italy. To me at least, its striking how modern looking the Farragamo shoes look.



While the high heel remained, the platform didn’t really take off until the 1970’s. This time both men and women were wearing platform shoes now. I was in high school in the late 70’s (I graduated in 1979) and I can remember the heels. Most guys only wore them to clubs at the time, it was pretty rare to see a guy walking in platforms.

Eventually the classic (or cliché’) stripper platform came into being. This transition is not too well documented. I haven’t been able to find any real history as to when they started to be marketed. I’ll keep researching.