Why We Still Haven’t Killed Off The High Heel

Why We Still Haven’t Killed Off The High Heel

As a fashion object and symbol, the high heel shoe is weighted with meaning. It’s also weighted with the wearer’s entire body weight. The stiletto might be one of the only designs that is physically painful, but it has somehow has persisted for centuries.

At their origins, high-heeled shoes were originally worn by men. As early as the 10th century, many horseback riding cultures wore heels on their boots and on their shoes, because heels help you stay in the stirrups (which is why cowboy boots have heels).

Why We Still Haven’t Killed Off The High Heel

Persian riding shoe. Picture: Bata Shoe Museum

The Persian cavalry, wore 2.5cm-high heels, and the trend spread to Europe. Since they showed that the wearer owned and maintained horses, high heels became associated with upper class practice.

Eventually, upper class women began wearing heels, and then heels become a form of upper-class and middle-class dress throughout the 17th century.

At the time, high-heeled shoes were not a signifier of gender. When Louis XIV wore heels, he was dressing like the pillar of normative aristocratic masculinity he was.

Why We Still Haven’t Killed Off The High Heel

Louis XIV of France, by Hyacinthe Rigaud

Then heels started to get gendered in their designs. Men’s heels grew broad and sturdy and women’s became tapered and decorative. Finally, in the 18th Century, men deemed them impractical, and the high heel become firmly established as a lady’s shoe.

Why We Still Haven’t Killed Off The High Heel

Courtesy of Bata Shoe Museum.

When the French Revolution mounted in 1789, the aristocracy and their frivolous styles went out of vogue. Heels, deemed the epitome of female irrationality and superficiality went out of fashion for a very, very long time.

And then camera was invented. With it, pin-ups.

Why We Still Haven’t Killed Off The High Heel

Bettie Grable in 1943. Picture: Frank Polowny.

Pornography embraced high, thin heels long before fashion did, because heels work great when you’re just posing for a few minutes. The pin-ups in men’s barracks during World War II almost always had high heels on them, and when the war ended and the men returned, the stiletto was invented, which brought fashion into alignment with erotica.

As heels made their way out of photography and into the street, the office and the home, engineering challenge arose around trying to make a fundamentally uncomfortable thing comfortable.

So people try to find ways around the design. There are foldable flat shoes that you can take with you when you just can’t stand the pain of a heel anymore, and the internet is full of hacks and tips:

In the most extreme cases, there are surgeries to shorten pinky toes and deaden nerves. All to circumvent the pain of the high heel.

With this pain in mind, twins Emily and Jessica Leung launched a wedding shoe line called Hey Lady.

Why We Still Haven’t Killed Off The High Heel

Picture: Hey Lady

The Leung twins designed some hacks into the high heel shoe, borrowing elements from other kinds of footwear. They took a toe box from a dancer’s shoe, which tends to be roomier, and they took the insoles and arch supports from running shoes. The Leung’s shoes go pretty high, but they are not stilettos. For balance purposes, the Leung’s made the heel thick where it meets the foot, but for aesthetics, the sturdy heel tapers to a finer point where it meets the floor.

Why We Still Haven’t Killed Off The High Heel

Picture: Hey Lady.

Still, the Leung twins admit that even the most wearable heels have a time limit. They have engineered their shoes to last up to nine hours, but not for the whole day.

Industrial designer Martha Davis presented another approach, one based entirely on mathematics and measurements.

Why We Still Haven’t Killed Off The High Heel

Picture: Martha Davis

Davis studied the Lunati method of shoe-making in Milan; Lunati is all about crunching numbers and making sure the shoe is in ideal proportions.

Davis says a tall heel can be comfortable as long as the shoe fits properly, and there is one critical point where the fit really really matters. It’s called the Calzata, or “The Fitting Point”.

But regardless of how they fit, high heels on men have not made a lasting comeback.

Why We Still Haven’t Killed Off The High Heel

Picture: Saturday Night Fever

99% Invisible Producer Avery Trufelman spoke with Elizabeth Semmelhack, curator at the Bata Shoe Museum; Emily and Jessica Leung of Hey Lady shoes; industrial designer Martha Davis; and All Things Considered host Audie Cornish.

Avery also wore a pair of heels for research purposes while reporting this story.


99% Invisible, the greatest podcast of all time, is a tiny radio show about design, architecture & the 99% invisible activity that shapes our world. You can Like them on Facebook here or follow them on Twitter here. To subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, head over here.


The Cheapest NBN 50 Plans

It’s the most popular NBN speed in Australia for a reason. Here are the cheapest plans available.

At Gizmodo, we independently select and write about stuff we love and think you'll like too. We have affiliate and advertising partnerships, which means we may collect a share of sales or other compensation from the links on this page. BTW – prices are accurate and items in stock at the time of posting.