December 8, 2024 • 18 mins
If you're a woman, there's a chance you've probably worn high heels before. So you know how uncomfortable they can be.
Yet, for many different reasons, despite the pain, we continue to slip our feet into 4, 6, even 8 inch heels. For some, they make you feel powerful, others like the additional height they provide, some like how they make our butts and legs look. But did you know heels were never intended to walk in?
In this episode of The Quicky we're going back in time to understand the history of the high heel, how they were meant for men and whether they are considered a feminist or anti-feminist statement.
Liked this episode of The Quicky? You can listen to daily news and deep dives here.
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CREDITS
Host: Claire Murphy and Grace Rouvray
With thanks to:
Nicole Rudolph - Fashion Historian and shoe maker
Producer: Claire Murphy and Grace Rouvray
Executive Producer: Kally Borg
Audio Producer: Thom Lion
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
You're listening to a Muma Mia podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Mamma Mia acknowledges the traditional owners of land and waters
that this podcast is recorded on. Many of us can
remember the thrill of raiding our mum's wardrobes clomping around
in her favorite high heels before we were old enough
to have our own.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
While the risk of a twisted anchor was very real.
Even at that young age, we understood that high heels
transformed how we looked and maybe even how we felt.
But what message does wearing heels send today? In this
episode of Mamma MIA's news podcast, The Quickie, we explore
the fascinating history of high heels, where they came from,
why they were first worn, and what they symbolize now
(00:50):
spoiler alert, the first we were to wear high heels
were men.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
This is The Quickie.
Speaker 4 (00:58):
Hi, I'm Clare Murphy. This is Mamma MIA's daily news podcast,
The Quickie. And on the way we're going to head
back in time to understand the history of the high heel,
how they were meant for men not women, and how
they make a feminist statement while also being anti feminist
at the same time. But what are their origins and
initial purpose? And what if any future do they have
(01:21):
as celebs ditch them for a comfy of red carpet.
Many of us can remember, back before we were allowed
to have our own, raiding mum's wardrobe and clumping around
in her favorite high heels. Well, the threat of breaking
an ankle was all too real. We also understood, even
(01:46):
at that young age, that heels did something for our appearance.
But what message does wearing a heel scent? Grace Rouverrey's
been investigating this story for the Quickie.
Speaker 3 (02:01):
High heels could be the most divisive item of clothing.
You're either a heel lover or a heel hater, but
whichever side you're on, the feelings are strong.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
Never wear them unless it's boots for the chunky heel.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
In the winter.
Speaker 4 (02:13):
Ever since a quite dramatic slipover, I have sworn off heels.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
I just haven't learned how to walk properly in heels,
and I'm already clumsy enough as it is.
Speaker 3 (02:22):
I very rarely wear them now. I'm like, if I must,
it's like a tiny heel or chunky I still think
my legs look hot in them, but the discomfort is
in no way worth it. I stopped green stilettos where
my acupuncturists told me it can adversely affect your calf
muscles in the pro corner. He'll love us say, the
(02:44):
right shoe makes them feel strong, powerful and game ready,
and the cons sore feet, bleeding toes, precarious stumbles on
even the slightest uneven pavement, or the increasing worry for
your ankle stability with each passing birthday I live in.
Speaker 5 (03:04):
It was not honest, husband, I'm primarily in a crack.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
But a huge part of why some women hate a
high heel, other than the aforementioned pain, is the perceived
intention that heels were created for women purely for the
male gaze.
Speaker 6 (03:22):
Ladies, I don't care who you are. When you put
on a high heel shoe, it does something to your
appearance that is so desirable by men. I don't know
what it is. I don't know why will we see
y'all tippytoeing?
Speaker 3 (03:40):
But did you know heels were originally made by men
for men. The high heel first burst onto the scene
in the sixteenth century, worn by men on horseback to
make them appear taller and more powerful in battle.
Speaker 5 (03:59):
God, by heels, you bastard.
Speaker 3 (04:02):
The height of the heel when the soldiers stood up
in their stirrups helped steady their stands so they could
shoot their bow and arrow more effectively. Whilst being a
practical invention, they were never actually designed to be walked in,
and although these heels were relatively short at around two
inches compared to today's high heels that start at three inches,
the men's hill also meant they weren't stepping in horsepoop
(04:24):
because they were higher off the ground. By the late
seventeenth century, practicality morphed into fashion when Paris became the
center of European fashion, with heels now a sign of power,
sophistication and wealth, famously worn by King Louis the fourteenth
heels rose to between two and five inches, with wooden
(04:46):
heels trimmed with ornate buckles and ribbons to fasten, the
legend being that Louis, as a short man, donned high
heels to increase his stature. The heel's craze came crashing
down to earth following the French Revolution and the people
rebelling against anything associated with the upper class. The world
was back to flats and sandals for over one hundred years.
(05:09):
Multiple theories as to when heels made their historical comeback,
including one theory that a French photographer in the eighteen
hundreds would discover the sexy silhouette of a woman whilst
wearing a pair of heels in a photo shoot. But
heels were back, and they got taller and taller, as
(05:30):
well as becoming a staple for women in the workplace.
But as the years went on and the shoes became
more uncomfortable, Hello stilettos, I'm looking at you, women began
to push against the required dress code, but it wasn't
an easy transition. In twenty sixteen, Nicola Thorpe, a PwC
receptionist in London, arrived to work wearing flat shoes, but
(05:53):
was sent home as she was required to have a
two to four inch high heel.
Speaker 7 (05:57):
I was so upset, and this is horrible contradiction in
your head between actually it's a small deal where the
heels earnally, but that's such a bigger issue, and you're
conflicted because I had meant to pay, I had bills
to pay, but I also wanted to keep my integrity.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
Nicholas started a petition titled make it illegal for a
company to require women to wear high heels at work,
which was quite popular and collected over one hundred and
fifty thousand signatures. From here, the conversation quickly moved to
the double standard requirements for men and women in the workplace,
with a lot of men pushing back on this requirement.
Speaker 8 (06:36):
So my question to you would be, when it's client facing,
like you said the men, I would imagine it's almost
probably a contractual thing too. They have to look the
part to meet clients, right you f you're the gatekeeper
to those meetings and you're taking very important clients to
meet the suited guys or women or whatever in the
(06:56):
business end of the company, Is it actually sexist for
the company to say to you, we'd like you to
look fantastic as well, and to look glamorous and to
wear heels and really set a kind of whole.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
So how do we feel of heels today? Can we
still love them? Or is there too much history? Nicole
Rudolph is a fashion historian and shoemaker. She believes we
can find power in the right pair of heels. Okay,
let's get it on the history of the high heels.
I believe they go back to the sixteenth century. Can
you tell me give me a bit of a history
(07:29):
lesson about where we saw them first and who was
wearing them first.
Speaker 5 (07:33):
Yeah, so far as we know, at least from the
European perspective, it is brought by Shah Abbas, but he
brings it when he comes to visit Europe from the
Middle East, and so they are used for horse riding
prior to that point. So they're not shoes that you
would be able to really walk in. They've got kind
of a strange hook shape on the pack. More so
than anything, it's meant to just help you stabilize in
(07:55):
the stirrups. And so that gets brought to Europe on
a visit and it sort of takes off in court
because it's just another thing for wealthy people to do,
and it becomes very popular with men first. Eventually women
pick up on it as well. It becomes a slightly
different style that we can actually walk in. There are
elevated shoes prior to that point within Europe, but they
aren't heels. They're more just big wedges in a way.
Speaker 3 (08:19):
Yeah, it was just the more comfortable ones. And how
did the French King Louis the Fourth become involved in
high heels.
Speaker 5 (08:26):
He's just one of the names that I think has
become really popularly associated with it from a modern perspective,
because that's when they really took off. He himself didn't
do anything spectacular individually when it comes to high heels.
He's just well known for it today. So just the
infamous nature of the portraits that we have of him
and of the imagery that he really liked them, and
(08:48):
so did a lot of other people, and it was
right place, right time, and a very obvious figure.
Speaker 3 (08:53):
Heels went away for a little bit. What happened there, Yeah, So.
Speaker 5 (08:57):
Heels became normalized for everyone in the eighteenth century, particularly
when it came to women's shoes. We were walking on
wooden heels that were usually two or three inches high.
Was a fashionable hype. They're plenty that are much lower.
And when we get to the very end of the
eighteenth century, that's when we get the French Revolution. That's
when we get an obsession with the classical era. So
they get really interested in the Greeks and the Romans.
(09:18):
They bring back sandals, they bring back certain wrapped styles,
and the haircuts and everything, So they just go look
at all of these sculptures that they can find and
they mimic those, and the shoes are included in that.
So they start wearing the flat styles that had been
popular in the Greek and Roman eras as sort of
the new trendy thing, and that sticks around for a
good number of decades. So right around the seventeen nineties,
(09:40):
the heels start to drop out and we don't really
see them come back in a fashionable state for women
at least. Men still have a little bit of a
one inch sort of stacked heel, but they don't come
back for women until around eighteen fifty one. There was
a lot of discussion over whether high heels were good
for you or not because they were concerned about cold,
wet feet and causing tuberculosis or other issues. They didn't
(10:01):
know what caused it, so they blamed it on things
like shoes and corsets. So they thought having high heels
a little bit of high heel, and reminder, what they're
talking about for high heels is anything over an inch
and a half, so much lower than we're used to.
And they were saying something about inch inch and a
half is really good for elevating the foot, keeping it
dry and warm. But you go over an inch and
(10:22):
a half, well, then all sorts of horrible things will
start happening. And of course these horrible things don't actually happen.
They're just kind of not really good at medicine at
that point in time and making up a lot of things.
But they were only concerned about two inch heels and
things like that.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
So where is the jump to men created these for
a woman's silhouette? How do we deduce this from history?
Speaker 5 (10:42):
It's simply because I think we credit a lot of
the fashion changes in history to men, just because we
assume that all of women's fashion, if it doesn't look
familiar to us, or for that matter, doesn't look comfortable
to us, someone must have been doing it to them.
And we assume that men had all of the power
and all of the decision making, when in reality, people
(11:03):
had a lot more autonomy than we realize, or at
the very least were much more smart and devious about
the type of autonomy to me that they managed. So
we don't want to sit here and say, well, men
forced us into this. The reality is very often it's
a nuanced conversation that's happening. And most of the people
that were complaining about high heels, no different than most
of the people that were complaining about corsets were men.
(11:25):
It was usually the women who chose to wear those
things because they liked them for various reasons. Just like today,
there are a lot of reasons that women will choose
to wear high heels, and it's not just for men
or not just because they're told that they have to.
Speaker 3 (11:38):
In your opinion, what do you think he is represent now?
Do you think they are power, a wealth, sex, symbol,
personal identity?
Speaker 2 (11:46):
To you?
Speaker 3 (11:46):
What does the high heel represent all of.
Speaker 5 (11:48):
Those things in so many ways? Because for some people,
they wear it because it does make them feel more confident.
It makes you feel taller, it helps you walk differently.
It can help give you the right proportions of the
outfit that you're wearing, so it feels like it's weighted
correctly and you feel more comfortable in the way that
you appear. It might be an artistic expression. I love
wearing heels because I love the way that they look
(12:09):
as much as anything else. It's not necessarily a matter
of I feel more comfortable walking in them, but I
like the look of them, and fortunately for me, I'm
able to make my own shoes, so I'm also able
to make them comfortable enough to walk in, which is
sort of the problem with a lot of modern high
heels today. We assume that we have to give up
comfort for an attractive shoe or an artistic expression or
(12:30):
a complete outfit or whatever it is. And if we
get rid of that idea that they can't be comfortable,
then suddenly all of the issues of feminism and control
and patriarchy start to go away, because it's no longer
you are being tortured, it's you're choosing to wear these
because you like them.
Speaker 3 (12:47):
We were talking about, you know, one and two inch heels.
Where did the stilettos come from?
Speaker 5 (12:52):
They really pick up in the nineteen thirties, so at
that point in time, shoemakers are trying lots of new,
crazy things, and there are a few major names that
are trying some really elaborate things that are very technologically advanced.
So they're looking at things like airplane steel in order
to make shoes and whatever sort of new technology that
they can. And Perugia is one of the names we've
(13:14):
long since forgotten was coming up with the most exquisite
and unusual shoe shapes for that era. He was coming
up with taller and taller heels and with new shapes
and styles, and part of that essentially moved its way
into being the stiletto. We managed to find ways to
make them taller and thinner gradually over time, so by
the time we reach the nineteen fifties we get the
(13:35):
version that we're familiar with today.
Speaker 3 (13:36):
There is a theory that high heels were designed to
slow women down and that they couldn't run away. Is
there anything in history that suggests that's true.
Speaker 5 (13:47):
Like I said before, the biggest thing that I see
in the nineteenth century that kind of throws that out,
or even the twentieth century, is the fact that the
biggest complaints are coming from men. The fact that usually
while a lot of the shoe designers in those eras
are men, the women are choosing to purchase those I've
found more than enough evidence looking at plenty of individual
(14:08):
people over the nineteenth century where women are doing their
own purchasing. They're not being purchased for by the men
in their household. They're going out and choosing these things,
so they have options. Every single part of the nineteenth
century twenty century, they're always flats available, there are always
other options available.
Speaker 3 (14:24):
So there was a woman in the UK in twenty
sixteen who was actually fired because she refused to wear heels.
So in this case, the decision actually was taken away
from her. And it's dot a lot of arguments around
dress codes and saying that if they're asking men to
wear a tie, then they're allowed to ask women to
wear heels. In your experience as a fashion historian, do
you think that a tie and a high heel are comparable?
Speaker 5 (14:46):
It would make a more fair comparison if again, heels
were as comfortable as I do understand that ties can
be uncomfortable. They're not always the easiest thing to wear. It's,
if anything, a little bit more akin to men having
to wear a full three piece suit all the time,
regardless of the weather. So the discomfort that men might
feel in really hot summer weather with no air conditioning
(15:09):
might be a bit more comparable to that. The issue
tends to be in the fact that we think of
heels as completing the outfit. We tend to think of
heels today as a symbol of being feminine rather than
a completion of the ensemble. It used to be that
you had to have your hair done when you went out,
you had to wear a hat when you went out,
you had to wear hose when you went out, You
(15:31):
had to wear all of these different garments when you
went out to be finished and polished and appropriate for
public consumption. And so there are still some latent parts
of that in our society today that we haven't really
gotten rid of. We still assume if we're dressing up,
we need to wear heels, we need to wear a suit,
we need to maybe wear a hat, whatever it is
(15:51):
that we feel completes the outfit for that situation. So
there are times where things are required to be appropriate.
The unfortunate thing is that again heels have become something
that is bad for your health and dangerous. It'd be
one thing if they were saying you have to wear heels,
but one inch counts for a heel. That wouldn't be
as concerning, no different than you have to wear steel
(16:13):
toed boots. The issue is they're telling women they have
to wear high heels because that is what makes you
look like a woman. Yeah, it's the women move into
the workplace start wearing men's suits, but they can't appear
too masculine, so they wear high heels to balance it out. Yeah,
so that's where our issue comes from. It's more from
the nineteen seventies and eighties than it is from the
(16:35):
nineteenth century.
Speaker 3 (16:36):
Well, we are talking about the discomfit of heels. In
your opinion, one of the design is that doing good
things for women's fate.
Speaker 5 (16:45):
I particularly love the fact that we're starting to see
a lot more knit uppers. That's one of my favorite
new inventions for that because it's a lot closer to
the way that shoes used to feel back in the
nineteenth century, when they are very light weight and very stretchy,
and they will actually work with your foot and your
shape because everyone's got different feet. Feet are very unique
and very complicated. There is no one shoe that will
(17:07):
work for everyone, so that allows for flexibility that leather
styles with a lot of structure inside of them don't.
That's my favorite thing and what I generally recommend to
people that say I don't find shoes that work for me,
they will find stretchy ones.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
What a heels for you today? Well, you're designing your
own heels, but what's your relationship to a high heel.
Speaker 5 (17:27):
For me, it's become a question of sort of a
technological wonder. To me, I've been curious lately how high
I can make a heel before it becomes uncomfortable. That's
one of my challenges for this year because I want
to see if I can prove the fact that it's
not the high heel's fault necessarily, and it won't work
for everybody's foot, but that is the fact that we
(17:49):
aren't putting in the effort when it comes to the
manufacturing of heels to actually take the time to figure
out how these can be done better. So for me,
I'm curious what technologically I can do beyond just making
a pretty shoe.
Speaker 4 (18:05):
Thanks for tuning in today, friends, You are the reason
we get out of Biddam early every day.
Speaker 2 (18:11):
Today.
Speaker 4 (18:11):
The Quickie was hosted by both me, Clare Murphy and
Grace Rubrey, produced by our executive producer Calieborg, with audio
production by Tom Lyon.
You're listening to a Muma Mia podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Mamma Mia acknowledges the traditional owners of land and waters
that this podcast is recorded on. Many of us can
remember the thrill of raiding our mum's wardrobes clomping around
in her favorite high heels before we were old enough
to have our own.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
While the risk of a twisted anchor was very real.
Even at that young age, we understood that high heels
transformed how we looked and maybe even how we felt.
But what message does wearing heels send today? In this
episode of Mamma MIA's news podcast, The Quickie, we explore
the fascinating history of high heels, where they came from,
why they were first worn, and what they symbolize now
(00:50):
spoiler alert, the first we were to wear high heels
were men.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
This is The Quickie.
Speaker 4 (00:58):
Hi, I'm Clare Murphy. This is Mamma MIA's daily news podcast,
The Quickie. And on the way we're going to head
back in time to understand the history of the high heel,
how they were meant for men not women, and how
they make a feminist statement while also being anti feminist
at the same time. But what are their origins and
initial purpose? And what if any future do they have
(01:21):
as celebs ditch them for a comfy of red carpet.
Many of us can remember, back before we were allowed
to have our own, raiding mum's wardrobe and clumping around
in her favorite high heels. Well, the threat of breaking
an ankle was all too real. We also understood, even
(01:46):
at that young age, that heels did something for our appearance.
But what message does wearing a heel scent? Grace Rouverrey's
been investigating this story for the Quickie.
Speaker 3 (02:01):
High heels could be the most divisive item of clothing.
You're either a heel lover or a heel hater, but
whichever side you're on, the feelings are strong.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
Never wear them unless it's boots for the chunky heel.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
In the winter.
Speaker 4 (02:13):
Ever since a quite dramatic slipover, I have sworn off heels.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
I just haven't learned how to walk properly in heels,
and I'm already clumsy enough as it is.
Speaker 3 (02:22):
I very rarely wear them now. I'm like, if I must,
it's like a tiny heel or chunky I still think
my legs look hot in them, but the discomfort is
in no way worth it. I stopped green stilettos where
my acupuncturists told me it can adversely affect your calf
muscles in the pro corner. He'll love us say, the
(02:44):
right shoe makes them feel strong, powerful and game ready,
and the cons sore feet, bleeding toes, precarious stumbles on
even the slightest uneven pavement, or the increasing worry for
your ankle stability with each passing birthday I live in.
Speaker 5 (03:04):
It was not honest, husband, I'm primarily in a crack.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
But a huge part of why some women hate a
high heel, other than the aforementioned pain, is the perceived
intention that heels were created for women purely for the
male gaze.
Speaker 6 (03:22):
Ladies, I don't care who you are. When you put
on a high heel shoe, it does something to your
appearance that is so desirable by men. I don't know
what it is. I don't know why will we see
y'all tippytoeing?
Speaker 3 (03:40):
But did you know heels were originally made by men
for men. The high heel first burst onto the scene
in the sixteenth century, worn by men on horseback to
make them appear taller and more powerful in battle.
Speaker 5 (03:59):
God, by heels, you bastard.
Speaker 3 (04:02):
The height of the heel when the soldiers stood up
in their stirrups helped steady their stands so they could
shoot their bow and arrow more effectively. Whilst being a
practical invention, they were never actually designed to be walked in,
and although these heels were relatively short at around two
inches compared to today's high heels that start at three inches,
the men's hill also meant they weren't stepping in horsepoop
(04:24):
because they were higher off the ground. By the late
seventeenth century, practicality morphed into fashion when Paris became the
center of European fashion, with heels now a sign of power,
sophistication and wealth, famously worn by King Louis the fourteenth
heels rose to between two and five inches, with wooden
(04:46):
heels trimmed with ornate buckles and ribbons to fasten, the
legend being that Louis, as a short man, donned high
heels to increase his stature. The heel's craze came crashing
down to earth following the French Revolution and the people
rebelling against anything associated with the upper class. The world
was back to flats and sandals for over one hundred years.
(05:09):
Multiple theories as to when heels made their historical comeback,
including one theory that a French photographer in the eighteen
hundreds would discover the sexy silhouette of a woman whilst
wearing a pair of heels in a photo shoot. But
heels were back, and they got taller and taller, as
(05:30):
well as becoming a staple for women in the workplace.
But as the years went on and the shoes became
more uncomfortable, Hello stilettos, I'm looking at you, women began
to push against the required dress code, but it wasn't
an easy transition. In twenty sixteen, Nicola Thorpe, a PwC
receptionist in London, arrived to work wearing flat shoes, but
(05:53):
was sent home as she was required to have a
two to four inch high heel.
Speaker 7 (05:57):
I was so upset, and this is horrible contradiction in
your head between actually it's a small deal where the
heels earnally, but that's such a bigger issue, and you're
conflicted because I had meant to pay, I had bills
to pay, but I also wanted to keep my integrity.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
Nicholas started a petition titled make it illegal for a
company to require women to wear high heels at work,
which was quite popular and collected over one hundred and
fifty thousand signatures. From here, the conversation quickly moved to
the double standard requirements for men and women in the workplace,
with a lot of men pushing back on this requirement.
Speaker 8 (06:36):
So my question to you would be, when it's client facing,
like you said the men, I would imagine it's almost
probably a contractual thing too. They have to look the
part to meet clients, right you f you're the gatekeeper
to those meetings and you're taking very important clients to
meet the suited guys or women or whatever in the
(06:56):
business end of the company, Is it actually sexist for
the company to say to you, we'd like you to
look fantastic as well, and to look glamorous and to
wear heels and really set a kind of whole.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
So how do we feel of heels today? Can we
still love them? Or is there too much history? Nicole
Rudolph is a fashion historian and shoemaker. She believes we
can find power in the right pair of heels. Okay,
let's get it on the history of the high heels.
I believe they go back to the sixteenth century. Can
you tell me give me a bit of a history
(07:29):
lesson about where we saw them first and who was
wearing them first.
Speaker 5 (07:33):
Yeah, so far as we know, at least from the
European perspective, it is brought by Shah Abbas, but he
brings it when he comes to visit Europe from the
Middle East, and so they are used for horse riding
prior to that point. So they're not shoes that you
would be able to really walk in. They've got kind
of a strange hook shape on the pack. More so
than anything, it's meant to just help you stabilize in
(07:55):
the stirrups. And so that gets brought to Europe on
a visit and it sort of takes off in court
because it's just another thing for wealthy people to do,
and it becomes very popular with men first. Eventually women
pick up on it as well. It becomes a slightly
different style that we can actually walk in. There are
elevated shoes prior to that point within Europe, but they
aren't heels. They're more just big wedges in a way.
Speaker 3 (08:19):
Yeah, it was just the more comfortable ones. And how
did the French King Louis the Fourth become involved in
high heels.
Speaker 5 (08:26):
He's just one of the names that I think has
become really popularly associated with it from a modern perspective,
because that's when they really took off. He himself didn't
do anything spectacular individually when it comes to high heels.
He's just well known for it today. So just the
infamous nature of the portraits that we have of him
and of the imagery that he really liked them, and
(08:48):
so did a lot of other people, and it was
right place, right time, and a very obvious figure.
Speaker 3 (08:53):
Heels went away for a little bit. What happened there, Yeah, So.
Speaker 5 (08:57):
Heels became normalized for everyone in the eighteenth century, particularly
when it came to women's shoes. We were walking on
wooden heels that were usually two or three inches high.
Was a fashionable hype. They're plenty that are much lower.
And when we get to the very end of the
eighteenth century, that's when we get the French Revolution. That's
when we get an obsession with the classical era. So
they get really interested in the Greeks and the Romans.
(09:18):
They bring back sandals, they bring back certain wrapped styles,
and the haircuts and everything, So they just go look
at all of these sculptures that they can find and
they mimic those, and the shoes are included in that.
So they start wearing the flat styles that had been
popular in the Greek and Roman eras as sort of
the new trendy thing, and that sticks around for a
good number of decades. So right around the seventeen nineties,
(09:40):
the heels start to drop out and we don't really
see them come back in a fashionable state for women
at least. Men still have a little bit of a
one inch sort of stacked heel, but they don't come
back for women until around eighteen fifty one. There was
a lot of discussion over whether high heels were good
for you or not because they were concerned about cold,
wet feet and causing tuberculosis or other issues. They didn't
(10:01):
know what caused it, so they blamed it on things
like shoes and corsets. So they thought having high heels
a little bit of high heel, and reminder, what they're
talking about for high heels is anything over an inch
and a half, so much lower than we're used to.
And they were saying something about inch inch and a
half is really good for elevating the foot, keeping it
dry and warm. But you go over an inch and
(10:22):
a half, well, then all sorts of horrible things will
start happening. And of course these horrible things don't actually happen.
They're just kind of not really good at medicine at
that point in time and making up a lot of things.
But they were only concerned about two inch heels and
things like that.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
So where is the jump to men created these for
a woman's silhouette? How do we deduce this from history?
Speaker 5 (10:42):
It's simply because I think we credit a lot of
the fashion changes in history to men, just because we
assume that all of women's fashion, if it doesn't look
familiar to us, or for that matter, doesn't look comfortable
to us, someone must have been doing it to them.
And we assume that men had all of the power
and all of the decision making, when in reality, people
(11:03):
had a lot more autonomy than we realize, or at
the very least were much more smart and devious about
the type of autonomy to me that they managed. So
we don't want to sit here and say, well, men
forced us into this. The reality is very often it's
a nuanced conversation that's happening. And most of the people
that were complaining about high heels, no different than most
of the people that were complaining about corsets were men.
(11:25):
It was usually the women who chose to wear those
things because they liked them for various reasons. Just like today,
there are a lot of reasons that women will choose
to wear high heels, and it's not just for men
or not just because they're told that they have to.
Speaker 3 (11:38):
In your opinion, what do you think he is represent now?
Do you think they are power, a wealth, sex, symbol,
personal identity?
Speaker 2 (11:46):
To you?
Speaker 3 (11:46):
What does the high heel represent all of.
Speaker 5 (11:48):
Those things in so many ways? Because for some people,
they wear it because it does make them feel more confident.
It makes you feel taller, it helps you walk differently.
It can help give you the right proportions of the
outfit that you're wearing, so it feels like it's weighted
correctly and you feel more comfortable in the way that
you appear. It might be an artistic expression. I love
wearing heels because I love the way that they look
(12:09):
as much as anything else. It's not necessarily a matter
of I feel more comfortable walking in them, but I
like the look of them, and fortunately for me, I'm
able to make my own shoes, so I'm also able
to make them comfortable enough to walk in, which is
sort of the problem with a lot of modern high
heels today. We assume that we have to give up
comfort for an attractive shoe or an artistic expression or
(12:30):
a complete outfit or whatever it is. And if we
get rid of that idea that they can't be comfortable,
then suddenly all of the issues of feminism and control
and patriarchy start to go away, because it's no longer
you are being tortured, it's you're choosing to wear these
because you like them.
Speaker 3 (12:47):
We were talking about, you know, one and two inch heels.
Where did the stilettos come from?
Speaker 5 (12:52):
They really pick up in the nineteen thirties, so at
that point in time, shoemakers are trying lots of new,
crazy things, and there are a few major names that
are trying some really elaborate things that are very technologically advanced.
So they're looking at things like airplane steel in order
to make shoes and whatever sort of new technology that
they can. And Perugia is one of the names we've
(13:14):
long since forgotten was coming up with the most exquisite
and unusual shoe shapes for that era. He was coming
up with taller and taller heels and with new shapes
and styles, and part of that essentially moved its way
into being the stiletto. We managed to find ways to
make them taller and thinner gradually over time, so by
the time we reach the nineteen fifties we get the
(13:35):
version that we're familiar with today.
Speaker 3 (13:36):
There is a theory that high heels were designed to
slow women down and that they couldn't run away. Is
there anything in history that suggests that's true.
Speaker 5 (13:47):
Like I said before, the biggest thing that I see
in the nineteenth century that kind of throws that out,
or even the twentieth century, is the fact that the
biggest complaints are coming from men. The fact that usually
while a lot of the shoe designers in those eras
are men, the women are choosing to purchase those I've
found more than enough evidence looking at plenty of individual
(14:08):
people over the nineteenth century where women are doing their
own purchasing. They're not being purchased for by the men
in their household. They're going out and choosing these things,
so they have options. Every single part of the nineteenth
century twenty century, they're always flats available, there are always
other options available.
Speaker 3 (14:24):
So there was a woman in the UK in twenty
sixteen who was actually fired because she refused to wear heels.
So in this case, the decision actually was taken away
from her. And it's dot a lot of arguments around
dress codes and saying that if they're asking men to
wear a tie, then they're allowed to ask women to
wear heels. In your experience as a fashion historian, do
you think that a tie and a high heel are comparable?
Speaker 5 (14:46):
It would make a more fair comparison if again, heels
were as comfortable as I do understand that ties can
be uncomfortable. They're not always the easiest thing to wear. It's,
if anything, a little bit more akin to men having
to wear a full three piece suit all the time,
regardless of the weather. So the discomfort that men might
feel in really hot summer weather with no air conditioning
(15:09):
might be a bit more comparable to that. The issue
tends to be in the fact that we think of
heels as completing the outfit. We tend to think of
heels today as a symbol of being feminine rather than
a completion of the ensemble. It used to be that
you had to have your hair done when you went out,
you had to wear a hat when you went out,
you had to wear hose when you went out, You
(15:31):
had to wear all of these different garments when you
went out to be finished and polished and appropriate for
public consumption. And so there are still some latent parts
of that in our society today that we haven't really
gotten rid of. We still assume if we're dressing up,
we need to wear heels, we need to wear a suit,
we need to maybe wear a hat, whatever it is
(15:51):
that we feel completes the outfit for that situation. So
there are times where things are required to be appropriate.
The unfortunate thing is that again heels have become something
that is bad for your health and dangerous. It'd be
one thing if they were saying you have to wear heels,
but one inch counts for a heel. That wouldn't be
as concerning, no different than you have to wear steel
(16:13):
toed boots. The issue is they're telling women they have
to wear high heels because that is what makes you
look like a woman. Yeah, it's the women move into
the workplace start wearing men's suits, but they can't appear
too masculine, so they wear high heels to balance it out. Yeah,
so that's where our issue comes from. It's more from
the nineteen seventies and eighties than it is from the
(16:35):
nineteenth century.
Speaker 3 (16:36):
Well, we are talking about the discomfit of heels. In
your opinion, one of the design is that doing good
things for women's fate.
Speaker 5 (16:45):
I particularly love the fact that we're starting to see
a lot more knit uppers. That's one of my favorite
new inventions for that because it's a lot closer to
the way that shoes used to feel back in the
nineteenth century, when they are very light weight and very stretchy,
and they will actually work with your foot and your
shape because everyone's got different feet. Feet are very unique
and very complicated. There is no one shoe that will
(17:07):
work for everyone, so that allows for flexibility that leather
styles with a lot of structure inside of them don't.
That's my favorite thing and what I generally recommend to
people that say I don't find shoes that work for me,
they will find stretchy ones.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
What a heels for you today? Well, you're designing your
own heels, but what's your relationship to a high heel.
Speaker 5 (17:27):
For me, it's become a question of sort of a
technological wonder. To me, I've been curious lately how high
I can make a heel before it becomes uncomfortable. That's
one of my challenges for this year because I want
to see if I can prove the fact that it's
not the high heel's fault necessarily, and it won't work
for everybody's foot, but that is the fact that we
(17:49):
aren't putting in the effort when it comes to the
manufacturing of heels to actually take the time to figure
out how these can be done better. So for me,
I'm curious what technologically I can do beyond just making
a pretty shoe.
Speaker 4 (18:05):
Thanks for tuning in today, friends, You are the reason
we get out of Biddam early every day.
Speaker 2 (18:11):
Today.
Speaker 4 (18:11):
The Quickie was hosted by both me, Clare Murphy and
Grace Rubrey, produced by our executive producer Calieborg, with audio
production by Tom Lyon.
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