6K
Do you love high heels? Maybe you love them to the point where they make you feel warm inside? Well, whether you’re a fetishist or a fashion lover, here are 33 interesting facts about high heels.
- Men have been wearing high heels for much longer than women. In the 17th century, high heels were a symbol of social status. But there were also practical reasons in other historical periods.
- In the early 17th century, envoys from Abbas the Great brought modern high heels to Europe. Later, kings such as Louis XIV also began to wear high heels to show their social status.
- 10th-century Persian soldiers wore them in battle to better aim their bows
- Persian cavalry wore high-heeled shoes to secure their feet in the stirrups.
- Around 200 B.C., Roman actors wore “kathorni” high heels to make themselves appear taller. But they were also worn by prostitutes.
- Egyptian butchers wore high heels to protect their feet from the blood and debris on the floor.
- In medieval Europe, wealthy people would wear wooden, thick-soled shoes called “pattens” to keep their indoor shoes clean while walking on the dirty streets outside.
- The heels worn by Venetian noblewomen could reach heights of more than 24 inches. These shoes were called chopine, which meant that the women could not walk unaided.
- The tallest set of chopine is 50 cm in height.
- In the 17th century, official regulations began to be put in place on heel heights: for example, commoners could only wear 1/2 inch heels, while princes could wear 2.5-inch heels.
- Altocalciphilia is a fetish for high heels.
- A German teenager ran 100 meters in 14.531 seconds wearing golden high heels, just 5 seconds slower than Usain Bolt.
- A 34-year-old French woman ran a marathon in 6 hours, 4 minutes and 7 seconds wearing high heels.
- High heels push your center of gravity forward, causing your hips and spine to become misaligned.
- “Alexandra’s limp” was a short-lived fashion in Victorian London. Fashionable young women imitated Princess Alexandra’s limp. Some shoe vendors even sold one pair of shoes with a lower heel than another pair.
- According to Jimmy Choo and Gucci, low heels are defined as shoes with a heel height of less than 2.5 inches (6.4 centimeters). A medium heel is defined as a shoe with a heel height between 2.5 and 3.5 inches (6.4 and 8.9 centimeters). Any heel higher than that is considered a high heel. But in general, a high heel is defined as a shoe with a heel height between 2 and 5 inches.
- In The Wizard of Oz, Dorothy’s high heels or red slippers symbolize the power of common people over oppression.
- Wearing high heels is not good for your health. It increases pressure on your veins. This can lead to varicose veins, bunions, and injuries from falls.
- There was a law in 17th century Massachusetts that if a woman wore high heels to seduce a man into marriage, she would be punished as a witch.
- In Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, anyone who wants to wear high heels higher than 2 inches and with a heel thickness of no more than 1 square inch must first obtain a permit.

- The largest high heel ever made is 3.96 meters (12 feet 11 inches) long and 2.82 meters (9 feet 3 inches) high. The giant shoe was created by Dido Fashion Club on April 20, 2019 to showcase the artistry of shoes.
- French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu speculated that men eventually stopped wearing high heels because the association between high heels and femininity tainted the idea of men wearing high heels.
- When Disneyland Anaheim opened, the pavement was so new that high heels would sink into it and get stuck.
- The famous red sole of Christian Louboutin shoes was inspired by Andy Warhol’s painting Flowers. Warhol was known for the bright colors in his works, and the same can be said for the red sole shoes.
- Until the 1950s, heels were mostly made of wood with the grain of the wood running up and down the narrow heel to make it as sturdy as possible.
- High heels began to fall out of fashion in the 19th century as clothing became more conservative.
- After the Civil War, the Panette heel became popular. This heel was short and curved and was popular on lace-up women’s boots. The Cromwell heel on buckled shoes also became common. But the height of these heels was still relatively short.
- After the French Revolution, high heels began to be associated with female irrationality and superficiality. It was not until the advent of the camera and pin-up girls that high heels became popular.
- The first Barbie doll (1959) wore a black and white knit striped swimsuit and black high heels. Her shoes had small holes that matched a small hole in a piece of the base, allowing the doll to stand up.

- Some women undergo surgery to shorten their little toes and numb the nerves so they can wear high heels without pain.
- New technologies for casting aluminum and steel invented during the war for airplanes found their way into many everyday items, including shoes. In the early 1950s, three designers, Salvatore Ferragamo, Roger Vivier and André Perugia, invented the stiletto.
- Marilyn Monroe and Playboy popularized the stiletto, making it a sex symbol for women going out for sex.
- The word “stiletto” comes from the Latin word “stilus,” which means “pointed writing stick,” and is related to the word “style.” It is also Italian for a small, delicate, very sharp knife.