FOR the last three centuries, high heels have been widely regarded as a women’s style.
Seen everywhere from the runways to daily work attire, it’s the key to tying an ensemble together.
What if I told you that high heels were historically made exclusively for men.
Is it true that a pair of high heels was once an essential accessory for men?
Verdict:
TRUE
High heels weren’t created for women at all. In fact, they were originally designed for men and not for fashion, but for function.
The earliest known version of the high heel dates back to 10th-century Persia, where male soldiers wore heeled shoes while riding horses.
The heel helped them stay secure in stirrups and gave them better control and stability when shooting arrows.
This practical military style spread westward. By the 17th century, Persian diplomats introduced heeled boots to European aristocrats, who eagerly adopted the look, but not for the same reason.
In Europe, heels began to represent masculinity, status, and power. Riding horses was expensive, and owning them meant status.
Wearing heels demonstrated that you were sufficiently wealthy to avoid the muddy streets.
No one embraced this more than King Louis XIV of France, who famously declared in 1670 that only members of the royal court could wear heels and only his favorites could wear red heels, a colour he personally reserved for himself
For him, the heel wasn’t just about height, it was about hierarchy.
However, everything shifted by the end of the 18th century. After the French Revolution, elaborate clothing and luxury items came to symbolise excess and inequality.
Heels, once worn proudly by noblemen, became tied to vanity and femininity and men abandoned them altogether.
Across the Atlantic, however, heels remained useful this time on the boots of American cowboys, who wore Cuban-style heels to stay balanced while riding long distances.
By the mid-19th century, photography and shifting beauty ideals helped cement heels as a feminine fashion staple, rather than a mark of male power.
So, next time someone calls high heels “girly,” remember: they started as a man’s tool of war and wealth, before women of course turned them into an icon of their own.
References:
1. https://artsandculture.google.
2. https://www.bbc.com/news/
3. https://www.teenvogue.com/
4. https://www.lofficielusa.com/
