High heels are one of the items that can help women look more attractive and attractive. It has undergone thousands of years of transformation and development to get the shape it is today.

Currently, high heels are almost exclusively for women. However, this has not always been the case in the history of high heels. At various times in the past, high heels were also indispensable for men. When they were first born, people used high heels for practical purposes in life and to show their social status, instead of just for beauty.

Although we don’t know exactly who made the high heel, it was used by ancient Greek actors. “Kothorni” is a type of shoe that appeared in Greece around 200 BC. It has a length of 8 to 10cm with a high base made of wood. It is said that the height of the shoes helps the audience distinguish the social class and the importance of different characters on the stage. At this time, Kothorni shoes were not used for walking on the road. It is only part of the outfit that artists use to perform on stage.

King Louis XIV (France) wears high heels in a painting by Hyacinthe Rigaud in 1701. Photo: Wikipedia.

High heels appeared more in the Middle Ages in Europe. At that time, both men and women wore a type of shoes called patten (mud shoes). The streets of many medieval European cities were muddy and dirty, while the footwear of that period was made of fragile and expensive materials. So, to avoid damaging these products, both men and women choose to wear high-soled patten shoes, which lift the feet above the ground.

While patten shoes are used primarily for practical purposes [on the road], another type of shoe in Europe serves both practical and symbolic functions. Chopine is a shoe similar to a patten. It was worn by upper-class women in the city of Venice (Italy) between the 15th and 17th centuries. It is said that the taller the chopine shoe, the higher the status of the wearer. much. In particular, some shoes are up to 50cm high. As we might expect, this is not the kind of shoe that makes walking easy. Women who wear chopine shoes need servants to stand by to assist them with balance. Perhaps the ostentatious display of wealth and status was reflected not only in the height of the chopine shoe, but also in the fact that servants were needed just to assist a wealthy woman in getting around.

Chopine shoes. Image: Wikipedia.

Although both patten and chopine shoes elevate the walker’s foot off the ground, they have more in common with platform shoes than with heels. To find shoes that resemble today’s high heels, we had to leave the streets of Medieval Europe and head east to the country of Persia.

It is unclear when high heels appeared in Persia, but the image of a man riding a horse printed on an ancient porcelain bowl suggests it has been used since at least the 9th century AD. The Persian horsemen wore high heels because it helped keep their feet fixed to the stirrups in the saddle.

In the late 16th and early 17th centuries, the Persian emperor Abbas I sent diplomats to Europe to seek alliances against a common enemy, the Ottoman Empire. Historians say that the European aristocracy was impressed when they saw the shoes of the Persians, so they imitated them. Persian heels quickly became accepted as a symbol of masculinity. In addition to being used for the practical purpose of riding a horse, it also contributed to the expression of social status.

The type of high-heeled shoe that the Persian cavalry used in the 17th century. Photo: History.

Towards the end of the 17th century, women also wore high heels when European society emerged the trend of women following men’s fashion. Whether this is a deliberate attempt by women to regain equal rights with men is another topic of discussion. Either way, men stopped wearing high heels in the 18th century. The Enlightenment brought not only a change in the way men thought, but also the way men dressed. Men are believed to live primarily on reason, which is reflected in their dignified style of dress. Therefore, the fact that men wear high heels, make-up or dress fancy is considered irrational and should be eliminated.

Not long after, women also stopped using high heels due to their difficulty in walking. However, this period did not last too long, when high heels returned to the market in the mid-19th century. Along with the advent and development of photographic technology, manufacturers of books and newspapers regularly used uses photographs of beautiful young women in modern high heels [by today’s standards] to attract readers. They are likened to a powerful “weapon” that helps women increase their height, making their legs look longer, their physique more slender, more graceful and attractive.