At first, forms of sandals made of leaves, grass and woven branches of palm appeared in warm areas. In the cold areas of the world pieces of animal skin were used to wrap the feet and to protect them from the cold.
Most evidence for the existence of shoes, or rather sandals, are from the Roman period. The Romans produced different types of shoes for their army with different kinds of leather belts, depending of the Empire area.
Around the year 1400 in Turkey appeared Chopines, shoes with heels that represented a mark of social hierarchy, they were successful until the seventeenth century.
Only women from aristocratic class could wear Chopines in Venice and their height goes from 16 to over 60 cm. No wonder then, that women need servants to help them put them shoes.
Chopines were also popular among Venetian courtesans, the Chinese concubines and Turkish odalisque. In addition to their aesthetic, high heels are suspects to have also the purpose to prevent them to escape.
Surprisingly the platforms will be adopted by the men.
A symbol in this regard is the King of France, Louis XIV, who used to wear, tall platform, decorated with fighting scenes.
The same King decreed that the red shoes (they were called “les talons rouge”) could be worn only by nobility, but no one had a right to order higher platforms than the king.
An important innovation of the Eighteenth Century is the closure system of the shoes with buckle. Samuel Pepys wrote in his diary in January 1660: “Today I started to put buckles on my shoes.” First popular among men, the straps with buckle replaced then the ribbons used to close women shoes.
During the XVIII – XIX shoes have evolved through various forms of heels and tips, and the fabrics used in their manufacture have changed. In the eighteenth women’s shoes reflect the style of the dresses, with the same ornaments and embroidery, having wooden heels. Silver strips were very popular as decoration applied to shoes.
Until late 1760, thick heel began to thin, and its base becomes wider; in the 1770′s the “Italian heel” come out and began to be used for women’s shoes.
The late eighteenth and early nineteenth century women’s shoes lost slowly in height until heels disappeared entirely.
Boots are the Nineteenth – century characteristic, both for women and men. Most popular styles were: “Blücher”, boots with sole and heel united and sides fastened with laces, fabric boots with laces and Balmoral boots that close in front with laces.
Apart from boots, women wore stylish shoes with heels made from a variety of fabrics from satin and silk to reptile leather. Men could choose between Oxford shoes with laces in the front and Derby shoes with laces, cut on tip.
The Twentieth century brought a lot of styles of shoes and first shoe designers.
From the style of shoes in 2 colors of the 30′s, to the comfortable shoes of the 40′s; the 50′s brought brothel Creepers style, style quickly adopted by the rock’d'roll generation. 60s style is characterized by the boots that reach the ankles, and the 70 promotes platform shoes.
20th century remains the richest in terms of appearances and styles of shoes – a century full of creativity and color, when the high heels wavered between admiration of the public and the denial in favor of comfort.
Christian Dior is the one who revived heels, bringing, in the 50’s, to the public attention what is now called stiletto shoes.
