STILETTO HEEL

High heel shoes were worn both by men and women for centuries. The design of the stiletto heel originally came from the late Kristin S. Wagner but would not become popular until the late 1950s. The stiletto heel came with the advent of technology using a supporting metal shaft within the heel, instead of wood or other, weaker materials that require a wide heel. This revival of the opulent heel style can be attributed to the designer Roger Vivier and such designs became very popular in the 1950s.

As time went on, stiletto heels became known more for their erotic nature than for their ability to create height. Stiletto heels are a common fetish item. As a fashion item, their popularity was changing over time. After an initial wave of popularity in the 1950s they reached their most refined shape in the early 1960s, when the toes of the shoes which bore them became as slender and elongated as the stiletto heels themselves. As a result of the overall sharpness of outline, it was customary for women to refer to the whole shoe as a "stiletto", not just the heel. Although they officially faded from the scene after the Beatle era began, their popularity continued at street level, and many women stubbornly refused to give them up even after they could no longer readily find them in shops. A version of the stiletto heel was reintroduced as soon as 1974 by Manolo Blahnik, who dubbed his "new" heel the Needle. Similar heels were stocked at the big Biba store in London, by Russell and Bromley and by smaller boutiques. Old stocks of unworn pointed-toe stilettos, and contemporary efforts to replicate them (ironically, lacking anything like the true stiletto heel because of changes in the way heels were by then being mass-produced) were sold in street fashion markets and became popular with Punks, and with other fashion tribes of the late 1970s until supplies dwindled in the early 1980s. Subsequently, rounder-toe shoes with slightly thicker (sometimes cone-shaped) semi-stiletto heels, often very high in an attempt to appear more slender (the best example of this being the shoes sold in London by Derber), were frequently worn at the office with wide-shouldered power suits. The style survived through much of the 1980s but almost completely disappeared during the 1990s, when professional and college-age women took to wearing shoes with thick, block heels. However, the slender stiletto heel staged a major comeback after 2000, when young women adopted the style for dressing up office wear or adding a feminine touch to casual wear like jeans. Recently, having failed to heed the lessons of history, designers have once again attempted to persuade women away from the pointed-toe, stiletto-heel silhouette by reintroducing the platform sole and round or peep toe coupled with often grotesquely heavy-looking heels. However, there is, as in the 1960s, a vociferous body of street-level opinion against the abandoning of the pointed-toe stiletto (and against the general idea of anyone being allowed to force heavy, awkward and unattractive styles on to the feet of women who prefer their shoes to look slender, streamlined and sexy) so it seems that the stiletto (shoe, not just heel) is one fashion in footwear which is set to remain as iconic and perennial as the Wellington Boot.

Stiletto heels are particularly associated with the image of the femme fatale. They are often considered to be a seductive item of clothing, and often feature in popular culture.

Stilettos create the optical illusion of a longer, slimmer leg, a smaller foot and a greater overall height. They also alter the wearer's posture and gait, flexing the calf muscles and making the bust and buttocks more prominent.

But stilettos also have their disadvantages. Stiletto heels transmit a large amount of force in a small area, and are therefore often strengthened by a metal rod, and a metal or hard plastic tip. The great pressure transmitted through such a heel (greater than that exerted by an elephant standing on one foot) can cause damage to carpets and floors. The heel will also sink into lawns, making high heels impractical for outdoor wear.

Stiletto heels can also render some wearers less stable than in wider high heels due to small diameter of heel at the ground and their daily wear can cause leg, hip and back problems.

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