Advent Day 13
Stilettos
The birth of the razor-sharp heel
Block heels and raised platform shoes may have been worn since the Greeks, but the razor-thin stiletto is a 20th-century invention. Named after an Italian knife with a slender blade and needle-sharp point, the heel was engineered in the 1950s when new materials and techniques invented for aircraft carriers were applied to shoe construction. The use of aluminium and injection moulding to fuse metal and plastic made it possible to elongate and raise heels to new heights. The key was in finding a way to support the arch of the foot, taking the pressure off the toes and the heel, and allowing the shoe to move with the body rather than against it. (Above: Salvatore Ferragamo examining one of his shoes, 1934)
Attaining celebrity status
Stilettos typically range from one to five inches, but must be narrower at the tip than where the heel attaches to the last of the shoe. Designers Salvatore Ferragamo, Roger Vivier and André Perugia have all been credited with inventing the stiletto, sometime between 1948 and 1954. In the 1950s, the four-inch Ferragamo stilettos worn by Marilyn Monroe allowed her to hone her famously seductive walk; and by the 1960s the aspirational Hollywood veneer gave way to accessibility, as it became the shoe of choice for most women.
