Friday 12 October 2012

The purposes of the high heel back then...

high heeled shoes were worn for different reasons. The Egyptians wore them to show their status and the butchers wore them to help walk above the dirt of the dead animals.
But in ancient Rome, high heels were worn by prostitutes so they could be readily identified as the sex trade was not illegal.
'kothorni' were platform sandals later known as 'buskins' (in the Renaissance)  that had high wood and cork soles. These high footwear came from ancient Greece and Rome and were popular amongst actors for the purposes of creating different heights on stage as to portray a characters status in society, i.e the higher the heel the more important they were.

As we learn more and more about the geography of high heeled footwear we get a clear indication of the different uses of them and the difference in the uses in different countries and cities. They were used for practical reasons and also for status reasons.



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