Love them or loathe them, stiletto heels are a fashion staple. Emma Johnson investigates why.
 Flicking through fashion bible Vogue recently I came across something which almost made my heart stop. No, not the price of the latest Balenciaga handbag but the announcement that stiletto shoes are so over. There it was in black and white from the mouth of style doyenne herself, Miuccia Prada: "Pointy high heels are finished". It could not be, I thought, mentally picturing my rows of death-defying toe-tamers consigned to the fashion wasteland. From the navy blue pointed courts lifted from my mother's wardrobe (I was eight) to my first-ever very own pair of ballroom dancing silver four-inch highs at 15 (which cut my feet to ribbons but made me feel like a fairytale princess) I've been fascinated with high heels. In a gleaming pair of patent, pointed courts I feel all-woman - strong, confident and sexy. Don't get me wrong; I am not some five-foot flower - this is not a height issue. No, I just find something magical about that slender spike and I am not alone in my thinking. Caroline Cox addresses this mythical power of stiletto heels in her new book, Stiletto, the first definitive history of fashion and society's obsession with a shoe that is loved and loathed in equal measures. Regarded as an international authority on fashion history, and a cultural trends advisor for Vidal Sassoon, Caroline examines the stiletto as a cultural icon which through its lifetime has been described as both a "symbol of female subjugation" and most recently as one of female sexual independence. Although its exact origins are unknown, the stiletto heel was invented in the 1950s by Italian shoemakers and means literally "little dagger". And it caused a fuss almost from day one. Says Carol: "The piercing, penetrating nature of the heel caused disturbance wherever it roamed, damaging floors and in some cases the feet of others, sparking outrage and moral panic." Although it had been dreamed of for many years and high heels had been worn from pre-war times, Caroline explains that it was not until the late 1940s that designers really hit the drawing boards to create a truly elegant shoe. The prototype for this would be created by a Parisian shoe designer Roger Vivier who in the early 50s came up with an appropriately pretty shoe to complement the new floaty feminine designs of rising couturier Christian Dior. In the 50s, explains Caroline, the stiletto was seen as a symbol of post-war modernity but as early as the decade-end some were starting to regard it as a symbol of oppression for women. At the same time the shoes were growing in popularity with Hollywood's hottest stars, fuelling its sexy image. Marilyn Monroe, Jayne Mansfield, Sophia Loren and Gina Lollobrigida were rarely seen out of designer heels. But by the mid-1960s it looked like stiletto heels were over as young girls opted for the much more fashionable flats (what do they say again about fashion being cyclical?) But, this was not the last we would see of the shoe. In the 1980s the stiletto came into its own, explains Caroline, with the rise of power-dressing where it was to "dominate fashionable footwear for a new generation". But the author suggests the stiletto staged its greatest renaissance in the fashion-obsessed 90s. By this time, she says, the stiletto had cast off any suggestion of female subjugation and become an expression of women's "new feelings of sexual freedom and power". She says: "No longer associated with cocktail waitresses and bunny girls, sky-high skinny heels were being paraded by the strongest of women, successful in both executive and social arenas - just think of Carrie Bradshaw in Sex and the City." Yes, half a century after they first arrived to tempt and torture us, stilettos are a way of life for many women - regardless of what Ms Prada says. Caroline sums it up nicely: "Since the stiletto's inception in the 1950s, its chameleon-like quality has made it a powerful symbol. In the battle of the sexes the stiletto (but maybe not the wearer) will always be on top." * Stiletto by Caroline Cox (Mitchell Beazley, £30). ********** Suffering for style In her book, Caroline Cox recalls that, as early as 1953, it was acknowledged the stiletto could cause problems for wearers. She refers to the Picture Post entitled The Hazards of the Stiletto Heel in which a model was photographed falling with her heel stuck in a pavement. In the article she notes a doctor commented that these shoes "...will harm a girl's feet", but also that this would not stop them being worn. In recent years the thinking on how bad stilettos are for feet has been divided. Spine-bending heels have been blamed for everything from shortened muscles to knee arthritis. Yet a recent study by the University of Warwick claimed women in skinny heels were not setting themselves up for a life of knee problems but may in fact be helping to prevent such problems. Registered osteopath Patrick Phillips says he sees foot and back complaints brought on by wearing very high shoes: "Your foot should be able to rock - to pitch like a ship. With a high shoe, rocking action is unstable as your heel is raised. You will go over sideways more readily. "Also if you wear high heels too much you can cause a shortening in the Achilles tendon and calf muscle. If you combine a high stiletto heel with a pointed toe, the effect is worse. It can shift your toes down and squeeze them causing a bunion. "Stilettos affect posture: it is thrown forward and your knees are locked - this means you arch your back. That can have a knock-on effect on your knees, hips and lower back." But he says there's no reason to condemn stilettos as sinful shoes. "Wedge shoes are better than stilettos in that you get a similar height effect but the heel is more stable. But there is a time and a place for stilettos. I would say don't wear them too much and if you are going to wear them, look after your feet." ********** Manolo Blahnik was said to have removed a pair of razor-sharp three-inch stilettos from production because they could have been dangerous. The titanium-heels were as thin as the ink tube in a ball point and could have cut through carpet. ********** Caroline Cox discovered a trainer in London - Marco Bellagamba - who found that many of his clients were suffering foot problems from heels. To combat this, he devised a series of exercises to strengthen the ankles and advises women to limit their high heel exposure to five hours. ********** 1957: Christian Dior dresses were teamed with stilettos. It was the floaty feminine designs of the French designer that inspired the first stilettos. ********** Shoes, in particular the high-priced designs of Manolo Blahnik, were as integral to Sex and the City as the sex. In one now- famous episode, Sarah Jessica Parker's character Carrie told a would-be mugger: "You can take my Fendi baguette, you can take my watch, but don't take my Manolos." ********* A Hollywood columnist claims Marilyn Monroe's famous wiggle was all down to her stiletto shoes. According to Jimmy Starr, the actress cut a quarter of an inch off one heel so that when she walked her bottom would wiggle. A pair of Marilyn's Salvatore Ferragamo rhinestone heels sold for £23,500 at Christie's in 1999. | 
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