Friday, April 3, 2015

Step By Step --- Day 4/64

Walk: Van Ness
Distance: 1 mile, small home yoga

Marilyn Monroe spoke for a multitude of women when she said “I don’t know who invented the high heel, but women owe him a lot.”

Page65.JPG  page70.jpg

High heels weren't actually invented.  They evolved through various incarnations until about 1840 when, perhaps spurred by revolutions in America and France, heels on women's footware became lower and lower.  Eventually it disappeared altogether.  Queen Victorias shoes_1.jpg A particularly popular style was the square-toed slipper with ribbon ties, forerunners of the ballet flat.  Empress Josephine, wife of Napoleon, was said to have owned more than 300 pairs.

But that didn't last long, and by the 1850's heels were back! Page143.JPG
They started slowly at 1/2 inch and started creeping up from there to 2 1/2 inches in 1860. Then brass heel pieces, which supported even higher heels, began to appear at the end of the century.  During this period the classic women's court shoe - what Americans call the pump - emerged and was the favored fashion shoe until the 1950's when ............
Page193.JPG The Stiletto! and the requisite accessory for the modern sex symbol came in.*



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