Platform shoe

Platform shoes (also known as disco boots) are shoes, boots, or sandals with thick soles at least four inches in height, often made of cork, plastic, rubber, or wood (wooden-soled platform shoes are technically also clogs). They have been worn in various cultures since ancient times for fashion or for added height.

History

Platform sandals with wooden sole

Platform boot, ankle length

Lucite platform shoes

Ancient

After their use in Ancient Greece for raising the height of important characters in the Greek theatre and their similar use by high-born prostitutes or courtesans in Venice in the sixteenth century, platform shoes are thought to have been worn in Europe in the eighteenth century to avoid the muck of urban streets. Of the same practical origins are Japanese geta. There may also be a connection to the buskins of Ancient Rome, which frequently had very thick soles to give added height to the wearer. In ancient China men wore black boots with very thick sole made from layers of white clothes, this style of boots are often worn today on stage for Peking opera. During the Qing dynasty, aristocrat Manchu women wore a form of platform shoe similar to sixteenth century Venetian chopine.

Modern

Platform shoes enjoyed some popularity in the United States, Europe and the UK in the 1930s, 1940s, and very early 1950s, but not nearly to the extent of their popularity in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, when the biggest, and most prolonged, platform shoe fad in history began at least as early as 1967 (appearing in both advertisements and articles in 1970 issues of Seventeen magazine), and continued through to 1979 in Europe and Britain. (The fad lasted even further in the US, lasting up until as late as the early 1980s.) At the beginning of the fad, they were worn primarily by young women in their teens and twenties, and occasionally by younger girls, older women, and (particularly during the disco era) by young men, and although they did provide added height without nearly the discomfort of spike heels, they seem to have been worn primarily for the sake of attracting attention.^{[citation needed]} Many glam rock musicians wore platform shoes as part of their act.

While a wide variety of styles were popular during this period, including boots, espadrilles, oxfords, sneakers, and both dressy and casual sandals of all description, with soles made of wood, cork, or synthetic materials, the most popular style of the late 1960s and early 1970s was a simple quarter-strap sandal with light tan water buffalo-hide straps (which darkened with age), on a beige suede-wrapped cork wedge-heel platform sole. These were originally introduced under the brand name, "Kork-Ease," but the extreme popularity (perhaps fueled by their light weight and soft leather) supported many imitators. Remarkably, even including all of the knock-offs, and given that they are said to have never been formally designed there was very little variation in style, and most of that variation was limited to differences in height.

As the fad progressed, manufacturers like Candie's stretched the envelope of what was considered too outrageous to wear, while others, like Famolare and Cherokee of California, introduced "comfort" platforms, designed to combine the added height of platforms with the support and comfort of sneakers, or even orthopedic shoes, and by the time the fad finally fizzled in the late 1980s, girls and women of all ages were wearing them. It may also be a by-product of this fad that Scandinavian clogs, which were considered rather outrageous themselves in the late 1960s and early 1970s, had become "classic" by the 1980s.

Vivienne Westwood, the UK fashion designer, re-introduced the high heeled platform shoe into high-fashion in the early 1990s; it was while wearing a pair of Super Elevated Gillie with five inch platforms and nine inch heels that the super model, Naomi Campbell, fell on the catwalk at a fashion show. However they did not catch on quickly and platform shoes only began to resurface in mainstream fashion in the late 1990s, thanks in part to the UK band the Spice Girls, whose members were known for performing in large shoes.

The United Kingdom (and European) experience of platform shoes was somewhat different from that of the United States. Britain generally is not as concerned with women's feet appearing as small as possible;^{[citation needed]} the long pointed shoes of the early 2000s, that give an elongated look to the foot, were and are still more popular in the US than in the UK.

The trend firmly re-established itself in the developed world fashions of the late 1990s and early 2000s with a much higher threshold of what was considered outrageous: parents of 1997 to 2004 typically thought nothing of buying their preschool daughters and sons platform sandals that US parents of 1973 would not have wanted their high-school-age children wearing and UK parents of 1973 would not have wanted their prepubescent children wearing, and the Walt Disney Company has licensed Mickey Mouse cutouts and "Disney Princess" and "Action Man" images on footwear that in earlier decades would have been considered totally inappropriate for the company's "wholesome" image.

See also

• Platform boot
• High heels
• Elevator shoes

Notable wearers

Elton John has a large collection of platform shoes, many of which were sold at auction for charity.^{[citation needed]}

External links

• History of Platform Shoes