Origin of the Stiletto High Heel

Origin of the Stiletto High Heel

For most high heel admirers, the stiletto high heel is the "high heel of choice". Without any doubt, the stiletto is the most sexy and most feminine style of high heel that has ever been made.

In 1960, Hugh Hefner chose the basic pump with about a 4 inch stiletto high heel to be part of the standard attire for his now famous Playboy bunnies. In recent years, Manolo Blahnik and Sandra Choi (designer for Jimmy Choo) chose the stiletto high heel for their enormously popular lines of luxury women's fashion shoes.

Unfortunately, the origin of the stiletto high heel is "officially" unknown. However, one can trace the stiletto high heel back to a "fetish wear" origin.

In regards to shoe designing, every shoe designer knows that a new shoe design begins once it is drawn or sketched on paper or computer. Then, all it usually takes is some money and a talented shoe maker to transform the drawing into a real pair of shoes.

With this in mind and after considerable research of the stiletto high heel, I must give a lot of credit for the stiletto high heel to an American named John Willie (a.k.a. John Alexander Scott Coutts 1902-1962). I also consider John Willie to be the father of the modern day practice of BDSM. BDSM is an abbreviation for bondage & discipline, domination & submission, and sadism & masochism.

In John Willie's Bizarre Vol. 1 magazine (page 45) that was published in 1945, there appeared a watercolor painting of a lady in a "Hobble Skirt", wide brim hat and a pair oxfords with very high (about 6 inches) and thin stiletto high heels. There is no doubt that this painting depicted the "stiletto" high heel.

The painting was also curiously dated 1910. One can only speculate that if John Willie did the painting himself, then he imagined, dreamed or actually saw this woman in 1910, when he was only eight years old. Otherwise, someone else may have painted the picture in 1910 and the picture somehow ended up in John Willie's possession by 1945.

There is also additional evidence of a fetish origin for the stiletto high heel. In Linda O'Keefe's book named Shoes (Workman Publishing 1996), there is a picture of an extraordinary beautiful André Perugia "fetish" high heel shoe with a very high (about 6 inches) bonafide "stiletto" high heel that is dated 1948.

André Perugia was born in Nice, France in 1893 and had a women's shoe shop in Paris, the top fashion capitol of the world at that time. He designed the fetish spikes for a famous Parisian singer called Mistinguett.

In the same book (page 492), there is another André Perugia shoe dated 1931 with a thin all metal heel of about 4 inches. However, the heel was curved rather than straight (like a real spike) and was welded (or somehow attached) to the rear end of the of shoe, as in a metal sculpture. The heel was not like a normal stiletto heel that is screwed and nailed to the shoe.

Perugia's 1931 shoe also indicates that it is possible that someone else, before John Willie, might of drawn a stiletto high heel. However, John Willie was still the first person to publish a picture of a stiletto high heel.

Linda O'Keefe's book Shoes is also the best historical work on women's shoes (by a wide margin) that I have read to date. In her book (page 122), Linda notes that "the stiletto heel - all 4 inches of it - arrived on the fashion scene in 1952". I agree with Linda that the stiletto high heel for normal "fashion wear" began in 1952 from several shoe designers (including Salvatore Ferragamo) in Italy.

However, in Hans-Jurgen Dopp's book titled FEET-ISHISM (Parkstone Press Ltd. 2001) on the front cover and page 52, there is pump with about a 4 inch stiletto heel made of all metal. Hans-Jurgen notes about the shoe was "Fashion-design, Perugia, 1920's".

Subject: Long Pointed Toe Stilettos

I noticed with interest your discussion about "pointed toe boxes" and how only certain women could wear them. This may be a US problem for a number of reasons:-

a) US women are still obsessed with "the small dainty foot" (does anyone really still believe in that link between foot size anymore?) and thus try and squeeze their feet into shoes that are a size or even 2 sizes too small. This is particularly true with European style long-points, where to compensate for the longer appearance of the foot, they find it possible with over-dieted, skinny and bony feet to force the toes where they were never meant to go!

b) Possibly because of the desire for "the small dainty foot" in a) above, American (US) shoes are made and worn very much tighter than British ones for the same equivalent size. A fact that one of our quality shoe manufacturers (Clarks), who pride themselves on correct fit, learned to their cost a couple of years back when they tried to enter the US market!

The equivalency in women's shoe sizes is that US sizes are numerically 2 more than British sizes (UK 5 = US 7), yet if my wife buys shoes in the US she has to buy shoes that are numerically 2.5 to 3 sizes larger, - otherwise they are just too tight!

My wife, our female friends and most of the women of my family have worn pointed toes since the 1960's with the exception of 1968 to 1976 and 1993 to 2000. Back in the 60's, late 70's, 80s and early 90's, the toe boxes were what you call "regular" or short and there were women who had problems with these. In truth, after years of wearing high chunky heels with very wide round and square toes, my wife's toes have spread and she does find her old 60's, late 70's and 80's short point stilettos quite strange and restrictive.

However the long point toe boxes, which were tried out in about 1961 by both sexes (only the women's had heels!) in the UK and were called "winkle-pickers", give no such problem. There is a full 2 to 2.5 inches of empty toe box beyond her toes and the width where her toes are is the same as on her square and round toed shoes. This is the most common toe shape worn in the UK and has been so for about 4 years (though it is not quite as popular as it was in 2003 and 2004 as some have switched to round toe fashion). All the cowboy/cowgirl boots which have been worn by many young women since the end of last year also have very long sharp pointed toes.

I cannot see how anyone could have problems wearing these 'new' long points, British and European women don't seem to, - and I'm talking about women from 13 to 70!

US women should try buying European and British shoes and try wearing the recommended size and not the one that gives the tightness to which they have become accustomed!

As to sex appeal, in the UK long points are thought to be sexier than short points for a number of reasons; this is because they are:- phallic and thus sexual fantasy thought inducing; aggressive, dangerous and threatening; good for probing and teasing under the dining table; worrying; confidence building; good for kicking in self defence and thus edgy. In short they are everything that the stiletto heel is and they make a more aesthetically balanced 'partner' to it.

Unless of course one sees stiletto heels as instruments of hobbling and bondage that increase a woman's vulnerability; then of course the long point would not fit that vision! But I, and I believe most of the people in the UK, tend to view stiletto heels as "attractive but dangerous", -"the tigress's claws" as it were. It was not for nothing that back in the 80's the newly ambitious women working in the UK stock market (The City) were called "Spike Heeled Power Bitches"!

Best regards,
Mike

<< The equivalency in women's shoe sizes is that US sizes are numerically 2 more than British sizes (UK 5 = US 7), yet if my wife buys shoes in the US she has to buy shoes that are numerically 2.5 to 3 sizes larger, - otherwise they are just too tight! >>

This is the first time that I have seen or heard that mentioned. According to all (or most) shoe retailers and resource charts, United States Women sizes are 2 sizes larger than United Kingdom Women sizes. Also, my own research indicates the same to be true.

However, I do know that shoes can vary a little bit in sizes from one manufacturer to another and from style to style. There is one way to help solve the problem with differences in sizes for whatever reasons. The entire international shoe community should adopt a new shoe size standard that applies to everyone in the world, regardless of age, nationality and sex. Also, the system should make use of the numbers on a ruler and eliminate the need for a size chart. So, FEET LENGTH should be expressed in centimeters:

7.0
7.5
8.0
8.5
9.0
9.5
10.0
10.5
11.0
11.5
12.0
12.5
13.0
13.5
14.0
14.5
15.0
15.5
16.0
16.5
17.0
17.5
18.0
18.5
19.0
19.5
20.0
20.5
21.0
21.5
22.0
22.5
23.0
23.5
24.0
24.5
25.0
25.5
26.0
26.5
27.0
27.5
28.0
28.5
29.0
29.5
30.0
30.5 and so on.

FEET WIDTH (at the widest part of the foot) should also be expressed in centimeters:

4.0
4.5
5.0
5.5
6.0
6.5
7.0
7.5
8.0
8.5
9.0
9.5
10.0
10.5
11.0
11.5
12.0
12.5
13.0
13.5
14.0
14.5 and so on

Therefore, a "Women's Shoe Size 10 B (United States)" would be equivalent to a "26.0 LENGTH x 9.0 WIDTH" using this new system.

<< However the long point toe boxes, which were tried out in about 1961 by both sexes (only the women's had heels!) in the UK and were called "winkle-pickers", give no such problem. There is a full 2 to 2.5 inches of empty toe box beyond her toes and the width where her toes are is the same as on her square and round toed shoes. This is the most common toe shape worn in the UK and has been so for about 4 years (though it is not quite as popular as it was in 2003 and 2004 as some have switched to round toe fashion). >>

I wrote in my book the following statements: "Non-pointed toes, like round and square, are much more comfortable than pointed toes, but not as sexy. (See FIGURES 7 & 8.) So, someone designed a fake pointed toe box with more space inside for the toes. The inside of the toe box is similar to a semi-pointed toe, somewhere in between the pointed toe and the round toe. However, the outside of the shoe is up to an inch longer and looks very pointed. They are referred to as British or European pointed toes. (See FIGURE 9.)"

My statements are correct. While the European long pointed toe box provide a little bit more space for the toes than the regular pointed toe box, they do not provide as much space as the round and square toe boxes. This was based on measuring the amount of space available for toes in many shoe styles made by many different manufacturers.

However, this little bit of additional space does make a big difference for many women. The high popularity of the European long pointed toe box with women's fashion high heel footwear (like those by Manulo Blahnik) in the United States in recent years supports this fact.

Also, while the European long pointed toe box is not popular with club wear and tango dancing high heel footwear for obvious reasons, it has been very popular with fetish high heel footwear for the past several decades. The European long pointed toe box enables many more women to wear properly-fitted ultra-high heels comfortably for long periods of time (if desired), while the regular pointed toe box would cause extreme pain, bleeding and serious after-effects in the toes.

Again, there are some women who have feet with toes that are shaped too big for the European long pointed toe box. They need the round, square, baby-doll and other larger toe boxes, when wearing high heel footwear in order to avoid toe problems.

Regards,
J.J. - August 27, 2005

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All Styles of High Heel Footwear & the People Who Wear Them

High Heel Fashion Wear

High Heel Club Wear

High Heel Fetish Wear

Ballet Shoes and Boots with Heels Attached

This report was written by J.J. Leganeur, author of All About Wearing High Heels .

This page was last edited on August 27, 2005.
Comments? Send email to: jjleganeur@yahoo.com