The History of Heels: Part Two

I am so sorry, dear readers, for not finishing up this two part series sooner. Life got away from me. :)
Anyway, it's here now, so without further ado...

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In my last post, I ended by stating that heels fell pretty much out of favor from the beginning to pretty much the end of the 19th century; I was both wrong and right. It turns out that boots were extremely popular up until about 1860 (though the above pair is from 1865), and that heels had actually risen to three quarters of an inch by 1851!

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The above pair of slippers from the Met are from the mid 19th century. Do you see the 3/4" heel?

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Alright, alright, so the boots falling out of popularity isn't quite correct. But would you look at the shape of that boot! I would typically associate that sort of shape with the early 1900's, but as it turns out, these boots are from the 1870's!
According to the Met's collection, it seems as though boots remained in the same basic shape as the above pair up until the end of the 19th century. But take a look at the next pair from the 1880's-1890's, and I think you will be quite shocked at what you see.

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What!?! Don't those look like something from the 1920's at the least?! Apparently this sort of "mary jane" shoe style appeared MUCH sooner than the roaring 20's. Hmmm... Sets one to thinking...

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Doesn't this shoe from 1891 look just like something from the 18th century? Amazing, the rotation of styles, in both clothing and footwear.

Skipping ahead to the 1910's...

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Looks pretty similar to the last example, eh? But look at the difference in the shape of the heel. The shoe from 1910 has a heel not unlike that of some of todays shoes. But hold on to your hats, because we're going to be zooming fairly fast through the 20th century up to the present day. Ready? Here we go!

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These evening pumps are from 1925-26. Again, pretty modern, no?

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Bally of Switzerland, 1935.
Starting in the late 1930's (I think) and continuing through the forties, platforms started to become popular. So next time you think of wearing your platform heels, think of the 40's, and NOT the 80's.

Now, at this point I must mention that flat shoes did exist in the time periods I have been writing about, but this is the history of Heels, not shoes.
Moving on...
Due to restrictions in the war, wedges and thick heels became the norm, but those are no fun (so you might think, but do a search, and you might be amazed at what you find! I'll start you off with this link), and you can just look them up on the web, so I'll skip that time period.

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WOW! The above pair of, ahem, heels, is from 1946-48. Of all the heels I have shown so far, I would have to say this pair is the highest! Those heels have to be at least 4 inches high!

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Glitter, glitter! These shoes are from the 50's, if you can't tell by the stiletto heel which was apparently invented during this decade.

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Now, I said before that platforms were popular in the 30's and 40's, but apparently their popularity then does not compare with their popularity from the 60's (as evidenced by the above pair) through the 70's, as I will demonstrate for you now.

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The next pair is from 1988.

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And, just for the sake of laughter, one last pair from the 80's for you:

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The 90's are too recent of a time period for this series, as you can find evidence of those shoes in thrift stores most of the time.

So, dear readers, I suppose that this is the end of my two part series on the history of heels. I hope you have enjoyed looking in to this subject of fashion history as much as I have!

Blessings,

Brigid
The Middle Sister and Singer

P.S. Don't forget to comment with any questions for us girls at our questions for BFS post here.