High heels have become a going out necessity for many women, but did you know they were originally designed for men? But it may be less surprising to learn that they weren’t even designed for walking in. Heels were originally designed as riding shoes, worn by men in the near east for centuries. And women only started wearing them to look more androgynous.Around the 1630s, women started cutting their hair, smoking pipes and wearing heels to adopt fashionable masculine styles. Heels were more or less unisex until the end of the 17th century, when men’s heels became lower and more robust – and women’s became more slender. With the Enlightenment, around the beginning of the 18th century, came more of a focus on practicality rather than status in men’s fashion. By 1740, heels were seen as foolish – and men had stopped wearing them. And then, it became a “lady thing”.Photo Credit: Getty
