Recently I went to the best museum display ever – SHOES! It was called “Heights of Fashion. A History of the Elevated Foot”. As soon as I heard about it there was no way I was going to miss it!
I wasn’t always a shoe nut. When I was younger we weren’t well off (read as an understatement) and when I hit my teens I had to buy all my own clothes with my babysitting money. For a good portion of my adult life (so far) I worked at low wage jobs. So pretty shoes weren’t a priority. Plus, I have larger, wide feet so it was hard to find pretty shoes that fit, especially in my price range.
When Payless came to town, I was in heaven. Cheap shoes that fit!!! Now I can afford better shoes and, as a friend commented one day, I have a shoe shrine in my front entry. Not to mention the ones in my closet that are put away according to season. I have become a “typical” girl who loves a gorgeous shoe. Having something beautiful on my feet makes a difference in the way I feel from the top of my blonde and purple head to the tip of my finely adorned toes.
Shoes have been a remarkable barometer of society over the centuries. From men wearing heels to show their status in the Victorian era to the subdued shoes embossed with simple items like rope in the 30s, the look-at-me shoes of the 70s and the sleek classics of today, shoes have reflected the mood of the culture.
Two things that stood out to me were boots in the 1890’s. This is a time when women could not show an ankle as it was too distracting for the horny men. So to tease a little, boots were created that were one color along the sole and another half way up the foot. This created the illusion of seeing stocking. They also created boots with considerable embossment to encourage looking at the leg. Cheeky! Naughty without being naughty. Who knew there were BAD KITTIES in the 1900s!
During the suffragette movement there was a lot of concern about women becoming more like men. Sound familiar? This is an ongoing concern – do we have to be men to function in a man’s world? Let me pose this quote to you:
“By the turn of the 20th century social and political opportunities for women rose dramatically and women began to participate in what had previously been masculine privilege. They did so, however, WEARING HEELS. As clear signifiers of female gender, high heels helped to counter arguments that new freedoms could only be gained at the loss of femininity. By the 20s the heels and hemlines of flappers had reached new heights as had the opportunities available to women.”
Wonderful! We are who we are and we don’t have to become something else – another gender – or someone else to succeed!!!
THE POWER OF SHOES! As Marilyn Munroe said, “I don’t know who invented high heels, but all women owe him a lot.”
All girls celebrate, pull out your best heels and kick them up. You deserve it. BE BEAUTIFUL, BE YOU and enjoy your BAD KITTY in heels!