Will You Wear High Heels Again?

By Erica and Karen

We saw an interesting story about shoes the other day in the Financial Times. The author seems uninterested in going back to flashy sky high heels, but reports that many women seem to be headed in exactly that direction. Unfortunately it is behind a paywall, as are the comments, which we always enjoy. (Though we were bewildered by this one: Nothing screams more “boomer” than high heels, modern people don’t wear heels. What???)

But fortunately, the story started us thinking. Will women wear high heeled shoes again once society returns to some semblance of public events? Like offices and restaurants? No-one regularly wore high heels in lockdown, we suspect, because they don’t necessarily enhance sweats. But we pray lockdowns are done. So now what?

This burning question caused us to do some research. Who invented high heels in the first place? We enjoyed this entertaining BBC video, and, as always, consulted Wikipedia and another fun article. The consensus appears to be that Persian warrior archers first wore high heels to keep their feet steady in stirrups as they shot arrows while on horseback. Wow. We had never thought of doing such a thing in any kind of shoe. After that, heels went up and down, signifying at various times masculinity (thick heels) and then femininity (thin heels) and now androgyny (whatever). At times heel height was regulated, and penalties for excessive height were on occasion the same as those for practicing witchcraft. As you can imagine, such laws did not come into effect to address heel heights for men.

In modern times—i.e. while we have been on the scene—high heels were mandatory for women in certain professions, and we just had to deal with it. We found it trying to stand in court for hours in the things—but we loved the stride potential. Sadly, Karen, after repeated injuries made walking in heels untenable, gave them up a while ago. She misses them, though—especially since they made her a little taller. Erica, hardier, carries on and continues to march around in heels. She looks great. And tall.

There were some amazing shoes, too. We loved going to the now defunct Jeffrey on 14th Street in the Meatpacking to see the shoe displays. When Karen’s children were little, she took them to Jeffrey on winter days when playgrounds were too cold—just to look at the shoes. She told them it was a museum. (Jeffrey was incredibly welcoming and paid no mind to the children touching the wondrous shoes.) It was like going to a sculpture garden, complete with fountain. Nicholas Kirkwood. Manolo Blahnik. Christian Louboutin. Versace. Stratospheric heels and divine shapes and jewels and colors.

We doubt that women are done with heels. We suspect that the fashion impositions of lockdown make it more likely that when we can be out and about again we will be wearing heels again, the glitzier the better. Sure, we know there are feminist issues with high heeled shoes but we love them anyway. (Feminism means you wear what you like.) Even if we can’t wear the really really high ones. And even though the recent reboot of Sex and The City suggests the FT comment may be correct.

What do you think? Are high heels coming back for you? Or are you done with them for good?