A dark stage. A spotlight shines in the center. Then you hear it: click, clack, click, clack. Quick footsteps, hard heels. And finally, one of the most powerful men in the world enters the stage: the President of the USA, in high-heeled shoes. Not as a provocation, but as a sign of rank and power. Such a scene is hardly imaginable today. In the 17th century, however, powerful men demonstrated influence and masculinity with heeled shoes.
Around 1600, heeled shoes became fashionable for men in Western Europe, and in the 17th century, they were primarily seen at courts and among men of status. So, high heels weren't always considered a feminine symbol. Their history shows how adaptable gender roles are and how much fashion depends on who wears it and who judges it. But how did a symbol of male power become a symbol of femininity?
When paragraphs were still riding tools
The trail of high heels doesn't first lead to a fashion capital like Paris, Venice, or London. It leads to Western Asia into the Safavid Empire, which from the 16th to the 18th century large parts of today's Iran impressed. There, the stirrup initially had a tangible function. It helped riders, the foot stable in the stirrup to keep.
Whoever was in the saddle, stood up while riding, or aimed with a bow and arrow needed one thing above all else: Stop. The paragraph was therefore not a fashion accessory at the beginning, but had a practical background. A bowl made of Nishapur from the 9th or 10th century gilt in fashion history as an early indication of this connection between equestrian culture and heeled shoes. However, preserved Persian riding shoes are more clearly evidenced only much later, especially in the 17th century.
Prince Sam Mirza (Shah Suleiman) Safavid on horseback, 17th century. The depiction shows the Safavid prince on horseback and refers to the close connection between riding culture, courtly rank, and political power in early modern Persia. | Source: Wikimedia Commons
That this became a sign of status was due to the social significance riding. Horses were expensive, horsemanship was militarily important, and those who sat securely in the saddle, showed access to Power. The paragraph thus no longer stood for support in the stirrup, but for access to privileged circles.
The distinction is important here. Not every elevated shoe is a High Heel in today's sense. This is about the paragraph as Heel lift, not platform shoes or other forms of elevated soles. The origin of the men's heel, therefore, lies less in the desire to appear taller.
1600: The Paragraph Finds Its Way to Europe
To Europe, the Absatz didn't just arrive as a fashionable curiosity. No, it was part of a larger cultural exchange. Around 1600, Safavid Persia began to attract more attention from European courts. Shah Abbas I, the ruler of the empire at the time, sought to engage in dialogue with European powers, primarily for strategic reasons.
Persia was in conflict with the Ottoman Empire, making it an interesting potential ally for Europe. Envoys, merchants, and adventurers moved between Isfahan, the former capital of the Safavid Empire in present-day Iran, and European cities like Rome, Prague, Madrid, and London.
This is how it was European courts visible how Persian elites appeared. They showed themselves with precious fabrics, weapons, courtly clothing, and shoes that were not only practical but also indicated rank.
How the Sherley Brothers Helped Make Persian Court Culture Visible in Europe
The brothers played a special role in this exchange Anthony and Robert Sherley. The two Englishmen arrived at the court of Shah Abbas I at the end of the 16th century. Anthony Sherley participated in a Persian embassy that 1599 embarked for Europe. Their goal was to seek allies against the Ottoman Empire.
His brother remained even more closely connected to the Safavid court Robert Shirley. He later acted as an official envoy for the Persian ruler himself and became a dazzling figure in Europe, bridging two worlds.
Sir Robert Sherley in Persian Dress - Anthony van Dyck, 1622. | Source: Wikimedia Commons / National Trust Image
This is particularly visible in a portrait of Anthony van Dyck from the year 1622. The portrait shows Robert Sherley not as an ordinary English nobleman, but in Persian ceremonial dress: with a turban, an embroidered robe, a sash, and a weapon.
This image in particular is important, even if it doesn't show high-heeled shoes. Because it makes it clear that diplomacy at that time didn't just work through treaties, letters, and alliances. It also worked through Clothing. Whoever performed at European courts brought with them a visible order of rank and origin.
Fabrics, weapons, headwear, and posture indicated who you were and on whose behalf you spoke. It was precisely in this climate that the stirrup could also change its meaning. From a practical detail of riding, it gradually became a symbol in Europe aristocratic self-presentation.
High heels as a status symbol
This trend was particularly pronounced in France during the 17th century. The French court was under Louis XIV., which was written by 1643 to 1715 ruled, to the most important stage of European fashion and self-representation. Versailles was not just a palace, but a stage of power. Those who were seen there had to outwardly display rank and importance.
Louis XIV understood this language better than almost any other ruler of his time. His wigs, his magnificent robes, his controlled posture, and his shoes were all part of a political performance. He became particularly famous for his red paragraphs. In the late 17th century, the king wore high-heeled shoes that made him appear taller and more imposing.
Louis XIV in Coronation Robes – Hyacinthe Rigaud, 1701. | Source: Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain
His height is often estimated at around 1.60 to 1.63 meters appreciated. At the same time, the shoes emphasized his legs and posture. At court, red heels became a mark of exclusivity.
What was decisive was not only the height of the shoe, but who was allowed to wear it. Red heels were considered a privilege of the courtly elite in the environment of Louis XIV. They signaled Proximity to the King and thus proximity to power. The shoe made the body appear larger, the calf more visible, and the gait more controlled. In a society where rank was readable through colors, fabrics, and gestures, a high heel could show who was at the top.
Chopinen: Women wore high shoes, but no heels
While the Persian riding heel arrived in Europe, other forms of elevated footwear existed in parallel. Particularly well-known are the Venetian chopines. These shoes were not high-heeled shoes as we know them today, but rather Platform shoes. Not just the heel, but the whole foot stand on a raised sole, often made of wood or cork. They were worn primarily by wealthy women.
Men's heels were initially about support in the stirrup and later about rank at court. Chopines were about something different: visible status in everyday life! They made women taller, kept dresses and feet away from street dirt, and showed that a woman could afford elaborate clothing. Because the higher the shoe, the more fabric was needed for the dress that fell over it.
Chopines, Italian, 16th century – from the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. | Source: Wikimedia Commons / The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Public Domain
Preserved 16th-century chopines, such as those found in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, high platform shoes that elevated the entire foot. The museum describes them not only as protection from wet or dirty paths, but also as a visible sign of elevated social status.
That is exactly why the Distinction important. Women certainly wore high heels. But they didn't automatically wear those heels that came from equestrian culture and initially became men's fashion in Europe. Only in 18th century these meanings gradually shifted.
18th Century: The Gender Shift Begins
From the late 17th and early 18th century the change can be grasped more concretely from preserved shoes and portraits. At court, men continued to wear heeled shoes. French court shoes from around the time 1690 to 1700 show about red paragraphs, which were considered a sign of aristocracy. Also British men's shoes from the mid-18th century still show red heels and decorative details. So the heel didn't suddenly disappear from men's fashion.
Edward, Duke of York – Nathaniel Dance-Holland, 1764/1765. | Source: Wikimedia Commons / Royal Collection, Public Domain
At the same time, higher heels also appeared in women's shoes, no longer just high platforms like with the Chopines. French women's shoes um 1690 to 1700 show already decorated fabrics, floral embroidery, and narrower, elegant heels. In the 18th century, such shoes became increasingly coordinated with fabrics and courtly elegance. The heel was thus no longer just a symbol of rank, but also a part of the Feminine-coded fashion aesthetic.
The change wasn't that men suddenly stopped wearing heels overnight and women suddenly took them over. It was a slow Drift apart. Men's heels remained relatively stable, broader, and more strongly associated with court, military, or riding culture. Women's heels became finer, more decorative, and more strongly associated with elegance and posture.
Shoes, France, 1690–1700 – Silk and leather, Metropolitan Museum of Art. | Source: Wikimedia Commons / The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Public Domain
Behind it lay a major cultural shift. In the 18th century, a gradual shift began sober male ideal Men's fashion became simpler, darker, and more practical. Conspicuous clothing was increasingly seen as vain, overdone, or effeminate. This very development symbolically shifted the heel to the other side.
Pants on men never completely disappeared.
The male heel never completely disappeared. You can see it in riding boots, cowboy boots, the Cuban heel, and later in stage fashion, rock, pop, drag, and queer fashion. From privileged rulers in military boots and cowboy boots to John Lennon's Beatle Boots and Elton John's platform shoes of the 1970s.
The paragraph remained visible where appearance, posture, and masculinity consciously staged Indeed, pop culture shows that heels were never simply „feminine.“ The Beatles repopularized the Cuban heel in the 1960s, David Bowie used high heels and platforms as part of his androgynous stage personas, and in rock fashion, heels later became a symbol of exaggeration, sexuality, and controlled boundary-breaking.
Beatle Boots with Cuban Heel – Replica of the boot style popularized by The Beatles in the 1960s. | Source: Wikimedia Commons
So the men's heel didn't disappear from culture. It was just removed from the bourgeois everyday life displaced and reappeared where masculinity wasn't allowed to be well-behaved, but performative.
What High Heels Reveal About Gender and Power Today
Today, high heels are primarily considered a symbol women's fashion. The same shoe, which once symbolized male power, horsemanship, and courtly rank, was later declared a sign of feminine elegance. The heel had not fundamentally changed. What had changed was the glance onto the body that carried him.
As long as the paragraph helped men appear taller and more imposing, it was No problem. On the court, he could show power. On horseback, he could prove usefulness. In the staging of a king, he could buttress authority. Only when the heel became more strongly associated with women's fashion did its perception shift.
This shows how closely Aesthetics and Power connected. Men's fashion in the 18th century didn't simply become plainer because men suddenly became more practical. Behind it lay a new ideal of masculinity. The bourgeois man was supposed to appear controlled and purposeful. Pomp, jewelry, and physical ostentation were increasingly considered feminine or excessive. Only the female body was supposed to conspicuous to be. It should look nice, but remain controllable at the same time.
That men in high heels are often perceived today as provocative, eccentric, or queer shows how deeply this order is ingrained. A heel on a man's foot is jarring not because of the leather, the shape, or the height. It's jarring because it represents a Border visible power that was historically drawn.
What once could signify male power is today quickly seen as a break with masculine norms. The paragraph has not changed its gender. How exactly the paragraph became a woman's shoe is historically harder to grasp than its male history. Because power shifts are often only realized in Flashback visible because their significance only becomes apparent through temporal distance, later sources, and historical context.
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