**High heels from Switzerland for the American market: a gleaming selection of Bally shoes from the 1930s.** © Bally Schuhfabriken AG, photo: Manuel Fabritz

High heels: from the battlefield to the height of fashion

High heels are a perennially popular fashion accessory. Nowadays, it’s usually women who wear them as the days of men going into battle on horseback with heeled footwear are in the past. The cultural history of the high heel is a mixture of myth, modishness and might.

Murielle Schlup

Freelance art historian and cultural scientist

Seen as ‘the Holy Grail of Hollywood memorabilia’, a piece of film history went under the hammer in December 2024 in New York: the ruby slippers worn by Judy Garland in the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz. The winning bid was USD 32.5 million. That sounds like a lot of money for a pair of old and used shoes. At the same time, these were no ordinary shoes: the slippers’ heels were endowed with magic powers as recounted in the popular children’s book by Lyman Frank Baum and the musical film based on it, which is on UNESCO’s Memory of the World international register. The glittering slippers are a fundamental prop and costume element, which play a key role alluded to throughout the story.

Magic heels: Dorothy had to click her heels three times to teleport herself from Oz back to Kansas. Youtube / Warner Bros

The subsequent filmworthy fate of the shoes only added to their appeal: they were exhibited on loan at the Judy Garland Museum, from where they were stolen in 2005. The FBI managed to retrieve them some years later in a covert operation, and they were returned to their rightful and overjoyed owner.

Objects of longing and desire

The magic of high heels is not confined to films and fairy tales; they also exercise an almost surreal power over men and women in the real world. They have recurred in many different forms throughout the history of culture and fashion as objects of male and female desire. People project their longings onto them, and they trigger both positive and negative emotions and associations. So, why the fascination with high heels, apart from their obvious appeal as works of art presented as footwear?

Aside from the primary purpose of any shoe, i.e. to protect the feet when walking while also stylishly complementing the wearer’s outfit, heels bring extra aesthetic benefits by making a person seem taller and their legs appear longer. The higher the heel, the more the body’s centre of gravity shifts. The required compensatory movements to maintain balance when walking make the hips move in ways that often appear sensual and seductive. All in all, the changed appearance and new body language can convey more self-confidence, or even a feeling of inner and outer strength. The well-known quote attributed to Marilyn Monroe comes to mind: “Give a girl the right shoes, and she can conquer the world”.

Marilyn Monroe being noticed in heels in Some Like It Hot, 1959 (extract). Youtube

Persian warriors: inventors of the high heel

It was, however, actually men who first wore high heels when they entered the field of battle on horseback. The Persian cavalry used to hook them into their stirrups while riding to maintain stability during battle. From the 10th century, heeled shoes were known in Persia to make it easier for soldiers to stand up on horseback and fire their arrows.

**Part of the Persian cavalry soldier’s battle gear: the high heel.** © Bata Shoe Museum / Kailee Mandel

So, how did the high heel find its way from the battlefields of the Middle East to the European fashion industry? In the late 16th to the early 17th century, western Europe and Persian Shah Abbas I had a common interest: keeping the Ottoman empire in check. Persian military envoys visited European royal courts to establish and cultivate diplomatic relations. Abbas I also received European delegations at his court in Isfahan.

**Shah Abbas I (left) ca. 1620. The Persian ruler is wearing high heels like those donned by his cavalry.** Wikimedia

The conspicuous Persian heel made an impression. It came to be associated with might and manliness as the Persian army was seen as efficient and strong and its cavalry as battle-hardened and powerful. The ‘battlefield accessory’ soon made its way to the royal courts of Europe.

The high heel: a sign of nobility and grandeur

The high-heeled shoe quickly gained popularity among the nobility during the Baroque period. It soon became an integral part of male high society as it evolved into a status symbol without any direct functional purpose. Its impracticality for everyday use only added to the wearer’s prestige and obvious privilege, literally lifting them above the common folk who needed practical footwear for work – assuming they could afford shoes in the first place.

From the mid-17th century, a high red heel was seen as a sign of exclusivity. The main exponent of this extravagance was the Sun King Louis XIV. He was a short man and his high-heeled shoes brought him a few centimetres closer to the star he was named after.

**High-heeled shoes with bright red heels on the feet of a blue blood: Louis XIV displaying his regal footwear.** Wikimedia

Nowadays, red heels are no longer a sign of nobility. Nonetheless, a pair of Louboutins does not come cheap: the red soles and heels fashioned by French designer Christian Louboutin are legally protected as a registered trademark in over 50 countries, as confirmed by the European Court of Justice in 2018 following a protracted legal dispute. However, the Federal Supreme Court has ruled that Switzerland is not subject to this ruling.

**A few centimetres higher? Like these red-soled, high heeled shoes by Christian Louboutin.** Wikimedia / Arroser

The transition of high heels to female fashion

But let’s return to the European royal courts, where the ladies were also seduced by the charms of high heels. During the 17th century, they adjusted the fashion to their own taste with gusto. Whereas the men had worn wide heels, the ladies preferred a more slender, finer-looking design. In the 18th century, the Louis XV heel, its inward curve flattening out into a wider base, caught on. The heel height usually reflected the wearer’s social status.

**Women’s shoe with a Louis XV heel, ca 1750.** Swiss National Museum

And so, for decades, men and women of noble status minced their way on high heels across their expensive floors, far removed from the dirt of the roads and labour in the fields. However, by the time of the French Revolution, or possibly earlier, high heels were seen as démodé, as were many other symbols of extravagance. Flatter, more discreet shoes became more common and men’s shoes became distinct from ladies’ footwear.

The return of the heel

Moderately high heels for women made a comeback around the middle of the 19th century in the form of button boots, lace-up boots and evening ball shoes. It was during this period that the Bally shoe factory was founded in Schönenwerd near Solothurn around 1851. It began exporting after just a few years, starting with Argentina and Uruguay from 1860. The first subsidiary outside Europe was established in Montevideo in 1870. High heels soon became a profitable export product.

**High-heeled black patent leather shoe manufactured by Bally for export between 1874 and 1878.** ETH Library Zurich

High heels became a popular accessory for nude shots with the invention and spread of photography as an art form. The erotic associations of high heels with feminine curves, whether clothed or not, helped boost demand towards the end of the century.

The spread of industrial mass production made the classic stiletto shoe more affordable for a growing customer base of reasonably well-to-do women, while the high-end, customised handmade shoes remained the preserve of a more exclusive clientele. During the golden age of the swinging 1920s, short skirts brought more attention to women’s legs, shoes once again became an important accessory and heels became higher. Women in Switzerland also started wearing more elegant high heels during this time, mainly in a pump design with a discreet shape and colour.

**Made for domestic consumption in Switzerland around 1920: pumps in golden brown leather by Bally. The shoes are decorated with metallic beadwork shaped like a leaf.** Swiss National Museum

Swiss high heels for the lady traveller

Bally ensured Switzerland’s place at the forefront of the global high heel market (for the history of Bally, see Bally - A History of Footwear in the Interwar Period). The Bally shoe archive contains 600 items of footwear for women dating from the period between the Great Depression of 1929 and the outbreak of the Second World War ‒ over one-third of these are high-heeled evening shoes. They feature many meticulously crafted fashionable designs with higher heels, decorative details and rhinestone buckles. The buckles were there to close the ankle straps, which were common at the time and stopped the shoe flying off during the lively Charleston and, subsequently, swing dances.

However, the domestic Swiss market was not the primary destination of these fashionable heels with their associated lifestyle. The main target market was North America, where Bally had been exporting since 1919 and which accounted for a large part of the shoe manufacturer’s success. Bally had a sales agency in New York from 1923.

The rise and fall of the platform shoe

Shoes with very tall soles, almost like stilts or a pedestal, were popular in Asia and North Africa in ancient times. They usually served a purely practical purpose by keeping the wearer’s feet and clothes away from the dirty, wet, hot or cold ground.

Turkish clogs or nalins were used during the Ottoman empire as protection against the heat and wetness of the hammam bathhouses: ‘Turkish Woman with Her Servant’, from ca 1742/1743 by Jean-Étienne Liotard. Wikimedia

Medieval pattens were a kind of European counterpart to the nalins. Pattens were basically overshoes that fitted over the normal shoes. They had wooden platform soles and a leather strap attached on top.

Chopines with extra-high platform soles were popular among patrician women in Spain and Italy and courtesans in Venice from the 15th to 17th centuries as a way of standing out and showcasing their – social or erotic – status by placing them on a sort of pedestal of their own making.

**A lady’s maid on either side was needed to assist the wearer to walk in them: chopines from Italy between 1590 and 1610...** The Metropolitan Museum of Art

**...and ca 1600. This shoe comes with a 36.5-centimetre high wooden base encased in leather.** Statens historiska museer

Like chopines, platform shoes, which emerged during the 1930s, were only for women. They first became popular in Hollywood circles.

**The Rainbow platform shoe created by Salvatore Ferragamo for Judy Garland in 1938. It has a layered cork sole with colourful leather straps. An updated version of the shoe is currently in circulation.** Wikimedia / Sheila Thomson

Bally also began producing platform shoes. It focused on the domestic market following the collapse of exports during the Second World War. Going by the extensive coverage on the subject by Swiss satire magazine Nebelspalter, it is reasonable to assume that the young ladies who frequented Zurich’s flourishing jazz and swing scene took to the flashy platform shoe. Zurich-based graphic artist Ernst Schoenenberger published 30 caricatures between 1942 and the end of the war along the lines of American pin-up art, which poked fun at the excesses of the new fashion.

Stepping out in style during the war years: the ‘Züri-Görl’ (Zurich girl) turning heads in a very tall pair of platform shoes where the heels and soles merge to make a strongly inclined platform. Caricature by Ernst Schoenenberger for Nebelspalter, 68/36, 3.9.1942. — Stepping out in style during the war years: the ‘Züri-Görl’ (Zurich girl) turning heads in a very tall pair of platform shoes where the heels and soles merge to make a strongly inclined platform. Caricature by Ernst Schoenenberger for *Nebelspalter*, 68/36, 3.9.1942. e-periodica.ch

**The peeptoe slingbacks made in Italy around 1945, with high heels and moderately tall platform soles.** Swiss National Museum

Platform shoes disappeared from the scene again during the post-war years in contrast to high heels, which really took off. One innovation from the end of the 1950s was the pencil heel, which was strengthened with a steel pin inside for greater stability. That enabled the manufacture of stilettos, named after the stiletto dagger. The more extreme stilettos, known as ‘killer heels’, are still one of the most sophisticated examples of high-end shoemaking.

Platform shoes with heels made a comeback towards the end of the 1960s as a unisex fashion accessory in a trend that lasted for about ten years. Music idols of disco funk and glam rock including – during the early years – Elton John, David Bowie and Freddie Mercury helped drive the trend, as did bands like Sweet, Kiss and the New York Dolls. They heightened the impact of their stage appearances with their original outfits and skilfully negotiated the middle ground between glam and subversion with their eccentric heels.

David Bowie wore platform shoes for his ‘Space Oddity’ video in 1969. YouTube / David Bowie

Men and high heels in recent times

The leading designers of iconic women’s high heels over the years have usually been men – previously Roger Vivier, Salvatore Ferragamo and Giuseppe Zanotti, currently Christian Louboutin, Jimmy Choo and Manolo Blahnik. Most pathological shoe fetishists are also men. Men are rarely to be seen walking around in high heels in everyday life. They prefer to step out in them on the stage, catwalk or red carpet, or on social media and in the LGBTQ+ scene, as well as at gay pride events and high heel runs. And who could imagine drag queens or catwalk coaches without them?

However, on the whole, high heels have been more of a female fashion accessory since the 1980s. One notable exception being the legendary musician, singer and entertainer Prince. At just 1.58 metres tall, he was rarely seen without his killer heels. Unfortunately, in his case, the name ‘killer heels’ turned out to be self-fulfilling, nomen est omen, albeit indirectly: Prince had been dependent on medicine for years due to chronic hip problems caused by his trademark dance moves in ten-centimetre high-heeled boots, of which he had hundreds. He died in 2016 from an overdose of the controversial painkiller Fentanyl.

Prince giving one of his acrobatic dance performances in high heels. YouTube / e_perez

Sexism or empowerment?

In spite of their glamour, sex appeal and status, high heels also have a downside. They come a distant second to flat footwear in terms of safety, health and comfort. They cause hip, knee and back pain as well as a condition known as hallux valgus (bunions), i.e. a deformation of the big toe. Heels also increase the likelihood of falling over.

These issues are making people question the value of high heels, as comfort is more or less synonymous with fashion these days: trainers can be worn with a suit or biker boots with a dress. Some people see the wearing of heels as prioritising a sexist fashion diktat over health and mobility. On the other hand, proponents of high heels argue that they are instruments and symbols of female self-determination and feminist empowerment.

**Posh Spice recharging her batteries on the sofa: “I can’t concentrate in flat shoes,” says designer Victoria Beckham, whose love of high heels has already led to two operations for bunions.** Instagram / Victoria Beckham

On the one hand, the dwindling popularity of high heels among Generation Z could be a sign that comfort and health are winning through against status and empowerment. However, a look at current global market trends suggests the opposite. In 2024, the market for high heels, estimated at USD 43.6 billion, posted consistent growth – a trend that looks set to continue over the longer term. However, the high end of the market is less buoyant: the global personal luxury goods market is in decline. For all its Swissness, the Bally brand is also feeling the pinch; it falls within the mid-luxury segment. It was taken over by an American investment company in 2024 and the owners downsized the workforce by a third at its current Swiss headquarters in Caslano, canton of Ticino.

Accessories. Objects of desire

18.07.2025 12.04.2026 / National Museum Zurich

Accessories have always been more than mere decoration: hats, scarves, gloves, bags and shoes reflect social, political and religious affiliation, denote power and status, protect and give form to the body, or represent the latest fashions. The exhibition features items from the Swiss National Museum collection to show how accessories are shaped by social change. From the strict dress codes of the early modern period to current-day trends that play with gender norms, the exhibition takes a look at fashion history from head to toe.

More of: Exhibitions 20th / 21st century Fashion

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