Stiletto heels force a woman's back to arch, pushing her bosom out in the front and her rear in the back, further accentuating the feminine silhouette. Men like it, and so do women, says fashion historian Caroline Cox.Manolo says, it is obvious, nothing can make the legs of the woman look better than the stiletto heels.
"Men like an exaggerated female figure. Stilettos also make a woman seem quite delicate because you have to balance (in the shoes). She might need a man's hand," Cox says.
"Women like them because they have a reputation of being glamorous and sexy. Women also get height, which makes them feel powerful."
Cox wrote Stiletto (HarperDesignInternational), which traces the modern history of the ultra-high heel. She credits 1950s' shoemakers Roger Vivier, Andrew Perugia, Salvatore Ferragamo and Charles Jourdan for rescuing women from the utilitarian wartime footwear of the previous decade.
Since then, stilettos have remained a fixture on the fashion scene, hitting heights in the '50s and '80s, and they're soaring now. Cox notes, though, that the look of the modern stiletto is evolving from a witchlike pointy toe to a rounder toe, and Prada, a favorite among the stylish set, is returning to a thicker cone-shape heel that was popular 20 years ago instead of the narrower slope familiar to fans of Jimmy Choo and Manolo Blahnik.
In the 1960s, the heel was square, while in the late '70s - as a backlash against the wedge and the clog - stilettos either had a punk-rock edge or they were disco sandals, Cox explains.
Also, the books by the Caroline Cox they are always worth the reading if you are interested in the history and the meaning of the fashion, and who is not intested in that?
