She Usually Wear Trainers Wear High Heels

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As clumpy trainers increasingly take over, sky-high stilettos have become divisive. For some they mean oppression, for others they mean sex, empowerment and fluidity. By Libby Banks.
In January 2014 the late Karl Lagerfeld held a Chanel haute couture show set in the fictional ‘Cambon Club’. Led by Cara Delevingne, models wafted down the grand sweeping staircase to the sounds of a string orchestra, each wearing bejewelled gossamer, tweed or organza creations. So far, so haute couture. The big difference? Each model’s outfit was completed with some bespoke sneakers, each pair costing an estimated 3,000 Euros and taking 30 hours to make. But while the choice of footwear may have raised eyebrows, it also represented a radical step.
Model Gigi Hadid sports clumpy trainers on the catwalk at the Versace Cruise 2019 show (Credit: Getty Images)
The trainer was being welcomed into the rarefied and glitzy world of high fashion. No longer a functional item to be hastily removed for the office or a party, it had become bona fide, Chanel-approved luxury shoe.
Five years on, and the fashion-sneaker phenomenon seems to have reached a point of no return. Since their Chanel outing, trainers have become crazier, clumpier, and – in many cases – more expensive. The more lurid and awkward-looking, the better. According to fashion-search platform Lyst, trainers represented four out of the top 10 of the most searched fashion items of Q4 of 2018. While sports brands like Nike and Adidas were the first to see the fashion possibilities of trainers, the luxury houses soon realised the potential – both in terms of style and their bottom lines. And these brands are expert at creating an accessory to covet.
Chanel has been at the forefront of the designer trainer trend (Credit: Getty Images)
Instagram is awash with influencers – including Gigi and Bella Hadid and Hailey Bieber – all proudly wearing clunky trainers, with everything from cocktail dresses to jeans and a T-shirt. Favourites include Louis Vuitton Archlights and the Balenciaga Triple S, both coming in at around £600-£1,000 a pair, depending on the iteration.
Serena Williams even wore her sneakers to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s wedding after-party under her Valentino gown, not to mention her own wedding party. While trainers would never have been considered an appropriate formal shoe only a decade ago, mentalities have significantly shifted. Dress codes have, for the most part, become more relaxed, allowing trainers to thrive in the workplace, in tandem with streetwear and athleisure-wear.
Chunky trainers such as these by Louis Vuitton have largely taken over from heels in fashion circles (Credit: Getty Images)
“Gen-Xers and gen-Yers have slowly been stepping away from heels, moving on from the sexist and discriminatory idea that women should wear heels in the office”, says Lyst’s Morgane Le Caer. It is perhaps no coincidence that the rise of the trainer has coincided with fourth-wave feminism and greater public discourse about non-binary gender identities. “Luxury sneakers are a sign of our times and a move towards a more inclusive way of dressing”, agrees Lucia Savi, curator at the Victoria & Albert Museum.
If the high heel is a patriarchal tool designed to slow a woman down, the rise of the fashion trainer is the perfect rebuff. So does this mean the end of heels? Not quite. Today our relationship with vertiginous footwear remains a complicated source of feminist debate. Often, the high heel’s symbolism depends on context and personal opinion. “It’s a shoe for when we’re on; for ambition, for magazine covers, red carpets, award shows, boardrooms, courtrooms, parliament buildings and debate lecterns,” writes Summer Brennan in her book High Heel, which was published in March. “Rather paradoxically – or maybe not – according to the 150-year-old fetish industry, it has also consistently been viewed as a shoe for sex”, she adds.
Persian noblemen were among the first to popularise heeled slippers (Credit: Getty Images)
High heels were originally worn to convey masculinity
The relationship between heels and power depends on the historical time and place. In fact, they were originally worn to convey masculinity. The heel was introduced to Europe from Asia in the late 16th Century, and was originally worn by men for horse riding because the heel secured the foot in the stirrup when riding. Associated in the European mind with the military strength of Persia, the heel was enthusiastically adopted by men, and only later worn by women and children. Louis XIV, who ruled France from 1643 to 1715, was one of the first heel influencers. His ornate shoes were unsuitable for any physical exertion – therefore emphasising his powerful status.
During the reign of King Louis XIV, gentlemen wore high-heeled shoes as a status symbol and for horse riding (Credit: Getty Images)
Today, there are still some industries where heels remain part of an office dress code for women. In 2016, Nicola Thorp, a receptionist in the UK, was sent home from work because she refused to wear high heels. But the incident turned into a scandal, prompting more than 150,000 people to sign a petition calling for a law that would forbid workplace policies about heels, and consequently a UK parliamentary investigation into sexist dress codes. So far the law has not been changed.
Heels also remain the standard dress code for women on the red carpet. The Cannes Film Festival faced a backlash in 2015 after it emerged that women had been turned away from red-carpet film screenings for flouting the heels-only rule and wearing gem-encrusted flat shoes. Actors including Emily Blunt and Benicio Del Toro have spoken out against the festival’s tyrannical approach to fashion policing, and in 2018 Kristen Stewart ridiculed the rule by walking the red carpet in bare feet.
Kristen Stewart walked the Cannes red carpet in bare feet in 2018 as a protest against the film festival’s high-heel rule for women (Credit: Getty Images)
But the fickle nature of fashion trends means that once a trend hits the mainstream, the taste pendulum swings in the opposite direction. The proliferation of trainers surely means that a heel renaissance is just around the corner. True to form, there were signs that fashion designers are stepping away from the trainer trend in the recent round of fashion weeks. Demna Gvasalia, Balenciaga’s creative director and the man who pioneered the luxury dad trainer, did not include a single trainer style in his recent autumn/winter collection for the fashion house.
Sculptural heels that are decorative but not restrictively high have been gaining popularity (Credit: Getty Images)
Even if we are moving away from the luxury trainer trend, Beth Goldstein, fashion footwear and accessories analyst at The NPD Group, says that the acceptance of trainers in a formal context is indicative of a long-term lifestyle shift for women. “I don’t believe it is a fad, it has been too long for that – consumers are prioritising comfort for their busy lifestyles, and athletic as fashion continues to evolve. The growth trajectory will naturally slow, but sneakers will remain the driving force in the market.” According to research carried out by Mintel in 2018, US shoppers aged 18-34 are the most likely age group to purchase shoes because they are comfortable (37%).
“Comfort, functionality and interesting detailing definitely take precedent, as opposed to feeling as if they are dressing for others,” says Natalie Kingham, the fashion and buying director at Matches Fashion. “The flat shoe has gone from strength to strength, whether a clompy, embellished boot, or a sportier version of sandals”. Kingham adds that even for customers who wear heels, the demand is for lower, more comfortable styles. “Interestingly, the majority of our heel business has shifted to 90mm and below, and many of the newer shoe brands like Wandler, or ones with a new creative direction like Bottega, don’t have a heel over 90mm in the collection.” One rising footwear brand that Kingham favours is Gray Matters, which has low heels, “almost like an interior collectable with sculptural details such as spherical heels”.
Heels have been lower in recent collections by, among others, Bottega Veneta (Credit: Getty Images)
Savi believes that we will never entirely kick our heel habit, but the relationship is evolving. “The role that height has played in various cultures around the world goes back centuries, and I don’t think it will fade quickly. The stiletto might morph into something else, where height will still play a role.”
Heeled shoes for men have taken over both the runways and red carpets in recent years
Heeled shoes for men have taken over both the runways and red carpets in recent years, and this gives a clue to how society’s relationship with heels might be changing once again. Labels such as Gucci, Calvin Klein, Saint Laurent and Balenciaga have been showing heeled boots and shoes in their collections, often adding glitter or bold prints on to styles.
In 2018, luxury Italian designer Francesco Russo launched a genderless line of stilettos available in Italian size 35 to 45. “It’s not a polemic, it’s not political,” the designer told Vogue. “It’s simply how society is moving forward. I think it’s in our duty as people to produce product to respond to the world.” The limited-edition collection was so popular that it became a permanent part of the brand’s offering.
High-heeled boots and shoes have become increasingly available in men’s sizes – as seen here on TV presenter Jonathan Van Ness (Credit: Getty Images)
Another brand that is turning the traditional symbolism of heels on its head is Brooklyn-based Syro. The company sells heels and boots in men’s sizes to its male, trans, or non-binary customers. The styles are chic and promote a fluid sense of style. The brand’s stated manifesto is to promote “diversity through visibility” and “empowerment through community”.
Maybe that’s the point. Instead of banning high heels, they need to be released from enforced gender expectations and social norms. Then they are just, well, a pair of shoes. Ultimately wearing them should come down to individual choice. After all, one person's patriarchal or physical oppression can be another’s powerful liberation.
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By Stacey Hutson/Dec. 6, 2016 3:07 am EDT/Updated: Aug. 20, 2020 2:33 pm EDT
I am a 6'5" woman — when I wear heels. My confidence, my stature, my hip sway, everything is bigger, and some would say better with stilettos strapped to my feet. I can make heads turn, men smirk, and women gasp at the pure sight of me. I love and hate heels for all these reasons and more. And I would guess, no matter how you feel about them, you've probably worn them too.
The Spine Health Institute reports that 72 percent of women will wear high heels in their lifetime. Many wear them daily – 49 percent of 18-24-years-olds, 42 percent of women ages 20-49, and 34 percent of women 50 and over.
To some, heels are a nasty habit. Lumbar spine flattening, posterior displacement of the head, and unwelcome increased pressure on the foot are all results of heel-wearing. They can even cause spasm-producing spinal nerve conditions. Any woman who has gone through an evening standing, walking, dancing or leaning casually against a bar in high heels knows the pulsing, constrictive, numbing pain they can cause.
Psychologist Paul Morris and his colleagues did an experiment to test what heels do for a woman's attractiveness. They recorded females walking in flat shoes, and then again in high heels. Like any good experiment, they needed a way to isolate the effects so that other factors didn't muddy the results. So one by one, they decorated 12 different women of varying ages and sizes with glow in the dark dots at specific points along their body. They then had them walk a treadmill in complete darkness so that only their glowing dots were visible – one time dressed in 2 1/2-inch heels, the other, dressed in flats.
The observers couldn't see the women – their age, their weight or their face. They could just see the way they moved when they walked. What happens when you rate a woman on her heel-walking alone? Apparently, a change in gait. With heels, there is a reduced stride, and increased rotation and tilt of the hips. In other words, she struts.
Without any of the other usual indicators of attractiveness, this change in gait alone made the study participants find the heeled-females more attractive.
Morris and his colleagues decided to take it a step further. They altered the experiment, showing the same videos of the women treadmill-walking in darkness to a new group of participants. But this time, they asked the participants to identify which subjects were females, and which were males. The key to remember here is, all of the walkers were still female.
With every "male" guess, the participant had mistaken a woman in flats for a man. Nothing ground-breaking here, but it confirms scientifically what we already assumed. Heels are girly, ladylike, and feminine.
Certified image consultant, personal stylist and confidence coach, Laurie Brucker, agrees. The subject of "to heel or not to heel?" often comes up with her clients. Her answer? She is an advocate for them because they make you strut.
"When a woman walks in heels, fluid strut is required which forces women to move their hips!" Brucker says. "By moving their hips, whether a subtle strut or an exaggerated cat walk, it reminds women that they are women!"
Imagine going into work one day, confident in your chinos and ballet flats, only to be asked by your employer to leave and come back with heels — or just leave.
That's exactly what happened to Nicole Thorp. Her employer, Pricewaterhouse Coopers, told her she had to wear shoes with a 2-4-inch heel. Thorp refused their demands and was sent home without pay. Although legal and within the company's rights, she took it upon herself to change that and started a petition. It called on the people to make it illegal for a company to require a woman to wear heels to work.
The petition has received over 150,000 signatures and a whole lot of attention from the press and social media, becoming something of a movement. Or at the very least, a hashtag. Type #myheelsmychoice into Twitter to find people all over the world standing flat-footed in solidarity with Thorp — from outraged women sharing similar experiences, to a Swedish handyman who wore bright pink stilettos on the job to prove a not-so-subtle point.
"There's a history behind heels and the damage that it can do to women," Thorp says in an online video interview. "And there's a sexualized element to it, as opposed to a shirt and tie for a man."
Fashion journalist and style icon, NJ Goldston, lives in a place where the choice isn't heels or flats. It's sling backs or stilettos. Los Angeles. Tinseltown, La La Land. Where heels are considered the style de rigueur, an entry point into a mutual admiration society.
In her world, your car doubles as a moving closet. "No matter your social circle or neighborhood (except maybe the beach communities), heels are the LA way to amp up a more casual look on the fly when there is no way to go home and dress up after a long work day," Goldston says.
She admits, the LA culture is embracing a more fashion-athletic look. She recently overdressed for a Sunday brunch in Malibu where more casual footwear may have been more acceptable. But that's the exception, not the rule. "LA is such an event-driven town that flats are not really the way to go when you are attending a major luncheon or party."
Look through a rack of women's fashion and lifestyle magazines, and you'll most likely find cover models posing in designer pumps and at least one publication peddling, "Heels that make heads turn."
An article in Glamour touts the many benefits of wearing heels, saying, "Your calf muscles, no matter how weak, look instantly better when you slip on your favorite pumps." Even movies show women wearing heels in impractical situations.
We all know that heels are red carpet staples. From Blake Lively who reportedly told People Magazine that nothing is as "relaxing" as a great pair of Louboutins, to the petite Ariana Grande who almost always seems to be wearing knee high boots with long spiky points. And who could forget the queen of heels herself — Carrie Bradshaw — who was always found pounding the New York pavement in her beloved Blahniks, Choos or Louboutins.
Her former show, Sex and the City, spells out women's love for heels in one quote many fans remember, "The fact is, sometimes it's hard to walk in a single woman's shoes. That's why we need really special ones now and then — to make the walk a little more fun."
It's hard to argue with logic like that.
Researcher and professor, Nicolas Gueguen, conducted a series of experiments using 19-year-old-women in tight tops and heels or flats. He started out with the old fashioned "I dropped my glove" routine, in which he found it was picked up and returned 60 percent of the time when the women wore flats, and 95 percent of the time when she wore heels.
He also timed how long it would take a man to approach a woman sitting at a bar. The women with flats got approached within 14 minutes. Not bad. Except once the flats came off and the heels were strapped on, that time got cut in half. Pickup lines were happening within seven minutes. Impressive.
In another experiment, Gueguen took the women to the streets. No, not like that.
He had them stop pedestrians to answer a survey about gender equality. The study found that 40 percent of men would respond to a women wearing flats, 60 percent to women in medium heels, and 80 percent of men were all ears when the women were wearing high heels. Hmmm. Could this be applicable to court cases? Business pitches? Or maybe even convincing husbands to wash the dishes?
One of the first accounts of people wearing heels dates back to 3500 BC. Aristocratic men and women wore them for ceremonial purposes. It has been said the added height set themselves apart — or above — from the social classes. Aristocracy, perhaps, doesn't apply in today's world. But power does.
Women in heels are often women of power. Do a quick search for "business woman," and if the picture is a full-length shot, you can bet that woman is wearing heels. Business organizations like Business in Heels and Leaders in Heels use women dressed in spikey heels on
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