For some women, it can be hard to imagine life before black stilettos became available on the market. But the fact is that this fashionable footwear has not been around quite as long as some might imagine.
The time that black stilettos became available and started to catch on in the fashion world was not until the later part of the 1950s. As is true with many things, the black stilettos came around thanks to advancements in other areas. The black stilettos resulted from other work.
The technology that was created at this time was the use of a metal shaft to place in the heel. Up until that time, all heels had been made of wood or weaker materials. When the use of steel heels first became available, it did not take long for it to become popular in the fashion community.
As a fashionable item, black stilettos began to evolve in some ways. After they were first developed in the 1950s, designers spent the 1960s evolving them to look a little bit different to change with the fashions of the day. In the ’60s, the toes of these shoes became much more narrow and were also elongated. The shoe became as long as the heel itself.
Whereas people previously referred to just the heel as a stiletto, in the 1960s, the whole shoe began to be referred to as a stiletto. Once the mid and latter parts of the ’60s rolled around, black stilettos became much harder to find and grew out of fashion with many among the top fashion designers.
It was not until 1974 that a new kind of black stiletto was designed and became readily available for purchase in the stores. Despite this, the market for these shoes was still not as active as it had been 10-15 years earlier.
In England, the shoes were a little easier to find in some of the smaller boutiques. This changed the way that people wore black stilettos. Whereas they were among those who lived in high fashion soon after being introduced in the ’50s and ’60s, the 1970s saw them evolve to be accessories to those who were in the Punk crowd.
However, this was not enough to make them truly popular, especially considering the fact that Punks really only made up a small part of the population in London at that time.
By the mid-1980s, these black stilettos had started to fall out of favor among all groups once again. By the time the 1990s rolled around, these black stilettos had all but disappeared in the world of high fashion.
In the early part of this new millennium, some women have incorporated wearing them at the office as a different kind of look to have at the office. If history truly does repeat itself, these black stilettos will likely continue to fall in and out of favor among those in the fashion world for many years to come.