Platform shoe
Footwear with a thick platform sole

An example of a 20-centimetre (8-inch) platform clear heel
Platform sandals with wooden sole
Platform boot, ankle length
Lucite platform shoes

Platform shoes are shoes, boots, or sandals with a thick sole, usually in the range of 5–10 cm (2–4 in). Platform shoes may also be high heels, in which case the heel is raised significantly higher than the ball of the foot. Extreme heights, of both the sole and heel, can be found in fetish footwear such as ballet boots, where the sole may be up to 20 cm (8 in) high and the heels up to 40 cm (16 in) or more. The sole of a platform shoe can have a continuous uniform thickness, have a wedge, a separate block or a stiletto heel. Raising the ankle increases the risk of a sprained ankle.[1]

History

Platform shoes are known in many cultures. The most famous predecessor of platform shoes are the Zoccoli in Venice of the 15th century, designed with the functional goal of avoiding wet feet when the pavements were flooded. Depending on the current shoe fashion, platform shoes are more or less popular. In the 1970s they were widespread in both genders in Europe. Today, they are preferred by women.[2]

Ancient

A maid wearing circle-type pattens: Piety in Pattens or Timbertoe on Tiptoe, England 1773

After their use in Ancient Greece for raising the height of important characters in the Greek theatre and their similar use by high-born prostitutes or courtesans in London in the sixteenth century, platform shoes, called pattens, are thought to have been worn in Europe in the eighteenth century to avoid the muck of urban streets. Of the same practical origins are Japanese geta. There may also be a connection to the buskins of Ancient Rome, which frequently had very thick soles to give added height to the wearer. Another example of a platform shoe that functioned as protection from dirt and grime is the Okobo- "Okobo" referring to the sound that the wooden shoe makes when walking. Dating back to 18th century Japan, the Okobo was worn by maikos, or geishas, during their apprenticeships. Similar to the Okobo, wooden Kabkabs were named after the sound they made upon marble flooring. Worn by Lebanese women between the 14th and 17th centuries, the straps were often made from velvet, leather, or silk while the wooden stilts were decorated with silver or pearl. The ancient Indian Paduka, which translates to footprints of the Gods, was often sported by the upper echelon as a way to mark their status. The wooden platforms were sometimes carved into different animal shapes and decorated with ivory and silver.[3] In ancient China, men wore black boots with very thick soles made from layers of white cloths. This style of boots is often worn today onstage for Peking opera.[4] During the Qing dynasty, aristocratic Manchu women wore a form of platform known as the flowerpot shoe to imitate the gait of Han women with bound feet and their lotus shoes.[5]

Modern

Platform shoes enjoyed some popularity in the United States, Europe and the UK from the 1930s to the 1950s but not nearly to the extent of their popularity from the 1960s to the 1980s.

20th century

1930s–1950s
Carmen Miranda was key in popularizing platform shoes in the 1940s.[6]

In the early 1930s, Moshe (Morris) Kimel designed the first modern version of the platform shoe for actress Marlene Dietrich. Kimel, a Jew, escaped Berlin, Germany, and settled in the United States with his family in 1939 and opened the Kimel shoe factory in Los Angeles. The design soon became very popular amongst Beverly Hills elite.

By 1936, Salvatore Ferragamo was producing a variety of platforms of multiple heights and extensive ornamentation, including platforms paved in mirror-shiny metallic gold tiles. Some of his platforms featured soles that allowed the footbed to bend more naturally with each step because they were constructed of two separate blocks of wood or cork, one attached under the ball of the foot and one attached immediately behind that moved back from the other as the foot flexed while walking.[7]

In the summer of 1937, high, cork-soled platform shoes became popular at European resorts and would influence footwear for the next few years.[8][9] In the final two years of the 1930s, an array of platform shoe styles proliferated and could be seen in fashion magazines and popular periodicals:[10] platform sandals,[11] platform clogs,[12] high platforms, low platforms, cut-out platforms,[13][14] platforms with elevated heels, platforms where the foot sits flat, wooden platforms, platforms with separate heels, platforms with continuous wedge heels (a new invention),[15][16] lavishly decorated platforms,[17] platforms with contoured bottoms sometimes called rocker bottoms for ease of walking,[18] platforms with sunken foot beds to better hold the sole on the foot and keep the toes from protruding,[19] even platforms with battery-operated flashing lights in their wedge heels.[20] Prominent designers and manufacturers included Ferragamo, Perugia, who designed for Schiaparelli, and Delman, who employed Roger Vivier.[21] Many of the platform soles were so thin that they might not even be considered platforms by the standards of later decades but they were called that at the time. Others were as high as any from the 1970s and sometimes more impractical in being tapered and sculpted.[22][23] American Vogue opined that some of the shoes looked "clumsy" but encouraged their adoption, particularly for streetwear, emphasizing their comfort and practicality compared to more delicate high heels.[24] The diversity of styles available contributed to a surge in popularity during the late 1930s, with Life magazine estimating in 1939 that platforms made up fifteen percent of current footwear sold.[25]

In 1938, The Rainbow was a platform sandal designed by famous shoe designer Salvatore Ferragamo. “The Rainbow” was created and was the first instance of the platform shoe returning in modern days in the West.[citation needed] The platform sandal was designed for Judy Garland, an American singer, actress, and vaudevillian. This shoe was a tribute to Judy Garland's signature song “Over the Rainbow” performed in the Wizard of Oz in 1939. The shoe was crafted using uniquely shaped slabs of cork that were covered in suede to build up the wedge and gold kidskin was used for the straps.[26] His creation was a result of experimentations with new materials because of wartime rationing during World War II.[citation needed] Traditionally heels were built up with leather, but because of the rationing of leather, he experimented with wood and cork [27] The colors and design of this shoe still resemble modern shoe standards today.

Jazz singer Ann Hathaway (1925-1997) wearing late 40s platform shoes while walking in Washington Square, New York, 1947

Platform shoes continued to grow in popularity into the 1940s, their cork and wood soles conforming to World War II material restrictions and the wartime need for practicality.[28] The tighter the material restrictions, as in the UK, the rarer and lower were the platforms. In Nazi-occupied Paris, however, French women wore very high, very elaborate platform shoes in defiance of Nazi control[29] and celebratory platforms were produced when Paris was liberated from the Nazis in 1944.[30]

In the 1940s, platforms were designed with a high arch, but as exemplified here, they originated with the heel elevated only slightly above the toes. The platform brings a heavy looking foundation to the wearer that is in direct polarity to the stiletto heel. With its reconfiguration of the arch and structure of attenuated insubstantiality, the high heel suggests the anti-gravitational effect of the dancer en pointe. On the contrary, the platform displays weightiness more like the flat steps of modern dance.[31]

Platform shoes remained popular after the end of World War II, but Christian Dior's transformative 1947 "Corolle" collection introduced a different fashion silhouette that did not include high platform shoes, and it was this look that would dominate the 1950s.

In the 1950s, platform shoes were not favored in the same way that they used to be. Fashion returned to the more elegantly shaped shoe.[32]

1960s and 1970s

A resurgence of interest in platform shoes in fashion began as early as 1967, when Roger Vivier produced a variety of footwear, including sandals and boots, with platform soles for Yves Saint Laurent's spring and fall collections. Some of Vivier's platform shoes had a slight 1940s feel, but all looked very contemporary.[33][34] Two years later, other designers and mass-market manufacturers had thickened the soles of their shoes as the trend took off.[35] By the year 1970, women's platform shoes were appearing in both advertisements and articles in issues of Seventeen magazine.

Platform shoes peaked in designer endorsement and public popularity in the early 1970s[36] and were available in a myriad of styles: clogs, sandals, pumps, oxfords, espadrilles, slides, thongs, boots, etc, with platforms ranging in height from very low to many inches high. Heels could lie even with the ball of the foot (flat) or be elevated above the platform sole by up to four inches.[37][38] The shape of platforms was almost always straight up and down, occasionally with a slight taper. Heels were always thick and chunky, whether they were separate heels from the platform sole or continuous with the sole in a wedge shape. Stiletto and spike heels were not in style at all,[39][40] as they had been popular in the very out of style 1950s, an era associated with social backwardness at the time.[41][42] Platform soles could be made out of cork,[43] wood, crepe, rubber, or other materials and be lugged, stacked, covered, or left unadorned. Platform espadrilles were popular, their soles covered in woven jute, raffia, hemp, rope, or canvas. Handicrafts were widely enjoyed in the early seventies and some platforms were hand-painted,[44][45] appliquéd, adorned with studs,[46] or embroidered.

Occasionally seen during the early 1970s peak in interest in platform shoes was a playful 1940s-revival look,[47] seen most famously in Yves Saint Laurent's fall 1970[48] and spring '71 collections, which included forties-looking platform wedge sandals with forties-style high turbans and shoulder pads.[49] Forties platform shoes by this point were remembered as consisting of ankle straps, peep toes, and often bows on the vamp, though in reality 1940s platform shoes had been very diverse in style and shape, with many presaging popular styles of the 1970s. Other high fashion designers also showed this caricatured 1940s look occasionally during the early seventies,[50][51] as did more youth-oriented clothiers like Bus Stop out of the UK.

A new addition that did not exist during the 1940s was platforms for men. During the early 1970s, men began wearing platform shoes and high, chunky heels in bold colors and materials, the larger shoes augmenting the silhouette of the wide, flared trouser hems that were the norm at the time. As with women, platforms worn under flared trousers gave an impression of length to the leg and added height.[52][53] Men's platforms would be most in style and most popular during the early seventies[54] but would continue to be seen sparingly into the mid-seventies. Male musical performers like Kiss, Slade, the New York Dolls, the Bay City Rollers, and a number of other groups commonly wore very flashy platform shoes, particularly platform boots, during this time. Kiss would become associated with them and continue wearing them almost throughout their career, long after they were no longer common streetwear.

While the wider heels of early seventies platform shoes were more stable than the stiletto-heeled pumps of the 1950s, their inflexible soles and great height resulted in numerous cases of falls and injuries,[55][56] with occasional newspaper articles quoting podiatrists[57] and consumer advocates warning against the dangers of the shoes.[58][59]

The high fashion world began to deemphasize platform shoes around 1973[60] but continued to include some platforms in their offerings through the mid-seventies, particularly platform espadrilles.[61] Many of the popular high-heeled, thin-strapped sandals of the middle of the decade featured low platform soles as well, and the public continued to buy wood-soled and crepe-soled platforms with wedge heels, now increasingly in earthtones and less flashy than some early seventies models. Popular platform brand names of the mid-seventies included Cherokee, Yoyo, and Famolare. Famolares were set on a crepe sole molded into springy wave shapes at the bottom, the waves emphasized by topographic-looking contour lines etched into the sides. These were enormously popular, available in sandal, oxford, and boot styles.[62] Yoyos were one of a few styles that featured a hole cut into the wedge heel, a design detail also seen in the 1940s.

Platform shoes continued through to 1976 in Europe and Britain, when they suddenly went out of fashion. The fad lasted even further in the US, lasting until as late as the early 1980s. At the beginning of the fad, they were worn primarily by young women in their teens and twenties, and occasionally by younger girls, older women, and (particularly during the disco era) by young men.[63][64] Platform shoes were considered the "party shoe."[65][unreliable source?] Disco-goers used their shoes to bring attention to themselves on the dance floor.[65][unreliable source?] 70s platform shoes were presented in dramatic and showy ways such as with glitter or tiny lights.[65][unreliable source?]

In 1972, at 219 Bowery in Manhattan, Carole Bascetta developed a special mold for making platform shoes and was successful in selling custom-made shoes to people such as David Bowie, David Johansen of the New York Dolls, and several other punk artists.[66] Although platform shoes did provide added height without the discomfort of spike heels, they seem to have been worn primarily for the sake of attracting attention.[citation needed] Many glam rock musicians wore platform shoes as part of their act.[citation needed] Bowie, an icon of glam rock and androgynous fashion in the 1970s, famously wore platform shoes while performing as his alter ego Ziggy Stardust.[67][68]

While a wide variety of styles were popular during this period, including boots, espadrilles, oxfords, sneakers, and sandals of all description, with soles made of wood, cork, or synthetic materials, the most popular style of the late 1960s and early 1970s was a simple quarter-strap sandal with tan water buffalo-hide straps, on a beige suede-wrapped cork wedge-heel platform sole. These were originally introduced under the brand name Kork-Ease but the extreme popularity supported many imitators. Remarkably, there was very little variation in style, and most of that variation was limited to differences in height.

During the late seventies, platform shoes went decisively out of style in the high-fashion world, most clearly with the fall 1978 collections that introduced what would become 1980s-style shoulder pads and suits. Unlike during the smaller 1940s revival of the early seventies, the forties-inspired silhouette of these 1978-through-1980s styles did not include platform shoes but flat soles, tapered toes, and high, narrow heels.[69]

The punk styles that arose in 1976 and '77, particularly in the UK, also rejected the dominant styles of the 1970s like platform shoes, a trend that would continue during the 1980s.

An exception to this move away from platforms in the late seventies were the Candie's slides popular in the US during late 1978. Made by El Greco, these were single-strap mules with a molded sole and heel that included a platform of about an inch, worn with just-introduced designer jeans,[70][71] their cigarette legs rolled up to the ankle to show off the shoes.[72]

Another exception to this retreat from platforms was seen in one of the myriad revival subcultures that came in the wake of punk in the late seventies. Male adherents of a UK 1950s-revival subculture known as Teddy Boys or rockabilly revivalists sometimes wore a shoe style from the early fifties referred to as brothel creepers due to their thick crepe sole, now often with the sole exaggerated and the uppers in punk-influenced blacks with aggressive-looking hardware trim.

1980s

As the fad progressed, manufacturers like Candie's stretched the envelope of what was considered too outrageous to wear, while others, like Famolare and Cherokee of California, introduced "comfort" platforms, designed to combine the added height of platforms with the support and comfort of sneakers, or even orthopedic shoes, and by the time the fad finally fizzled in the late 1980s, girls and women of all ages were wearing them. It may also be a by-product of this fad that Scandinavian clogs, which were considered rather outrageous in the late 1960s and early 1970s, had become classic by the 1980s.

In mainstream fashion, platform shoes were not in style during the 1980s, since much of the fashion of the 1980s was a rejection of the well known styles of the 1970s, particularly the early seventies when platform shoes had been at their peak of popularity. The fashion-conscious in the eighties rejected such early seventies trends as big sideburns, wide ties, wide lapels, bell-bottom pants, and platform shoes, in some cases shaving off sideburns entirely, even eating up into the side hairline, and in all cases wearing soles that were completey flat, for men and women, the most clear case of this being the popularity of completely flat, thin-soled, nearly heel-less jazz oxfords in the early years of the decade.[73] In mainstream women's clothes, the standard item of fashionable eighties footwear was a somewhat 1950s-looking pump on a flat sole with various forms and heights of stiletto heel.[74] The anti-seventies mood was so strong that even rock group Kiss stopped wearing their trademark glam-rock-era stage makeup and towering platform boots during the eighties.

An exception to all of this was occasionally seen in the proliferating revival subcultures of the late seventies and early eighties, much of it coming out of the UK. 1950s-revival rockabilly aficionados or Teddy Boys occasionally wore a 50s-revival shoe style with a thick crepe sole called a brothel creeper, now usually influenced by punk and cartoonishly exaggerated with a very thick sole, lots of shiny hardware, and bright colors against a black background. These were also occasionally worn by non-subculture trendy types during the eighties. The hard rock music that coalesced in the early 1970s and remained popular into the 1980s got influenced by punk in the late seventies and was declared to be in revival beginning in 1979, when a few such groups turned to the sound's early 70s roots and donned Kiss-style platform boots, the best known being early 80s Mötley Crüe and Wrathchild. This was all kind of subcultural, though, not really seen among the mainstream populace, who continued to view the seventies as laughably out of style.

In the mid-eighties, a small group of avant-gardists located in London began to play with ideas of bad taste by reviving styles from the early seventies, including platform shoes, with club denizens like Leigh Bowery and Michael Clark wearing repurposed early-seventies platforms[75][76] and shoe designer Patrick Cox outfitting the collections of avant-garde designers like John Galliano in occasional platformed footwear. BodyMap and Vivienne Westwood[77] showed them as well, as did a few avant-garde designers in Paris like Adeline Andre. In line with the silhouettes of the eighties, many of these platforms were tapered rather than being blocky or flared as in the early seventies.

1990s

Vivienne Westwood, the UK fashion designer, re-introduced the high heeled platform shoe into high fashion in the early 1990s; it was while wearing a pair of Super-Elevated Gillie with five-inch platforms and nine-inch heels that the supermodel Naomi Campbell fell on the catwalk at a fashion show.[78] However, they did not catch on quickly and platform shoes only began to resurface in mainstream fashion in the late 1990s, thanks in part to the UK singing group the Spice Girls. The all-girl group was often seen in tall platform sneakers and boots. The footwear brand Buffalo created the famous platform sneakers worn by members of the group.[79]

The United Kingdom (and European) experience of platform shoes was somewhat different from that of the United States.[80] The long, pointed shoes of the early 2000s, giving an elongated look to the foot, have been more popular in the US than in the UK.[according to whom?]

21st century

2000s

The platform shoe resurfaced in popularity in the early 2000s when the YSL Tribute Sandal appeared in 2004, quickly gaining popularity by celebrities and the fashion world for its sex appeal and added comfort of a platform sole.[79] The shoe is continued to be released season after season, despite changes in creative directors.[81]

2010s

During the late 2010s, platform boots became fashionable due to a resurgence of interest in 1970s fashion. These included so-called "nothing shoes" with clear Perspex soles, and mule sandals.[82][83]

Notable wearers

  • Reconstruction of a 16th-century Venetian chopine. On display at the Shoe Museum in Lausanne.
    Reconstruction of a 16th-century Venetian chopine. On display at the Shoe Museum in Lausanne.
  • Calcagnetti (Chopine) - Museo Correr
    Calcagnetti (Chopine) - Museo Correr
  • A cantabrian albarcas is a rustic wooden shoe in one piece, which has been used particularly by the peasants of Cantabria, northern Spain.
    A cantabrian albarcas is a rustic wooden shoe in one piece, which has been used particularly by the peasants of Cantabria, northern Spain.
  • The bottom view, showing the "teeth" of Geta
    The bottom view, showing the "teeth" of Geta
  • Buffalo platform trainer
    Buffalo platform trainer
  • An example of a high wedge-heeled sandal
    An example of a high wedge-heeled sandal
  • Seven inch platform flip flops
    Seven inch platform flip flops
  • Azzaro
    Azzaro
  • Platform boots
    Platform boots
  • High-heeled platform shoes
    High-heeled platform shoes
  • Acrylic high-heeled platform shoes
    Acrylic high-heeled platform shoes
  • High-heeled platform shoes
    High-heeled platform shoes
  • Buffalo Boots
    Buffalo Boots
  • Leather platform boots
    Leather platform boots
  • 1894 painting of a woman wearing platform shoes
    1894 painting of a woman wearing platform shoes
  • New Rock platform shoes
    New Rock platform shoes
  • New Rock platform boots
    New Rock platform boots

See also

References

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  2. ^ Weber, Paul (1980). Schuhe. Drei Jahrtausende in Bildern (in German). Aarau: AT Verlag. ISBN 3-85502-064-7.
  3. ^ “The History of Platform Heels.” Fabulous Platform Shoes, fabulousplatformshoes.com/the-history-of-platform-heels.
  4. ^ Staff (2006–2010). "Characteristics of Peking Opera Costumes(4)". 1155815 – Chinese Folklores & Festivals. 1155815 – Chinese Folklores & Festivals Website. Archived from the original on 16 May 2013. Retrieved 3 June 2012.
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  6. ^ Shaw, Lisa. Carmen Miranda's fashion: Turbans, platform shoes and a lot of controversy Archived 9 April 2023 at the Wayback Machine. The Guardian.
  7. ^ Trasko, Mary (1989). "Chapter Two: Enter the Clodhopper". Heavenly Soles. New York, USA: Abbeville Press. pp. 49, 50. ISBN 1-55859-324-1. In 1936 Ferragamo created a platform sandal with a mosaic of gilded glass glued to waxed canvas covering the cork sole....[S]andals by Ferragamo, 1935-36, with platform soles...divided to facilitate movement...
  8. ^ Chase, Edna Woolman, ed. (1 December 1937). "Southbound". Vogue. New York, NY, USA. p. 107. Curious new footprints will be made...by...thick, cork-soled sandals...Those thick soles began life on the Lido last summer [1937] and are already influencing street and evening shoes....[T]hey're springy, light, comfortable, and add three inches to the length of your legs.
  9. ^ Pope, Virginia (22 December 1940). "Bathing Suits 1941 Style". The New York Times. p. S42. ...[L]ots of party footgear have been copied from the famous beach shoes of Ferragamo.
  10. ^ Penrose, Elizabeth. "Fashion and Dress". Encyclopaedia Britannica Book of the Year 1939: Being a Survey of the Principal Persons, Events, and Developments in Various Spheres of Knowledge and Affairs During the Year 1938. London, England: The Encyclopedia Britannica Co., Ltd. p. 255. ...[I]n 1938...[t]he 'platform' shoe, that is, the shoe with a built-up sole...varying in thickness from about two to four inches, became generally popular, chiefly for the beach and sportswear.
  11. ^ "Giddy Colors, Queer Heels Adorn Spring Shoes". Life. 6 (14): 55. 3 April 1939. Retrieved 20 December 2025. ...[F]rom Delman's Paris design studios,...[n]ailhead platform sole, high-quality kid...sandal...
  12. ^ "Giddy Colors, Queer Heels Adorn Spring Shoes". Life. 6 (14): 54–55. 3 April 1939. Retrieved 20 December 2025. ...[F]rom Delman's Paris design studios,...1938-39 innovations are the Dutch sabots...
  13. ^ Chase, Edna Woolman, ed. (1 January 1939). "Points – Due South". Vogue. New York, NY, USA. pp. 76–77. A framework shoe by Delman, to lift you high above the sand. It's of black-laquered wood tied on with a shocking-pink grosgrain bow...[Sandal has a high, flat, rocker-bottom platform with a huge hole cut out or left out, leaving just the frame of the platform in profile.]
  14. ^ "Giddy Colors, Queer Heels Adorn Spring Shoes". Life. 6 (14): 54–55. 3 April 1939. Retrieved 20 December 2025. ...[F]rom Delman's Paris design studios,...[h]ole in [wooden wedge] heel [of sandal with wooden platform]...
  15. ^ Chase, Edna Woolman, ed. (1 January 1938). "Uplift of the Sole". Vogue. New York, NY, USA. pp. 58–59. Ferragamo...is responsible for this radically new idea – the uplift of the sole [into a wedge heel].
  16. ^ Trasko, Mary (1989). "Chapter Two: Enter the Clodhopper". Heavenly Soles. New York, USA: Abbeville Press. p. 48. ISBN 1-55859-324-1. Facing a shortage of the quality steel he had used to reinforce his shoe arches, in 1937 Ferragamo devised a sole and heel from a wedge of cork...
  17. ^ Chase, Edna Woolman, ed. (1 July 1938). "Shoe Shine". Vogue. New York, NY, USA. pp. 34–35. ...[Schiaparelli and Delman] evening shoes...paved with glittering stones, embossed with gilt medallions, encrusted with beads, spangled with paillettes, embroidered with silver and gold...A...Delman...chopine of deep purple crêpe with silver kid bands. [All shoes pictured have high platforms heavily decorated as described but with the feet flat.]
  18. ^ "Giddy Colors, Queer Heels Adorn Spring Shoes". Life. 6 (14): 54–55. 3 April 1939. Retrieved 20 December 2025. Many [sabots] have rocker-bottom heels...
  19. ^ Chase, Edna Woolman, ed. (1 January 1939). "Points – Due South". Vogue. New York, NY, USA. pp. 76–77. 'Scoops' – ...Their high soles are scooped out so that your feet fit right down into them.
  20. ^ "Giddy Colors, Queer Heels Adorn Spring Shoes". Life. 6 (14): 54–55. 3 April 1939. Retrieved 20 December 2025. ...[F]rom Delman's Paris design studios,...'Stop-and-Go' [platform] shoe has a battery and bulb in [wedge] heel which flashes red on one side, green on the other with each step.
  21. ^ Trasko, Mary (1989). "Chapter Two: Enter the Clodhopper". Heavenly Soles. New York, USA: Abbeville Press. p. 46. ISBN 1-55859-324-1. In 1937 Vivier...was...designing exclusively for Delman, one of the most respected American manufacturers of fine-quality shoes...
  22. ^ Trasko, Mary (1989). "Chapter Two: Enter the Clodhopper". Heavenly Soles. New York, USA: Abbeville Press. p. 50. ISBN 1-55859-324-1. Perugia...designed...for Schiaparelli in 1938...a cork-soled evening shoe called a footstool, which was based on the Venetian chopines...
  23. ^ "Giddy Colors, Queer Heels Adorn Spring Shoes". Life. 6 (14): 54–55. 3 April 1939. Retrieved 20 December 2025. ...[F]rom Delman's Paris design studios,...[s]croll-like [lacquered wood] heels and [lacquered wood platform]...make an...evening sandal...
  24. ^ Chase, Edna Woolman, ed. (1 August 1938). "Footsteps to Follow". Vogue. New York, NY, USA. pp. 72–73. It's no sin to call a shoe clumsy, these days. It's a compliment. If you haven't already worn a platform or a wedge sole, do have a pair or two of autumn shoes with this new thick look....The new clumsy look in a black suede street shoe....platform sole of patent leather.
  25. ^ "Giddy Colors, Queer Heels Adorn Spring Shoes". Life. 6 (14): 54–55. 3 April 1939. Retrieved 20 December 2025. About 15% of all spring shoes have platform soles.
  26. ^ "Salvatore Ferragamo | Sandals | Italian". The Met. Archived from the original on 10 June 2016. Retrieved 26 April 2016.
  27. ^ DeMello, M. (2009). Feet and footwear: A cultural encyclopedia. Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood Press/ABC-CLIO.
  28. ^ Trasko, Mary (1989). "Chapter Two: Enter the Clodhopper". Heavenly Soles. New York, USA: Abbeville Press. p. 59. ISBN 1-55859-324-1. Di Mauro samples showing what was forbidden and permitted in...leather usage in wartime Paris.
  29. ^ Howell, Georgina (1978). "1940-1947: Fashion by Government Order". In Vogue: Sixty Years of Celebrities and Fashion from British Vogue. Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England: Penguin Books Ltd. p. 166. ISBN 0-14-004955-X. ...Liberation [1944] fashion photographs – ...girls in...clumsy, fancy thick-soled wedge shoes...
  30. ^ Trasko, Mary (1989). "Chapter Two: Enter the Clodhopper". Heavenly Soles. New York, USA: Abbeville Press. pp. 38–39. ISBN 1-55859-324-1. 'Les Quatre Grands' liberation shoe by Camille di Mauro, 1944, with Allied flag details in suede and pigskin.
  31. ^ "Attitude and Altitude: A Short History of Shoes". Britannica Blog. Archived from the original on 25 September 2015. Retrieved 26 April 2016.
  32. ^ "A brief history of the platform shoe". www.queensofvintage.com. Archived from the original on 9 April 2018. Retrieved 8 April 2018.
  33. ^ Vreeland, Diana, ed. (1 March 1967). "Paris: The New Viviers". Vogue. 149 (5). New York, NY, USA: The Condé Nast Publications: 194–195. The platform-sole sandal – silver lizard on red-lacquered wood, squared at the toe....Platform sandal in print...Ankle-strap platform sandal in black-and-white surah....Navy platform sandal – shiny Corfam on lacquered wood sole....Sling back, open toe – white Corfam pump; lacquered navy platform.
  34. ^ Emerson, Gloria (26 July 1967). "Paris Couturiers Hedge All Bets". The New York Times: 26. The newest Vivier shoe – some will be seen...in Yves Saint Laurent's collection – is called 'le socle.' It only means a thick platform sole. Socle is the French word for pedestal....Even when he designs a boot that covers the leg...there is often the platform sole...
  35. ^ Vreeland, Diana, ed. (1 September 1969). "Vogue's's Own Boutique". Vogue. 154 (4). New York, NY, USA: The Condé Nast Publications: 450–451. Clunk, clunk, sshump, sshump, bump...the new sound of...soles of shoes...that are now lifted, thickened, platformed...seems to make a leg longer, a short skirt shorter....Shiny black patent, a platform of cork and wood...[a]t Olofdaughters....Two cork slabs strapped together with a crisscross of rope...[a]t Bernardo....[T]o-the-knee boots on a smooth leather platform...El Greco...
  36. ^ Mirabella, Grace, ed. (1 August 1972). "Vogue Observations". Vogue. Vol. 160, no. 2. New York, NY, USA. p. 35. ...[F]rom Vogue's contributing editor Gloria Schiff...in Rome:...'All women – rich, poor, middle, young – are wearing big platform shoes – four-inch high cork soles'...
  37. ^ Taylor, Angela (23 August 1972). "To Buyers, Looks are What Matter". The New York Times. p. 36. A substantial part of the under-30 generation is clumping around town on thick soles and high heels, walking stiff-leggedly as if on stilts....[M]iniskirted and blue-jeaned girls raised up on 4-inch heels and 2-inch soles.
  38. ^ Howell, Georgina (1978). "1972". In Vogue: Sixty Years of Celebrities and Fashion from British Vogue. Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England: Penguin Books Ltd. p. 325. ISBN 0-14-004955-X. Shoes are preposterously high and vivid, the thick platform adding inches to already tall heels.
  39. ^ "Platform Shoes Assailed as Hazardous by Doctor". The New York Times. 18 August 1972. p. 10. '...the new styles provide a greater stability than the spindly spike heels of yesteryear'...
  40. ^ Morris, Bernadine (28 July 1973). "Couture Scorecard: Good is Quite Good". The New York Times. p. 28. Retrieved 16 March 2022. ...[T]he heels aren't the spindly, needle‐like variety that caught in subway grates. They're thick enough to look sturdy.
  41. ^ Larkin, Kathy. "Fashion". Collier's Encyclopedia 1974 Year Book Covering the Year 1973. Macmillan Educational Corporation. p. 258. In shoes the five-inch-high clog with platform sole...with rounded toe and high but still rounded heel that in no way recalled the stilettos and spikes of former years.
  42. ^ Morris, Bernadine (6 February 1971). "The Romans Didn't Waste Any Time About Shorts". The New York Times. p. 18. Retrieved 4 April 2022. You couldn't wear...shorts...in the streets...20 years ago [1951]...because women all had heavy foundation garments on...
  43. ^ Howell, Georgina (1978). "1972". In Vogue: Sixty Years of Celebrities and Fashion from British Vogue. Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England: Penguin Books Ltd. p. 325. ISBN 0-14-004955-X. ...[T]here are...corksoled sandals.
  44. ^ Mulvagh, Jane (1988). "1971". Vogue History of 20th Century Fashion. London, England: Viking, the Penguin Group. pp. 322–323. ISBN 0-670-80172-0. Paint-your-own platform shoes.
  45. ^ Vreeland, Diana, ed. (1 March 1971). "Vogue's Own Boutique". Vogue. 157 (5). New York, NY, USA: The Condé Nast Publications: 152. ...Clogs...[with] faces painted on the wedges.
  46. ^ Morris, Bernadine (8 December 1970). "It's More Dazzle for the New Valentino". The New York Times: 56. Retrieved 22 June 2022. ...[T]he models...wear...high cork wedgies...with nailheads and...thongs that tie around the ankle and half the leg.
  47. ^ Slater, Teddy. "Fashion". Collier's Encyclopedia 1972 Year Book Covering the Year 1971. Crowell-Collier Educational Corporation. p. 241. The forties look entered the fashion picture feet first with the reappearance of wedgies and platform shoes...
  48. ^ Vreeland, Diana, ed. (15 September 1970). "Vogue's Eye View: Paris". Vogue. 156 (5). New York, NY, USA: The Condé Nast Publications: 69. ...[P]erhaps Saint Laurent in this turbanned, wedgie'd, knee-length, bright-feathered Carmen Miranda parody of the 40's is having a laugh at us...
  49. ^ Vreeland, Diana, ed. (1 March 1971). "Vogue's Own Boutique". Vogue. 157 (5). New York, NY, USA: The Condé Nast Publications: 152. Leather wedgies in polished leather....Yves Saint Laurent...
  50. ^ "Paris Report: Last Winter's Wardrobe Need Not Go to Thrift Shop – Yet". The New York Times. 24 April 1971. p. 34. Retrieved 24 August 2024. This year's...Forties...peaked shoulders, platform soles, box pleated dresses, tight black satin and wildly dyed chunky fur jackets turn up in collection after collection...
  51. ^ Vreeland, Diana, ed. (1 March 1971). "Vogue's Own Boutique". Vogue. 157 (5). New York, NY, USA: The Condé Nast Publications: 152. Carmen Miranda clogs – lots of them.
  52. ^ Vreeland, Diana, ed. (15 October 1970). "Men in Vogue". Vogue. Vol. 156, no. 7. New York, NY, USA. p. 43. Suddenly, the shoes to have are big...Men feel bigger shoes are right with wider-bottomed trousers. Colours and patterns go to the feet, too: shoes in mixes of greys, greens, reds....Black patent, cork sole.
  53. ^ Livingston, Kathryn Zahony (1973). "Fashion". World Book Year Book 1973: A Review of the Events of 1972. Chicago, Illinois, USA: Field Enterprises Educational Corporation. p. 338. ISBN 0-7166-0473-6. Fashion went to men's feet in 1972 as shoes with wild colors, thick platforms, and 3-inch heels became popular with young and old alike.
  54. ^ Costin, Stanley H. "Fashion and Dress". 1974 Britannica Book of the Year: Events of 1973. New York, New York, USA: Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc. p. 313. ISBN 0-85229-294-5. Thick soles and high heels, bold eyelets, and speckled laces were the choice of the younger man.
  55. ^ "Platform Shoes Assailed as Hazardous by Doctor". The New York Times. 18 August 1972. p. 10. 'Although the new styles provide a greater stability than the spindly spike heels of yesteryear, platforms increase the chances of a fall because of the lack of ankle support and because people are not used to the "bucket-on-each-foot" feeling that comes from wearing them,' [the vice president of the American Podiatry Association] said.
  56. ^ Crenshaw, Mary Ann (23 August 1972). "Doctors Predict a Broken Foot". The New York Times. p. 36. There's a new fashion malady afoot these days: the broken-bone syndrome. It's...a direct result of those stilt-like platform shoes that are teetering all over the sidewalks...
  57. ^ Livingston, Kathryn Zahony. "Fashion". The 1973 World Book Year Book: A Review of the Events of 1972. Field Enterprises Educational Corporation. p. 339. ISBN 0-7166-0-473-6. Clogs, wedgies, cork-soled platforms, and chunky, high heels continued to alarm podiatrists.
  58. ^ Gold, Gerald (23 February 1974). "Podiatrists Urged to Act on Faulty Shoe Designs". The New York Times. p. 34. The Podiatry Society of the State of New York paid [consumer advocate] Ralph Nader to be its guest speaker...at its annual conference...Nader...assailed...the 'ultimate idiocy' of platform shoes...
  59. ^ Sweetinburgh, Thelma. "Fashion and Dress". 1974 Britannica Book of the Year: Events of 1973. New York, New York, USA: Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc. p. 311. ISBN 0-85229-294-5. Soles were thicker than ever, allowing only a hasty shuffle when it came to street crossing and often landing the unfortunate wearer in the hospital with a sprained or broken ankle.
  60. ^ Crenshaw, Mary Ann (23 August 1972). "Doctors Predict a Broken Foot". The New York Times. p. 36. ...[O]ne of the prime promoters of the platform shoe has given them up. Norma Kamali, owner of the avant-garde Kamali boutique..., maintains that by autumn the platform shoe will be passé. She has ordered all her fall shoes with just plain soles.
  61. ^ Crenshaw, Mary Ann (30 June 1974). "Fashion". The New York Times. p. 34. Retrieved 8 March 2022. Sling‐back espadrille in navy canvas has open toe, platform sole....An acid green espadrille is set on a high, high sole, has leather ties.
  62. ^ Jones, Stacy V. (12 July 1975). "Laboratory Method is Utilized to Test Tires". The New York Times. p. 31. Retrieved 3 March 2022. Famolare, Inc., is manufacturing 150,000 pairs a month of its Get There shoes. The shoe has a sole trademarked Wave,...a positive shock‐absorbing heel that propels the walker and creates a fluidity of rolling motion. The wavy bottoms have attracted considerable attention in the shoe trade....The sole...has four waves, one under the heel, another under the toe, and two in between.
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  66. ^ "Footwear". Archived from the original on 29 August 2010. Retrieved 16 March 2008. Picture of a classic 1970s men's platform shoe for going out dancing at a disco from an Internet wardrobe costume rental site.
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  68. ^ Hobbs, Julia. "David Bowie: Our Style Hero". Archived from the original on 17 April 2018. Retrieved 17 April 2018.
  69. ^ Mirabella, Grace, ed. (1 July 1979). "Fall '79 Temptations!". Vogue. Vol. 169, no. 7. New York, NY, USA: The Conde Nast Publications. p. 122. A pump again! For day, for night, for everything. Part of the whole move to trim clothes, tailored lines. With a more refined shape...never-before colors...
  70. ^ Hyde, Nina S. (30 December 1978). "The Top of the (Bottom) Line". The Washington Post. Retrieved 10 February 2022. [S]tatus jeans, with a designer label prominent on the rear pocket, are strictly an invention of 1978. And a hot sales ticket as well.
  71. ^ Madden, Kathleen (1 January 1979). "Fashion". Vogue. Vol. 169, no. 1. New York, NY, USA: The Condé Nast Publications. p. 30. Looking through the sales racks, this month [January, 1979], you get a pretty fair picture of what fall [1978] clothes sold and what didn't....Across-the-board, there was one standout favorite with American women. Designer jeans.
  72. ^ Hyde, Nina S. (8 October 1978). "Fashion Notes". The Washington Post. Retrieved 3 March 2022. [T]he hottest single seller to step out in a long time is the Candie, a cha-cha heel on a plastic sole held in place only by a wide leather vamp. Shoe Scene has sold 3,200 pairs in two stores; the maker, El Greco, has sold 2 million pairs in three months....[Girls] wear them with their jeans...They are sexy and...they are comfortable. Because of the molded sole the heel isn't as high as it looks.
  73. ^ Hendelson, Marion (1981). "Fashion". Funk & Wagnalls New Encyclopedia Yearbook 1981: Events of 1980. New York: Funk & Wagnalls, Inc. p. 172. ISBN 0834300362. By late spring [1980], the jazz shoe, a flat-heeled laced shoe, was introduced and well accepted.
  74. ^ Mirabella, Grace, ed. (1 December 1985). "Vogue's Last Word". Vogue. 175 (12). New York, NY, USA: The Condé Nast Publications: 358. ...[H]eeled pumps...are the finishing element for everything...[H]eeled pumps provide a lift, a 'dressed' edge.
  75. ^ Als, Hilton (23 March 1998). "Life as a Look". The New Yorker. Retrieved 4 January 2026. ...[I]n 1983,...Bowery began to create...the 'Paki from Outer Space' look. This look included platform shoes, painted silver or bronze...Michael Clark...wore...silver platform shoes...
  76. ^ Roy, Sanjoy (27 August 2009). "Step-by-Step Guide to Dance: Michael Clark". The Guardian. There were outlandish costumes by designers BodyMap and Trojan....and underground icon Leigh Bowery...in 10-inch [platform] heels....Michael Clark...danced...in platform shoes.
  77. ^ Mirabella, Grace, ed. (1 December 1987). "Vogue's View – London: Shorter and Sweeter". Vogue. 177 (12). New York, NY, USA: The Condé Nast Publications: 248. ...Vivienne Westwood rekindled...platform shoes...
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