Stiletto heel

A stiletto heel is a long, thin, high heel found on some boots and shoes, usually for women.

It is named after the stiletto dagger, the phrase being first recorded in the early 1930s. Stiletto heels may vary in length from 2.5 centimetres (1 inch) to 25 cm (10 inches) or more if a platform sole is used, and are sometimes defined as having a diameter at the ground of less than 1 cm (slightly less than half an inch). Stiletto-style heels 5 cm (2.0 in) or shorter are called kitten heels.

Not all high slim heels merit the description stiletto. The extremely slender original Italian-style stiletto heels of the late 1950s and very early 1960s were no more than 5 mm (0.20 in) in diameter for much of their length, although the heel sometimes flared out a little at the top-piece (tip). After their demise in the mid-late 1960s, such slender heels were difficult to find until recently due to changes in the way heels were mass-produced. A real stiletto heel has a stem of solid steel or alloy. The more usual method of mass-producing high shoe heels, i.e. moulded plastic with an internal metal tube for reinforcement, does not achieve the true stiletto shape.

Relatively thin high heels were certainly around in the late 19th century, as numerous fetish drawings attest. Firm photographic evidence exists in the form of photographs of Parisian singer Mistinguett from the 1940s. These shoes were designed by Andre Perugia, who began designing shoes in 1906. It seems unlikely that he invented the stiletto, but he is probably the first firmly-documented designer of the high, slim heel. The word stiletto is derived from stiletto, which is a long, thin blade, similar in profile to the heel of the shoe. Its usage in footwear first appeared in print in the New Statesman magazine in 1959: "She came ...forward, her walk made lopsided by the absence of one heel of the stilettos".

High-heel shoes were worn by men and women courtiers. The stiletto heel came with the advent of technology using a supporting metal shaft or stem embedded into the heel, instead of wood or other, weaker materials that required a wide heel. This revival of the opulent heel style can be attributed to the designer Roger Vivier and such designs became very popular in the 1950s.

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