You are here: Home. News. Articles.

People and Shoes

Articles

People and Shoes

Material mix, animal skin prints and platforms – not one but three key trends in one shoe. Photo: Voltan

Colour blocking is the way forward. Both for clothing and footwear. Photo: Via Uno

In the 1960s lasts became more tapered. Photo: Peter Kaiser

The term pumps means “dancing shoes”. This historic Peter Kaiser style shows why. Photo: Peter Kaiser

When fashions were still more choked up, pump necks were also higher. Photo: Peter Kaiser

In the 20s skirts became shorter and shoes more visible and, as a result, also more elaborate. Photo: Peter Kaiser

The lower the neck, the more attractive the shoe. Photo: Peter Kaiser

Feminine and elegant. Pumps are perfect shoes for women – and have been so for centuries. Photo: Peter Kaiser

High heels, sandals, wing tips. Time and again specific footwear styles are declared indispensable trends and absolute must-haves for fashion outfits. But where do they come from? What is their history? We regularly cover the most exciting shoe (hi-)stories here like that of pumps, for instance.

Pumps always feature heels. And heels were already known in Medieval Ages. Like stilts they were designed to cross streets covered in mud, faeces and dirt. As a rule, today’s pump wearers don’t have to deal with any of this anymore but – instead – with a multitude of lasts, shapes and versions that turn an everyday shoe into a perfectly shaped style. Because (fancy) elegance and drama are often only millimetres apart here.
The heel as we know it today first appeared in the 17th century. Initially only for men but later eventually also for women. Pumps or court shoes were born. These are shoes for all sorts of occasions, indispensible in any range and ones that every woman owns at least one pair of. Be they with rounded, pointed or square toe caps; open, low-neck, with or without straps and sporting lace-up details.

Heels make you look taller and emphasise the upper body – an effect that appealed to both women and men in the 17th century. Decorated, adorned, embroidered – lavishly. Around 1750, when the French took to the barricades to rebel against the ruling classes, the days of decoration and appliqués were over. Shoes became simpler and more functional. The age of enlightenment began – also for footwear. Industrialisation also started revolutionising shoe production and pricing: from about 1830 mass production appeared for the first time with the invention of the sewing machine - giving rise to a shoe industry able to produce faster and more cheaply than ever before. Despite today's enormous competition from such countries as China and Vietnam Germany still boasts 45 manufacturing operations. Counting the smaller workshop-type operations with fewer than 50 employees the total number is even as high as 80 according to HDS, the German industry confederation. In 2010 over 10,800 people were employed in shoe manufacturing in Germany producing a total of 30 million pairs.

But back to the 19th century. Politics and an altered social order, industry and industrial fabrication went hand in hand with a change in gender roles: Men worked and needed practical clothing while women stayed at home wearing more feminine, elaborate and, hence, less practical shoes. The early 20th century saw the arrival of ready-to-wear apparel, diversity and choice; and a rising degree of fashion – especially when in the 1920s skirts became shorter and shoes more visible. Shoemakers started designing styles in woven fabrics, gold and silver-coloured leather, pearl embroidery and feather appliqués. In the 1930s pumps were THE most important styles of the times. Shortly before the war the first styles with platform soles and wedge heels were in evidence. World War II, however, put a hold on cultural and fashion life; shoes were reduced to the initial functions. It all went very quickly from there.
The upswing arrived. Fashion journals stimulated demand and fashion shows impacted shoe design. In the 60s slim-fit skirt suits and twin sets dominated the look – needless to say, combined with pumps. In the 70s styles with platforms and glitter became the choice styles for disco-goers – also men. Today peeptoes are a coveted version of footwear that provides a glimpse of the wearer’s toes. And the term itself: pumps? It means dancing shoes and only obtained its current meaning in the early 20th century. The actual etymology is unclear though. Only one thing is for sure: The decline of skirts and the casualisation of our outfits in general have stolen market share from this footwear style – and yet there is no other shoe that makes women look more beautiful.

Text: Julia Mönnich
Photos: Peter Kaiser, Via Uno, Bullboxer, Voltan

To the History of Sandals

>To the History of Men's Shoes