The high heel shoe enjoys illustrious history

High heel shoes were invented in the 17th century by Egyptian butchers. This historical note is rather gory and would make most women that wear them cringe: the butchers wore these so that they could walk over the blood of the animals they slaughtered without getting it on their bare feet.

Many women wear them to parties or even some to the office. Heels now range from 2 inches to 8 inches high. There are platforms, stacks, wedges, and spool heels. It is accepted if a woman wears funky, fashionable, and crazy high heels even to the grocery store. A modern twist on the high heel shoe is that many of them (even the highest) can be quite comfortable as opposed to former designs. There are even athletic models. Lots of shoe styles in heels resemble clothing items; there are lace ups which take after the corset, acrylic models that look futuristic, and jewel encrusted styles that look a lot like decadent art pieces.

The styles, heights, widths, colors, straps, buckles, pumps, etc. is continously added to and revamped by shoe designers. Most modern fashion magazines not only contain numerous ads for these shoes, they also produce whole fashion spreads based on high heels shoes and their accompanying looks.