Beautiful Virgin Islands

Wednesday, Oct 15, 2025

Men in Heels: a Fashion History

Men in Heels: a Fashion History

From King Louis XIVs red bottoms to David Bowies platform footwear, men have a long and storied history with high heels.

For the last three centuries, high heels have been widely regarded as a women’s style. Seen everywhere from the runways to daily work attire, adding a few inches to a woman’s height is often considered the key to tying an ensemble together. However, as lovers of fashion inside and outside the industry take strides to break down the gender binary in clothing, many men have been spotted sporting the lifted shoe. By adopting footwear that has become such an iconic representation of feminine fashion, their choice is often dubbed “ground-breaking” or “gender-bending.” Funnily enough, the origination of high heels began specifically for men.



King Louis XIV.

The earliest known style of heels dates back to 10th-century Persia. Male soldiers riding horseback used heels to secure their feet in the stirrups and give them more leverage when fighting. The concept would be adopted nine centuries later by the American cowboy, but more on that later.

As the high heel came to signify power and military prowess, it also became a show of wealth, as only those with money could afford horses. This symbolism reemerges in France in the 1600s under the reign of King Louis XIV. The Master of Versailles used footwear to distinguish both class and preference. In 1670, he proclaimed that only members of the noble class could wear heels. Within this group, he only allowed his favorite courtiers to wear red (his color of choice).



James Dean in cowboy boots.

By the end of the French Revolution, however, high heels were considered too feminine and generally disregarded men in Europe. However, across the pond, as the American West began to attract new settlers, the cowboy, arguably identified and defined by his attire, was considered the epitome of masculinity and male pride. Most cowboy boots featured an inverted round heel called a Cuban heel (referencing the footwear of traditional Flamenco dancers) and were a necessity for staying upright while traveling long distances on horseback.



The Beatles



Kiss.



Despite this, heels outside the cowboy context were generally still regarded as a women’s shoe. It wasn't until the 1960s when the Beatles popularized the “Beatle Boots”-an early iteration of Chelsea boots-that the heel was reinvited into menswear. Rock-n-roll groups of the late-20th century like Aerosmith and Mötley Crue adopted similar tame styles as well, while glam rock artists like Kiss and David Bowie opted for more ostentatious versions.



David Bowie.

Unlike the low Cuban heels of '70s hair bands, Bowie and his stage persona Ziggy Stardust gravitated towards bold platforms, stilettos, or generally higher heels-all of which were, at the time, synonymous with women's fashion. While subcultures like drag queen communities and ballroom culture during this time had already normalized men wearing heels and other traditionally feminine garments, Bowie's look brought gender subversive fashion to the mainstream.



Hood by Air Fall/Winter 2016



Thom Browne Spring/Summer 2018.

In the 2010s, the return of the Chelsea boot in men's wardrobes was, once again, met was considerable attention. However, as designers continue to blend menswear and womenswear, the gendered lines around clothing and accessories have lightened in their severity. Heels higher and flashier than a simple black Chelsea boot are more common for men than in previous decades. Brands have employed them as part of their menswear collections, and they've even found their way into streetwear.

Similar to apparel, the declassification of heels as a "woman's shoe" continues to unfold as clothing becomes less tied to one's gender identity and sexuality. As men hit red carpets and magazine covers in gowns, there's no reason they shouldn't have a nice pair of heels to accompany them.

Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
EU Deploys New Biometric Entry/Exit System: What Non-EU Travelers Must Know
Australian Prime Minister’s Private Number Exposed Through AI Contact Scraper
Ex-Microsoft Engineer Confirms Famous Windows XP Key Was Leaked Corporate License, Not a Hack
China’s lesson for the US: it takes more than chips to win the AI race
Australia Faces Demographic Risk as Fertility Falls to Record Low
California County Reinstates Mask Mandate in Health Facilities as Respiratory Illness Risk Rises
Israel and Hamas Agree to First Phase of Trump-Brokered Gaza Truce, Hostages to Be Freed
French Political Turmoil Elevates Marine Le Pen as Rassemblement National Poised for Power
China Unveils Sweeping Rare Earth Export Controls to Shield ‘National Security’
The Davos Set in Decline: Why the World Economic Forum’s Power Must Be Challenged
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
×