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| Vintage Stilettos 1950's |
Who invented the Stiletto?
A. Salvatore Ferragamo
B. Roger Vivier
C. Christian Dior
D. Yves Saint Laurent
Answer: B. The contemporary stiletto was invented in the 1950s by Italian shoe designer Roger Vivier, for the house of Dior. The models back then were tame by today’s standards, with heels no higher than about 3 inches.
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| Roger Vivier Stilleto 1960-1963 |
Women have worn high-heeled shoes for hundreds of years, but the heel has never been so tall and narrow as on the stiletto heels that became popular in the early 1950s. A stiletto heel, named after a thin Italian dagger, could be as tall as four or five inches, and it narrowed to a point as small as three-eighths of an inch in diameter. The shoes forced women to stand on their tiptoes, clench their calf muscles, and thrust their chest forward for balance. The dramatic stance that the heels forced women to adopt was said to make the wearer look sexy and glamorous.
Italian designer Roger Vivier (1913–1998) invented the stiletto to accompany clothes designed by French fashion designer Christian Dior (1905–1957) in the early 1950s. The stiletto, like other fashions of the time, was not at all practical. It highlighted women's femininity, but the shoe was also a hazard to women's bodies and to the surfaces they walked on. Podiatrists, or doctors who treat the feet, warned that the shoes caused harm to the tendon, bone deformities, and back pain. The pointy heels tore carpets and scarred solid flooring; by the late 1950s airlines and some buildings had actually banned the heels.
Despite their dangers, stiletto heels remained popular throughout the late 1950s and early 1960s and staged a comeback in the 1990s. Popular 1950s actress Jayne Mansfield (1932–1967) claimed to have two hundred pairs of the heels, and actress Elizabeth Taylor (1932–) received notoriety for the scene in the movie Butterfield 8 (1960) in which she digs her stiletto heel into a man's shoe. In the film Single White Female (1992) actress Jennifer Jason Leigh's (1962–) character took the danger of the stiletto a step further when she used the steel spike of her stiletto heel to kill a man. Stiletto heels remain to some a potent symbol of female power and sexuality.
More Shoe Trivia
2.The average American woman owns how many pairs of shoes?
A. 7
B. 19
C. 26
D. 32
Answer: B But it's likely one of those pairs will never see the outside of a closet. 60 percent of women regret at least one shoe purchase and on average women have worn a quarter of their shoes only once.
3. True or False: Almost all women routinely wear shoes that are one to two sizes too small.
Answer: True 88% of women are wearing shoes that are too small for their feet. The majority of women haven't been measured for the correct shoe size in the past five years, and since shoe size often increases with weight gain and age, many women stick with a size they've outgrown.
4. What shoe size does the average American woman wear?
A. 9
B. 8
C. 7
D. 6
Answer: The average woman is a size 8 wide shoe. According to The Professional Shoe Fitting Manual, At the beginning of the 20th century, the average American woman wore a 3.5 or a 4, climbed to a 5.5 or 6 by the 1960s, and reached an 8 in the 1980s.
5. How many hours per year does the average women spend shopping for shoes?
A. 10
B. 20
C. 30
D. 40
Answer: D. Women spend 40 hours and 30 minutes shopping for shoes every year, over the course of 15 shoe shopping trips.
6. What percentage of women said they were willing to give up sex in exchange for a really great pair of shoes?
A. 5%
B. 12%
C. 22%
D. 34%
Answer: C. 22 percent would be willing to give up sex, 36 percent would give up chocolate, and 37 percent would take the shoes over a nice dinner out.
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