High Platform Shoes
Clothing style
Date: 1974
Source: High Platform Shoes. 1972. Corbis. Image no. HU015673. Available online at http://pro.corbis.com (accessed July 1, 2003).
Introduction
The platform shoe probably originated in China, where it was used to keep a woman's feet out of water and mud. It was introduced to Europe around the fourteenth century, when it was called a chopine, which was, in effect, an overshoe that fit over a slipper, protecting it from dirt. As the fifteenth century rolled around the chopine's function was less to protect than to look good, and at that time it came to look like the modern platform shoe, usually constructed with a cork-or wood-stacked sole covered by velvet. In Venice, the platform shoe signified wealth and social stature. After the 1600s, the shoe disappeared for centuries.
During the late 1930s, the platform...
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1970's Fashion Primary Sources
The 1970's: Primary Sources
