Modern women wear high heels for beauty, and ancient women too?

Mondo Fashionable Updated on 2024-03-01

Modern heels.

For women,High heels are a sign of growing up。Often when a girl becomes an adult, the girl's parents will give them a pair of high heels that represent growth as a gift. There was once a "high heels incident" called by the Internet, a girl began to wear high heels when she was 16 years old, and when she was 31 years old, her feet were deformed because of this, and she could only walk on crutches since then. But,Why do many women insist on wearing high heels when they are aware of the dangers of high heels?

We've found it for heelsIt is more important to have a sense of experience of "shining under the feet"., and our country as early as 2,200 years agoIn the Zhou Dynasty, women had already begun to wear a kind of shoes with round toes and high soles, which is what we call it"Ancient high heels".。We can find through some documents of the time that the high heels of that period were so high that people in that period looked like they were climbing the stairs before they even lifted their feet. Nowadays, women have no way to refuse high heels in order to make their body proportions look better, so why did ancient women have a preference for high heels that are not very comfortable to wear?

I think high heels are an irreplaceable part of fashionable women's clothing, and they are a huge ** that women can't refuse in their lives, so what kind of evolution did high heels have in ancient times?

Back to the Paleolithic period 500,000 years agoOur ancestors, that isThe "Pekingese" made some simple sharp stone tools for cutting animal skinsIf you want to use animal skins, you must use simple stone tools, which use stone tools to cut the fur into small pieces to wrap your feet, and then cut some fur into strips of skin, so as to complete the binding of the fur and feet, which we can now determineOne of the earliest leather shoes - "foot-wrapping leather shoes".。With the advancement of people's understanding of nature and the improvement of technical ability, they began to use grass, that is, plant leaves and stems, to make straw shoes, and then we generally believe that animal skins and grass stems are the two oldest materials used to make shoes.

Stone Age. It's hereDuring the Yin Shang period, this periodThe silk textile industry has developed relatively largelyIn other words, many exquisite patterns can be woven on silk fabrics during this period, so that silk fabrics began to be used to make a kind of silk fabric in this periodColorful "satin shoes". It is not difficult for us to spot shoes from this periodWhether it is in the materials, decorations, patterns, etc., it has been made very carefully and for its patterns, color, etc., have a strict hierarchy. For example, we can find that in the Shang and Zhou dynasties, there was a type of shoe with a double sole called "舄" (xi).

This type of shoe is double-layeredThe upper layer is made of leather and kudzu, while the lower layer is made of woodThis kind of shoes is generally worn on occasions such as sacrifices and court meetings, and can be worn by both men and women. It is generally worn by queens or princes, and its color will generally match the color of their crown clothes. In the period of the Northern and Southern Dynasties, it used to become a double-layer leather that was usedIn the Sui Dynasty, it became the original exampleAfter that, this habit was followed, and it was changed to boots during the Qing Dynasty, and this kind of shoes withdrew from the stage of history.

Later, in the Qin and Han dynasties, there were enough leather resources, which made wearing leather shoes a powerful expression of simplicity of life. Qin Dynasty periodThe creation of some dress codes had a great impact on the Han Dynasty during this periodMen's and women's shoes are beginning to make a clear distinctionIn order to show masculinity, men generally choose to wear square-toed shoes; In order to show gentleness, roundness and obedience, women generally choose to wear round-toed shoes.

Han Dynasty periodAt that time, the development of productivity and textile technology made it possible to make both the technology of making shoes and the style of shoesto a great development, which is a good way to promote the progress of shoe culture. It is not difficult for us to find that during the Han Dynasty, the shape of shoes has changed a lot, for example, we can find that the shape of this period is very concise, in line with the shape of the foot, so as to achieve humanized design; Shoes have changed in color and pattern, and the materials used to make them have become wider.

Han shoes. Sui and Tang dynastiesIt was a period of important national development, the Tang Dynasty was even the most powerful country in the world at that time, and the development of clothing culture in this period reached a peak. The costumes and footwear of this period not only maintained the excellent characteristics of the previous period, but also incorporated the excellent designs of other places, and women would wear long trousers and boots on the lower bodyBoots are usually pointed-toe boots made of colored leather or brocadeJewels will be set on the boots.

This period also appeared with the characteristics of this eraHexagram boots,Later, the long boots were changed to short boots, and felt was added. The shape of women's shoes, with a crested front of them. The towering heads of Tang Dynasty shoes often protrude from two sharp corners, like split ends, and can be worn by both men and women, also known as is"Divergent shoes".。Other shoes, with a high toe, a flat toe and a rounded toe; In the pattern, there are embroidered tiger head patterns, and there are shoe bodies decorated with brocade and so on.

Looking back at the development of ancient shoes, we can find that the Sui and Tang dynasties were a primary stage of shoes, and by the Tang Dynasty, the production of shoes had changed from the previous family self-sufficiency to a commoditized market. This also made high heels develop during this period, and later women were fond of this kind of "superior" shoes, in order to cater to the needs of consumers, so that for a time "high heels" began to sweep the society.

"Divergent shoes".We can find that clogs are the prototype of the birth of high heels in ChinaAnd as early as the Spring and Autumn Period, the earliest clogs and high heels appeared。According to historical records, Duke Wen of Jin repeatedly asked the hero Jie Zi, who lived in seclusion on Mianshan, to push out Shi Bu, so he wanted to use the method of burning the mountain and burning wood to force him out. However, Jie Zitui hugged a large tree and was burned to death. Jin Wengong was very sad, so he made a pair of clogs out of the wood of the tree, wore them every day, and often sighed "sad husband, foot". In order to express the nostalgia for Jie Zitui, it was later imitated by the people, thus becoming a habit.

We found a pair afterwardAncient shoes from the Spring and Autumn periodIt is a pair of two-toothed clogsIt had a basic prototype of what we now call a pair of high heelsAt that time, the teeth that could be trampled in the clogs were designed to be light to walk and to prevent moisture and slip on rainy days. Because, in ancient China, high heels were made of wood, so we called themClogs. And because in the past, high heels would be called teeth, so clogs are also called clogs.

During the Warring States period, there was a kind of Hushoe platform shoes, which was a reform of clogsTo a certain extent, it was adapted to the needs of the warTo a certain extent, this made the "shoes" unique to the northern nomads that could not only be easily ridden on horseback, but also walked in the mud and cold, "boots" began to replace the tubeless shoes. This is the most successful shoe reform event in the history of the Chinese nation. It is not difficult for us to find among the ethnic minoritiesKnights of nomadic tribes in order to facilitate their riding, which is generally chosenWear shoes with a longer and higher heel that does not easily slip off the horseIn other words, the height of the heel made it convenient to ride to a certain extent, which made this kind of shoe well developed during the Warring States period.

Clogs. During the Han Dynasty, there was a kind of "high bottom", which refers to adding a layer of wood under the shoes of a single flat bottom, that is to say, likeAdd a layer of soles to the soles。This is a humane change, because we can find that these shoes are generally worn by people during court meetings and sacrifices, and generally such activities have a very cumbersome procedure that makes the participants have to stand for a long timeAnd after a long time, the soles of the shoes will be soaked with mud and waterSome wooden bottoms can avoid this phenomenon.

During the Tang Dynasty, the culture was openThe eclecticism has also made it a great development in foot accessoriesWe can find that the heel of the Tang Dynasty period is clearly prominent, and the height of the heel part is significantly higher than the thickness of the sole of the front part. The shape of the heel has also undergone various changesAnd it penetrated into the small foot culture of Chinese women later, presenting the unique "high-heeled pointed golden lotus shoes" in ChinaDuring this period, it was no longer just about practicality, but began to take women's pursuit of beauty.

We all know that China is actually a country with deep-rooted traditional concepts, which makes it impossible for many older women in ancient times to fully accept the new thing of "high heels", and most of them have a disagreeing idea. But this did not stop more ancient women from scrambling to start pursuing high heelsEven in a closed world, he has not given up the infinite pursuit of beauty.

High scarf. We can find that high heels in the Tang Dynasty, it has been obvious that the use of high heels in this period has gradually diluted the use of high heelsThe princesses of the court wore high heels mainly for the sake of aestheticsOf course, this also satisfies an aesthetic concept of the society to a certain extent. In the Tang Dynasty after the Five Dynasties, the appearance of small-footed high-heeled shoes with Chinese characteristics "high-heeled golden lotus shoes" is also mostly based on beauty as the most basic feature, which makes itThe culture of high heels and small feet has been largely integratedTo a large extent, its aesthetic satisfies the taste of some oriental women. Until the Qing Dynasty, women began to wear high platform shoes without foot binding, but during this period, people still chose to bind their feet many times.

China generally has regulations on clothing, for example, the Han Dynasty favored the system of clothing and court dressSo that the crown and shoes have their own rank and order。This also means that there are strict rules on the wearing of shoes, for example, women must wear clogs when they get married, and they must be painted on the clogs and tied with colorful ribbons. By the time of the Song Dynasty, it had followed the previous system at the beginning, and would wear boots at court meetings, but later changed to shoes. The folk women of this period will still regard the three-inch golden lotus as a custom, and the high-heeled foot-wrapping shoes that appear at this time will generally have a certain height. The shoes of the national costumes introduced during the Qing Dynasty generally followed the old practices of the Ming Dynasty.

Women during the Qing Dynasty liked to wear clogsAmong them, the aristocratic women of Manchuria generally wear wooden high-heeled shoes, so many people generally call this kind of shoes "flag shoes", which is roughly the "flower pot bottom" and "horseshoe shape" that we see in the Qing court TV series.

Qing Dynasty clognut heels.

It's not hard for us to find outSince the Zhou Dynasty, many feudal rulers have established a relatively complete system for clothing and footwear. During this period, clothing and footwear became an important symbol of rank and a symbol of imperial power, among which we can see that the emperor and empress had strict rules on dressThis situation reached a peak during the Qing Dynasty。With the discovery of the times, high heels gradually began to represent women's pursuit of beauty in a relatively culturally closed society from the Tang Dynasty.

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