Everything You Need to Know About Platform Shoes

Look no further than a pair of platform shoes for an uplifting experience.  Whether you want to get above it all, or stand apart from the crowd, or stay at a distance from something, this footwear will do the trick. Across the globe, various types of platforms, including Medieval patens, Japanese getas, Venetian chopines, and Middle Eastern kabkabs, were historically used to protect the body—and hems—from dirt. 

They reappear in modern Western fashion history, making the leap from beach to street in the 1930s. With war on the horizon and materials rationed, cork and wood were used instead of leather on raised soles. Their relative clunkiness balanced the broad-shouldered silhouette that was popular at the time; in the 1970s, platforms would give flared-hem pants just the lift they needed to swing freely. Subcultures adopted the platform in the ’90s and ’00s as a form of defiance. Many high fashion houses, including Prada and Alexander McQueen, Balenciaga and Marc Jacobs, have used this footwear style as a platform to challenge conventional taste through the category of the “ugly” shoe, while others, like Valentino and Versace, use platforms more straightforwardly to high the high notes.

Watch the video to learn everything you need to know about platform shoes.

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