Dress Codes: Why did men stop wearing heels?

Editor’s Note: Examining clothes through the ages, Dress Codes investigates how the rules of fashion have influenced different cultural arenas — and your closet. By the 1970s and ‘80s, despite glam rock’s best attempts to normalize towering heels on stage, men who wanted to add height often did so in secret, with inserts concealed in their dress shoes. Daniele Venturelli/Getty Images Yet, in a world where taller height is still generally considered as an attractive feature, causing some men to embellish their height on dating apps or — on the more extreme end — undergo painful leg-lengthening surgeries, it begs the question: Why aren’t heels more widely embraced by all genders? “The high heel becomes a tool within women’s fashion to lift the bulk of women’s feet up and under their skirts to make their feet look as small as possible, and the placement of the heel is very pushed forward, allowing them to leave very small footprints behind.” Once leather-covered heels disappeared from men’s fashion, they didn’t return. Heels may be a more elegant solution, but the taboo remains — despite the fact that many heeled styles seen as daring on men aren’t actually feminine at all, Semmelhack noted.