What would a history of shoes be without mentioning Dr. Scholl's? Well, quite frankly, it would be incomplete. Dr. Scholl revolutionized the shoe industry with his unique shoe designs, which incorporated comfort and support into shoe designs that were also functional and fashionable. While nearly everyone has heard of Dr. Scholl's and his products, few people know who Dr. Scholl was and how he got started in the shoe industry.

Dr. Scholl's Biography
Dr. Scholl was born in June of 1882. His grandfather was a shoemaker, so shoes were in his blood. His entry into the shoe industry was as an apprentice to a shoe-repair craftsman. This position eventually led to a position as a shoe salesman in a shoe boutique. This job gave Scholl the opportunity to see how shoe designs of the day were negatively impacting the lives and health of his clients. This gave him the inspiration to create a line of shoes and shoe products that would be as therapeutic for his customers as they were fashionable.

After graduating from the medical program offered by the Illinois Medical College, Dr. Scholl established his own orthopedic manufacturing company. He invented and manufactured foot products that would ease the pain associated with both medical conditions and long hours spent in uncomfortable shoes.

Dr. Scholl's Shoes Are Launched
The original Dr. School's shoe line didn't launch until 1968. The original shoe and sandal designs were so popular that over a million pairs were sold in the first four years of production. One of the hottest sellers in this line was the original Dr. Scholl's Exercise Sandal. These sandals remained popular in the 1960s and 1970s, and they re-emerged as a favorite, casual shoe design in the 1990s.

Today, Dr. Scholl's shoes are still being manufactured. The rights to this shoe empire belong to the Shering-Plough HealthCare Products, Inc. However, the manufacturing license is now leased by the Brown Shoe Company. In addition to the original sandal and Dandy shoe designs, the Dr. Scholl's label is also attached to several fashionable dress and casual shoe designs including women's dress boots and men's loafers.

Pop culture fashion designers and fashion shoe designers are in high demand right now. Even when the economy seems to be taking a turn for the worse, consumers still want quality, designer footwear that makes them look fabulous. One of the most popular designers of this generation is Sergio Rossi. This designer's work has been inspiring shoe fashion trends since the 1950s, and continues to this day to be a leading designer in the United States and abroad.

Sergio Rossi - Background
Sergio Rossi is an Italian shoe designer and fashion designer who specializes in men's shoes, women's shoes and women's handbags. His lines typically have included boots, booties, flats, sandals, platforms and pumps.

Sergio Rossi began his shoe fashion training working by his father's side in Romagna back in the 1950s. Rossi's shoe design education continued when he spent a couple of years in Milan, one of the fashion capitals of the world. Once Rossi had a good understanding of how the shoe fashion world worked, he launched his own line of shoes in Bologna in 1966. This first line of designer shoes graced many shops in Bologna and helped to establish the Sergio Rossi label as a quality designer product. While the Sergio Rossi label is well-known and respected, this designer's collection is probably best known for its collaboration works in the 1970s with Gianni Versace and in the 1990s with Dolce & Gabbana.

Sergio Rossi - The Company
The first Sergio Rossi boutiques opened in the town of Ancor. However, by the 1980s, this boutique exploded and numerous chains were opened throughout the world. In 1999 the Gucci Group bought the Sergio Rossi Company and further expanded the line and boutique chain. By 2007, there were more than 40 Sergio Rossi stores located around the globe, with six in the United States alone. There are Sergio Rossi stores in New York, Costa Mesa, Bar Harbour, Waikiki, Beverly Hills and Boston. Today the Sergio Rossi label is owned by the French company PPR. All of these stores, as well as the Sergio Rossi international boutiques, carry the latest lines offered by the Sergio Rossi label include seasonal collections and bridal collections.

If you are a fan of "Sex and the City," then you have undoubtedly heard of Manolo Blahnik. Manolo Blahnik is a shoe designer who was born in the Canary Islands on November 27, 1942. He studied art and fashion in Geneva and Paris before launching his career in the fashion industry. His unique and artistic perspectives on shoe design have allowed Blahnik to make a name for his shoes in countries around the world. Today, his shoe designs are legends, and his vintage and contemporary designs still remain big sellers in the fashion capitals of the world such as New York, Paris and Tokyo.

Manolo Blahnik Gets His Start
Like most great fashion designers, Manolo Blahnik did not start out designing independently. After graduating from the University of Geneva, he spent some time in Paris studying fashion. He got a job in a little London boutique called Zapata in 1968. His position in this boutique provided him with the exposure that he needed to develop his understanding of the fashion world, which he used to write for Vogue Italia.

His entrance into the world of shoe design occurred as the result of an infamous meeting with Diana Vreeland. She took a look at his fashion portfolio and told him flat out that his forte was in shoe design. For shoe lovers the world round, this was an epiphany that lead to the development of one of the most famous shoe lines in the world.

In 1972, Blahnik was asked by Ossie Clark to design shoes for one of his fashion shows. This was the start of the Blahnik line. Shortly after this runway show, Blahnik borrowed 2,000 pounds Sterling, bought Zapata and started his own footwear boutique.

The Manolo Blahnik Shoe
The history of shoes would not be complete without mentioning the designs produced by Manolo Blahnik. His shoes are known for their unique shapes, unique ornamentation, heels and straps. Some of the most memorable shoe designs created by Blahnik include the original Blahnik shoe produced for Ossie Clark in 1972, the Cherry Shoe and the Piaggi.

I have a pair of stilettos. They make me feel sexy. They are black and shiny, and I wear them with my little black dress. Admittedly, I don't get to wear them much, but I do like to wear them. When I'm looking at them, I marvel how they make my legs look longer, and the fact that the way I have to stand in them forces my butt to tighten. The way they are made enhances sexiness by the mere act of wearing them. Good stuff.

Another thing I like about stilettos is the way they remind me of the high-class sophisticated ladies of the 1950s and 1960s black and white movies. When I wear them, I really feel like Audrey Hepburn: classy with a string of pearls and hair in a glossy up-do. And it kind of makes sense. The 1950s was the first decade to really see the popularity of the stiletto, as they came into fashion with their heels narrowing to a small point. You know, like the stiletto knife. The fact that they came on the scene when they did, is reason enough for my stilettos to conjure images of black and white glamour. (Yes, glamour - with the "ou".)

These days, though, stilettos are no longer made with the heavy metals used in the first stilettos; now they're light. Some stilettos are even made with the same kind of lightweight aluminum that is used when making fuselages for airplanes. The strength is necessary, or the spiked heel would buckle under the pressure of being worn. Even the plastic tip that used be on the end of the heel couldn't stand the pressure, and often wore off. (Back in the 50s, 60s, and 70s, many workplaces had special covers for stiletto heels. This kept the metal point from ripping the carpet and scratching the floors after the plastic tip fell off.)

Stilettos are perhaps the sexiest shoe alive. And they are certainly made to evoke images of sophistication and class. And anyone can feel good wearing them. In fact, I think I'll go put mine on now. So I can feel sexy while I made dinner.

Any true fashionista knows that high heels are not "just" high heels. There are different kinds of high heels: Pumps, stilettos, platforms. But one of the more stylish kinds of high heels are known as French heels, named after their country of origin.

Origin of French Heels

Originally, shoes sporting higher heels were introduced in order to allow ladies to walk high enough off the ground so that their skirts remained out of the mud. However, Catherine de Medici, from the rich and famous Italian family, brought a fashion of high heels to France in 1533. But it was more than 100 years after Catherine de Medici first introduced high heels as a fashion statement that French heels were developed. And they were developed to help a man get over his Napoleon complex (of course, this was before there was a Napoleon).

King Louis XIV (1638-1715) was a rather short man. In order to achieve a height he considered respectable, he wore special high heels. His shoes were made of leather dyed red and hand painted with scenes from his triumphs on the battlefield. The heels themselves were constructed of cork and also covered with red leather. Due to the king, sometimes French heels are also referred to as Louis heels. They are five inches tall and curved so that they came down from the back of the heel, inward toward the shoe, and then outward away from the shoe for a serpentine look.

Modern French Heels

Today rather than cork, many French heels are made from plastic. The upper is made of plastic, leather or fabric, while the sole is made of a hard plastic material, although some soles are now being made of more supportive and springy materials that provide better cushioning. Additionally, not all French heels are as high as Louis's. Some of them maintain the curved heel shape, but on a shorter scale.

French heels can make a great fashion statement in any circle. And they are more practical for professional and everyday use than their straighter and higher cousins in the world of high heels.

Platform shoes weren't just a ridiculous trend of the 1970s. Rather, they've been a form of style and status for centuries.

While most of us think of platform shoes as an often unfortunate fashion trend of the 1970s, the style actually has a long history and reached outrageous heights early on.

The earliest platform shoes were found in the ancient Greek theater and to a certain degree on the streets of Rome, although these never reached more than a few inches in height. Wooden platform shoes called geta emerged in 8th Century Japan and were the dominant style of footwear until Japan was opened to the West in the late 19th Century. Today geta are usually only worn with traditional and formal dress, on festival occasions or by protectors of Japanese arts such as geisha.

Arguably, platform shoes didn't become truly outrageous until Venice during the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries. There, women wore "chopines." These were high, elaborate and sturdy overshoes worn over a more delicate indoor shoe. Ostensibly, the chopines' role was to protect the indoor shoe from dirt, but their elaborate styles and expensive materials involved in the construction of chopines quickly made them more a matter of fashion and status, worn by women of every conceivable rank. That said, the highest chopines were seen amongst the wealthy and noble, with some shoes reaching as high as thirty inches.

Despite the ubiquity of these shoes in Venice, they were widely mocked throughout the rest of Europe, and unflattering references to them make appearances both in Shakespeare and British law of the time. For several centuries platform shoes are almost non-existent in the West as women's fashions were alternately driven by desires to be dainty or at least practical. While heels were worn frequently in this time period, they endeavored to be narrow and graceful.

The true resurgence of the platform shoes comes in the 1930s-1950s with platforms constructed out of cork and wood. These platforms rarely exceeded an inch or two in height and were usually discretely styled, unlike those of the 1970s that featured outrageous colors and platforms two to ten inches high. In the 1990s the platform made a brief resurgence with a lower height.

Today modest platforms echoing the styles of the 1930s-1950s continue to have some popularity especially for those with retro or rockabilly looks. They are easy to find, yet are far from ubiquitous.

While today's high heels may have gone high tech for foot comfort, the high heeled shoe has a long and varied history both as a matter of fashion and practical technology.

Like many other styles of shoes, the high heel has been in use in some form for well over a thousand years, with instances of it appearing in both ancient Egyptian and Greek art. Historically, high heels were worn by both men and women in many societies, with the emergence of the popularity of the heeled shoe in late-medieval European culture tied to equestrianism (this is also true at various points for several non-Western cultures). The heel made it easier for a man to keep his feet in the stirrups.

Heels quickly became an indicator of status. As the shoes cost more to make and were generally only worn by those who could afford to be mounted, healed shoes for men quickly became a fashion statement. Women's shoes soon followed and the term "well-heeled" to refer to refinement and socio-economic status entered the lexicon.

Historical heels hit their literal height in the reign of Louis the XIV, when they were popular for both men and women. Heel heights were high and in some cases were over four inches. Additionally heels of the baroque era were significant curved , narrowing in from where they joined the rest of the shoe and curving out again. This style is still sometimes seen today, most often in historically influenced and special occasion shoes for women. This heel style is today called the Louis heel, or, less frequently, the Pompadour heel after the famous mistress of the following king.

European heel heights plummeted for both men and women after the French revolution as people sought to avoid negative associations with excessive opulence. Men's shoes maintained a moderate heel for some time after this, but increasingly became lower to the ground with the exception of certain brief fads and shoes designed for specific purposes such as the western riding boot or dance shoes with a what is called a Cuban heel.

For women, some heel largely remained the norm even after the post-revolutionary descent, although the ballet flat dominated the early 19th century.

Because of the way a heeled shoe showcases the leg, it can be noted that men's shoes lost their heel as men's clothes became less revealing of the leg (breeches gave way to longer and fuller trousers) and women's heels gained popularity as the figure was first suggested and then revealed.

Today, high heeled shoes for women are ubiquitous, not increasingly not expected in either workplace or formal settings. Additionally, the roots of the high-heel in formal and wealthy society remain. In addition to the Louis heel, a simple, discreet women's heeled shoe known as a pump in America is frequently called a "court shoe" in Britain as its origin comes from the shoes men of note were once expected to wear to court.

Fashions in Footwear from the Renaissance Through Victorian Times:

The origins of your Weitzmans, Kork-Easesand Cavallis Fashionable cavewomen 15,000 years ago had more in common with us than you might think - sandals were their footwear of choice and they were even made of leather, just like the shoes of today.But footwear didn't really become a fashion choice until the Renaissance began in Italy in the early 15th century Yes, the best shoes in the world have been made of Italian leather for more than 700 years now!

One thing you probably wouldn't guess about those Renaissance fashion plates is that they had a little punk rock in them - slashed clothing in super bright colors was the height of fashion back then, and the trend extended to footwear. Fashionable everyday shoes of the time resembled modern day ballet flats (and you thought Kate Spade invented them!), except that they were slashed to reveal different colored fabric underneath.

Another popular shoe was the chopine, a style which first took hold among the courtesans of Venice. Chopines were the world's first platform shoes, and, just like your Donald J. Pliners, they were chosen to give the wearer added height. Chopines stayed popular through the Elizabethan/Jacobean period, up until the early 1600s, and during that time the soles were made of cork. Yup, if you invented a time machine and used it to go visit Queen Elizabeth I, you could wear your Kork-Ease to court and fit right in!

During the Restoration, which ran from around 1660 through the early 18th century, pointy-toed shoes with slender high heels akin to stilettos were the in thing. (Clinton and Stacy would approve!) Clogs were also introduced as fashionable footwear during this period - yes, they predate the 1970s.

Women wore boots back then as well, but only for horseback riding, making the Restoration the first known instance of the equestrian trend. Fashion was dominated by the French during the Rococo period (1715 to 1775), and the most recognizable fashion accessory of that time was a "Louis heel," a "waisted" heel that was splayed at the base. Shoes of this style are not that different from what we call wedges. They look quite modern and their wearers were as proud of them as we are of our Roberto Cavallis.

Believe it or not, stilettos were also worn during the Revolutionary War, though probably not by women who were running from British soldiers. Sandals were worn during this period as well, but the naked feet were covered first with silk cloth for modesty's sake. Grecian sandals appeared in the early 1800s, and they featured the same long ribbon ankle ties that we see today. In the Victorian period, boots were the most popular form of footwear, and toe styles went in and out of fashion - first rounded, then pointed, then squared with rounded corners. Elastic-sided boots first made their appearance in this era, though they probably weren't as comfortable as our Stuart Weitzmans. Side-laced boots and the high-buttoned shoes that goth girls favor were the most common street footwear, and while indoors, people wore mules without heels.

Sources: www.historyoffootwear.com