Bet You Didn’t Know This About Your High Heels

Since we’re pretty deep into this athleisure era, it’s hard to remember a time when we didn’t wear sneakers with everything. Luckily, Glamour is here to show us the virtues of fancier footwear. With its “100 Years of Heels” video, the magazine walks us down a century's worth of fun facts about our less-than-sensible shoes. (Although, after learning that they might not be the villains of our closets after all, we're starting to look at our heels with a little more affection nowadays.) The history of high heels is much longer — and very fascinating — but this short specifically looks at footwear trends from the 1920s to today. We're reminded that back in the 1930s, brown and burgundy heels were actually the It shoes to beat and how the leather shortages of the 1940s led to the rise of sensible oxford pumps. Then, there's the celebrity-fueled whispers that still exist in fashion history — legend has it, Marilyn Monroe used to shave down one heel to create her distinct gait. Oh, and you can thank Audrey Hepburn for making kitten heels a thing: Not only were they considered "a classy alternative to stilettos," but this silhouette was originally meant as a sort of training heel for teens. (Nowadays, the style is more often categorized under the "grandma shoe" trend.) From the unisex platforms of the '70s to how the Spice Girls' influence is still felt in your wardrobe today (you probably already knew that) and even how shoe trends were influenced by gender perception and sexuality, Glamour's retrospective is making us look at our kicks a little differently. Watch the evolution of heels, below.