Every woman must have at least one pair of high-heel shoes in her closet. This is the rule of fashion and femininity. Did you know, though, that the high heel is believe dot have been invented not as a source of pains and misfortune nor as a torturing device for women but as a utility that helps people reach higher and ride their horses easier?
People believe that the first high heels were present as far back in time as 3500 B.C. when in Ancient Egypt the higher classes wore those, both males and females by the way, probably during ceremonies and other important events. In Turkey during the 15th century people started wearing the platform shoes or at least something like them to keep their feet off the dirty ground. Accessorising of the large pieces of footwear came soon enough.
It took westerners a whole century after this to put high heels and not just platforms to use. The real such shoe was used, again by both genders, as a source of stability while riding because otherwise shoes kept on slipping off the stirrups.
Usefulness, however, was forgotten when the incredibly innovative Catherine de Medici decided to use them as a source of beauty and elegance and finally set the heel as an item of fashion and not hard work.