Has the coronavirus had the skin of high heels?

• But where have the heels gone?

  For several years, the high shoe has been gradually disappearing from wardrobes, in favor of very flat soles.

• Sales of heels have been declining for more than a decade, while the sneaker is gradually becoming a must-have for both women's and men's feet.

• The evolution of fashion towards more comfort seems to bury the heel, but beware, the latter has more than one trick in its centimeters.

Did the coronavirus have the skin of the heels like it had that of the bra?

Since the health crisis, women's feet seem to have left the peaks to return to more down to earth shoes.

In 2020, sales of high heels plummeted by 45% according to the NPD Group, an American market research company.

In question in particular: the rise of telework.

“Heels are really the world before, confirms Laura, working in an insurance firm in Metz.

When you work from home, he has no interest in hurting his feet.

At work, we are less formal than before.

If men don't wear ties anymore, why would we still wear heels?

»

In a study conducted in 2021 by the specialized firm IWG, 59% of respondents said that the days of formal outfits were over at work, and 64% of employees today want to opt for comfortable clothes in the office.

"The coronavirus has seen the definitive victory of comfort and practicality over pure aesthetics," says Sophie Malagola, fashion designer and former director of collections at DIM and Etam.

Very clearly, the era is more Birkenstock than Louboutin.

The advent of the sneaker

But in reality, the decline of stilettos does not date from confinement.

According to the French shoe federation, in 2019, the sale of heels was already down 5% worldwide, overtaken by the advent of sneakers.

Between 2010 and 2020, the famous basketball nibbled away 4% of the market share of the shoe world each year.

"A pair of sneakers remains a fashion accessory today, unlike the sneakers of 15 or 20 years ago," says Sophie Malagola.

Especially since fashion is increasingly non-gendered.

“There is now a porosity between the men's and women's collections”.

No more shackles by gender: derby, moccasin or ankle boots can now be worn by everyone.

If for certain products, “to try them is to adopt them”, shoes with heels reason with the opposite logic: to abandon them is to abandon them.

"By dint of getting used to wearing flat or ultra-comfortable shoes, it becomes more and more complicated to return to heels", notes Sophie Malagola.

An observation shared by Leslie, a 32-year-old Parisian and school principal: “Heels are like the metro.

I stopped taking public transport during confinement and physically I can no longer take it back.

She now does everything by bike… and flat.

It was also the symbolism of the heel in the 18th century, notes Yvane Jacob, fashion historian and author of

(2019, Robert lafont): “The men of the aristocracy wore them, precisely because you can't walk too much in them.

It showed that they didn't have to work.

»

Incompatibility with the urban lifestyle

Since the end of confinement, so-called "soft" forms of mobility - cycling, scooters - have experienced unprecedented growth.

And the impractical side of heels does not plead in their favor.

"It is unsuited to current lifestyles," says Sophie Malagola.

Today, a woman has to run behind the bus, take the stairs, walk a lot in town.

We no longer take the car to go out right in front of work, the ultra-urban lifestyle changes things.

»

A societal evolution nuanced by Yvane Jacob: the metro, for example, has existed since the beginning of the 20th century, and women did not wait for the third millennium to run after it or walk in the streets.

But "the history of clothing shows a global evolution towards more comfort and practicality, especially for women", supports the historian.

In 1949, Simone de Beauvoir in

also wrote about clothes and women: “One does not seek to serve one's projects, but on the contrary, to hinder them.

The skirt is less comfortable than the pants, the high-heeled shoes hinder the gait”.

Feminism and reappropriation

70 years later, Japanese women launched the hashtag #KuToo - a portmanteau between "kutsu" (shoe), "kutsuu" (pain) and #metoo - to denounce the obligation to wear pumps at work.

No longer suffering while balancing on 12 centimeter needles, new feminist emancipation?

"The heel can very well be worn by women, as long as it is a choice and not an obligation or an incentive for men", nuance Yvane Jacob.

And be careful not to bury the high shoe too much.

If it has almost disappeared during the day, “it is still very popular for evening wear, it denotes even more than before and therefore allows a better effect”, indicates Sophie Malagola.

The codes have changed, the heel adapts.

Culture

Dancers in heels, mystery and competition… Behind the scenes of the Crazy Horse cabaret auditions in Nice

Books

"Killers in stilettos": Alain and Jean-Paul Boucheron clash in the middle of the rural thriller

• Economy

• Shoe

• Clothes

• Design

• Women

• Consumption