Horses and High Heels

Transcription

Vsauce! Kevin here. High-heeled shoes were invented by Persian horse riders to help hold their feet in stirrups, which allowed them to stand up to shoot their bows and arrows. Nobility in Western Europe adopted the style as a symbol of machismo, and the higher the heels you wore, the wealthier you appeared because they were so impractical for walking on cobbled streets. In the 1670s, the diminutive King Louis XIV loved how high heels made him taller, and he ordered that only members of his court could don his trademark red heels.  Women began to adopt masculine fashion, including the high heel, but by the 1740s men’s fashion became more practical and less ostentatious and high heels were considered foolish. It wasn’t until the mid-19th century that high heels on women symbolized female sexuality, largely due to their use in pornographic postcards. While neckties date back to at least 210 BC China - they were worn by the statues of Qin Shih Huang’s 'Terracotta Army' - there’s no evidence to suggest that neckties were commonly worn by men at that time. The modern necktie evolved from the cravat worn by 17th century Croatian soldiers, with theories on their use being to hide a dirty shirt, to provide psychological protection of the neck during battle, to hold together their jackets, or to distinguish themselves from other soldiers. During the Thirty Years War in the early 1600s, Croatian mercenaries were hired by France's King Louis XIII, and Parisians loved their colorful knotted neckerchiefs - with the word cravat coming from a corrupt French pronunciation of Croate.  By the early 19th century, the way a man knotted his neckwear became such an important indication of his style that the cravat became known more simply as a tie. And it served to separate class, as you can’t wear one while operating machinery and it gets in the way of manual labor. The necktie is also a phallic symbol that points directly to a man’s…  Codpiece - a triangular cloth covering a man’s groin, primarily worn in 15th and 16th century Europe. Men’s hose at that time were open at the crotch with a doublet, a tight-fitting jacket extending to the hips, as the only thing between the world and their manhood. As doublets became fashionably shorter, the codpiece was needed to cover the area, but it eventually evolved from simple concealment to fanciful embellishment with King Henry VIII of England famously sporting a massive codpiece. Not only did it emphasize his regal bits, but it may have also held medicine to relieve symptoms associated with syphilis. The codpiece craze came to a close when Queen Elizabeth I dictated that men’s fashion become more feminized. By the end of her reign in 1603, it was replaced by a vertical opening concealed in folds of material that evolved into something today you may refer to as a fly. And as always - thanks for watching!