Perfect Platforms

Gwen Stefani in 7in-high fetish shoes at the MTV Europe awards in Rome last month. Picture / Reuters

This was the year when it became unfashionable to be skinny. Obviously, we're talking about heels here: wedges, platforms and chunky, clumpy shoes came stomping on to the fashion scene in 2004, rendering the pencil-thin stiletto sandal decidedly passe. It's a trend that has built up gradually, over several seasons, and one that looks set to continue into next spring, so if you haven't already discovered - or, more likely, rediscovered - the joys of a thick-set heel, it's not too late to start.

Of course, the chunkier shoe endows its wearer with extreme height, as demonstrated most recently by Gwen Stefani, who tottered for the cameras in 7in-high fetish shoes at the MTV Europe awards in Rome last month. Extremity always captivates fashion designers. Vertiginous wedge sandals are virtually a permanent fixture at Miu Miu, Mrs Prada being a self-confessed fan of "ugly" shoes; this autumn, she gave them a frankly bonkers makeover in tweeds and the kind of patterns usually found on pub carpets.

Over at Sonia Rykiel - also known for her cartoonish shoe designs - platform slingbacks are, this season, ludicrously high and printed with dog's-tooth checks, while John Galliano goes his own sweet way (as ever) at Dior with brothel-creepers, elevated by 2in crepe soles.

For the true connoisseur of chunky shoes, however, there can only be one choice: Terry de Havilland, the east-Londoner who, in the Seventies, crafted platform shoes for therock'n'roll aristocracy (Bianca, Marianne, Patti), and who, this year, following a resurgence in sales of his vintage shoes, staged an amazing comeback. His stacked sandals are among the highest and the most ostentatious, and a pair will set you back around (pounds sterling)400 - although next year, he launches a more affordable line, called "De Havz" (after the nickname that drag queens gave to his shoes, he says).

"I'm the son of a shoemaker, and I'd seen my dad make those really high platforms, just after the war," says De Havilland, now 65. "Some years later, in about 1969, I found the old components for them in his attic, and thought, 'Can we still make these?'. And it went on from there."

Platforms were, of course, wildly popular in the Seventies, but they were also ubiquitous during and after the Second World War. De Havilland says that he recalls Carmen Miranda wearing platforms, and, indeed, many of this season's shoes - Consuelo Castiglioni's ladylike suede slingbacks for Marni, for example - are more demob than disco diva.

In more recent years, chunky shoes have regained popularity in a regular cycle, the Spice Girls' adoption of elevated trainers marking a particularly low ebb. They are lumpy, impractical and, often, downright ugly, so why do we keep on coming back to them?

"Many of the original platforms were to keep your feet out of the wet," says Sue Constable, curator of the vast shoe collection at Northampton Museum (12,000 pairs, at the last count). "But they were frivolous at the same time." According to Constable, the first references to platform shoes date back to Roman theatre, when actors wore shoes raised on stilts, "to give them extra height on stage". In the 16th century, there was a fashion among Venetian courtesans for mules perched on 7in pillars. And although the Japanese "gater" shoe, elevated on two wooden pegs, is famous, countries as diverse as Nigeria, Turkey, Spain and China have all produced their own versions of the platform.

At numerous different times and places, then, platforms and chunky shoes have been a boon for show-offs. "They put you up on a stage, don't they?" says De Havilland. "They can be very flattering, even for bigger feet, so long as they're in proportion."

Aside from adding height, chunky shoes have a refining effect on ankles, and can lend an endearing gait. It is undeniable, however, that the more pixie-like and petite the wearer, the more charming the effect. The taller among us probably have to accept that lurching around in size 8, 7in-high platform shoes isn't exactly charming, unless, of course, you weren't born a woman.

"I must know more drag queens than anybody else in England - they all used to come to me for their shoes," claims De Havilland. "Only the glamorous ones, mind you."

But how safe are clumpy shoes? Surely, Naomi Campbell didn't take that famous fall - from Westwood's "super-elevated" ghillies, revived this season - for nothing? "They were lethal," agrees Constable. "But with a wedge shoe, your weight would be well distributed." De Havilland is unrepentant for any accidents his show-stopping shoes might have caused. "I should think a few people have twisted their ankles over the years in them!" he says, with a gravelly laugh. "They are made to dance in, and we do our best to get the balance right. But, my God, they are bit vertiginous."

The veteran shoemaker recalls a BBC interview in which Sue Lawley tackled him on the health risks of his platform shoes. "She asked why I made them, if they were so bad for women's feet. And I said, because they are really good for their heads, they make women feel good! And that's what's important."

- INDEPENDENT