Platform shoes have today become a staple item in women’s footwear closets, in the form of boots, sandals, heels and sneakers. Their popularity can rise and fall along with the current fashion trends — especially when the reigning look calls for wide-leg pants — but the unique appeal of platforms keeps it coming back decade after decade.
Arguably, though, the biggest moment for platform shoes was the early 1970s, when the elevated footwear became hugely popular across a remarkably diverse set of young people. It bridged both racial and gender divides and crossed oceans, showing up across the globe in Europe, Australia, the U.S. and elsewhere.
The shoes were the perfect complement to the disco and glam rock music of the era, which embraced outrageous, gender-bending ensembles that demanded attention.
Below is a look back at the height of popularity of platform shoes and their enduring legacy in today’s style landscape.
The earliest platform shoes were developed for practical purposes. For instance, in Ancient Greece, they were used in plays to increase the height of certain actors and make them more prominent on stage.
During the Middle Ages, they were helpful for traversing through the muck in city streets. Italians of the time called them chopines, while in the rest of Europe they were known as pattens. The geta sandals worn in Japan offered a similar benefit.
But our first 20th century example of the shoe arrived in 1938, courtesy of designer Salvatore Ferragamo. Considered the creator of the modern platform, Ferragamo crafted the Rainbow sandal for actress Judy Garland, in reference to her beloved song “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.” The multicolored sandal was produced in kidskin leather with a layered cork sole and heel covered in suede. The original is now a museum piece, in the collection of The Costume Institute at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, though replicas in nappa and suede are available from the brand for $2,900.
After seeing moderate success in the 1940s, platform shoes roared back in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Much of the credit for its fresh popularity goes to the reigning pop music of the time — and accompanying aesthetics.
This was the era of disco. Think ABBA, Donna Summer, the Bee Gees. When men and women hit the dance floor at Studio 54 in New York City or even their local nightclub, they were often wearing bell bottoms or wide-leg pants that could drag on the ground, making taller shoes a necessity. And the benefit of platforms is that they can add height to the wearer without causing the foot to arch at an uncomfortable angle (as in the case with stilettos heels). So those Dancing Queens could go all night without pain.
Meanwhile, across the pond, in the U.K., glam rock was similarly sweeping the nation with its even more outrageous outfits. Artists like David Bowie, KISS and Elton John all adopted platform shoes as part of their over-the-top, on-stage personas — and fans wanted them off stage as well.
The year 1970 also marked the debut of “Soul Train,” a TV series that helped popularize the music and fashion of the Black community among mainstream audiences.
In a 2023 CNN feature about “Soul Train,” radio broadcaster and music industry veteran Dyana Williams explained its impact. “The fashion was fly,” she said. “It was a combination of kind of boho hippie meets Black nationalism. … ‘Soul Train’ set a tone for young people at that time to wear their hair natural, to wear vests, the platform shoes, the bell bottoms, the long maxi dresses. So our fashion taste, the cultivation clearly came from ‘Soul Train’ and then the rest of the media that we saw.”
And on the big screen, movies like “Saturday Night Fever” and blaxploitation films such as “Shaft” and “Foxy Brown” further fueled the platform shoe trend among diverse audiences.
Today, platform shoes are made primarily for women. But in the 1970s, the style was almost equally worn by men and women.
Historians refer to this era in the 1960s and ’70s as the Peacock Revolution, when men’s fashion became more flamboyant. Young men threw out their father’s staid gray suits of the 1950s. Instead, sport jackets and shirts became more colorful, with stripes, plaids, ruffles, corduroy and velvet. Pants got wider. The hair got longer. And the shoes got taller.
What we typically see in fashion history is women adopting items from menswear, but this is one of the few instances where the opposite occurred, where men embraced a more feminine look. Some have tied it to the era’s evolving ideas around traditional gender roles and stereotypes.
One of the hottest shoe brands during the disco era was Kork-Ease. Today it is best known as a comfort footwear brand, but in the 1970s, its buffalo sandal — a sky-high platform wedge featuring crisscross thick leather straps — was tearing up the dance floors across the country and selling out in stores.
In fact, Tommy Perse, co-founder of legendary L.A. retailer Maxfields, told the Los Angeles Times in 1988 that he sold so many pairs of Kork-Ease sandals in the ‘70s that “it gave me money to travel to Europe.”
Other brands from across the price spectrum — from Sbicca to Yves Saint Laurent — also capitalized on the trend, crafting platform versions of pumps, loafers, brogues, knee-high boots and everything in between.
By the mid- to late 1970s, the platform shoe trend had fallen out favor, making way for the preppy/sporty look of the 1980s.
But like all things in fashion, what is loved is never forgotten, so it was only a matter of time before the footwear made its return. And the 1990s delivered, bringing us flatform sandals like the Steve Madden Slinky sandal, towering leather boots a la The Spice Girls, stacked Dr. Martens and more.
In the 2000s and 2010s, platform shoes evolved further, adopting aspects of the fetish trend with extreme heights, razor-thin heels and clear Perspex materials. One famed example is the YSL Tribute heel, which launched in 2009. “It” girls galore stepped out in the 5-inch heels, and it is still the No. 1 most-searched style for the brand on TheRealReal.
