Why Pointed Stilettos?

RoSa Shoes Pointed Stilettos are inspired by the women's shoes of the early 1960's.  The stiletto-heeled shoe with pointed toe was a mainstream fashion, variations of which were worn all day and every day by mature women and teenage girls alike, just as trainers, flip-flops and ugh! boots are today.

The most extreme pointed stiletto shoes we are aware of (the genuine handmade "winklepickers" of rock'n'roll legend) were made by Stan's Shoes of Battersea, London in 1960 - but there were others imported from Mediterranean shoe-producing countries like Spain and Italy which were equally spectacular and more refined.

The pointed-toe stiletto shoe reached its pinnacle of perfection and popularity around 1959/1962. It remains an icon of style, immune to the dictates of fashion. Once achieved, the pointed stiletto shoe should have remained available for all time, but sadly this was not to be*

The extra length of the shoe's point, beyond the natural toeline, alters the proportion of the foot, making it appear slim, dramatic and sexy. Paradoxically, a pointed-toe stiletto shoe is simultaneously feminine yet aggressive. Empowering but precarious. Some women prefer that their pointed toes are no longer than necessary for comfort (our Ultra-High Stiletto Court Shoe with standard pointed toe is pictured above). Some develop a fetish about finding and wearing the most extreme examples (illustrated below is one of our older "high stiletto" long pointed toes - it has now been replaced by the Ultra High Stiletto Court Shoe with Long Point, which takes this styling even further).

We strongly maintain that toe-shape, exaggerated or not, is a matter for personal preference and, like heel height, should not be left to the mercy of so-called "trend analysts" or whimsical designers. When our own taste began to exceed even the pointed shoes which mainstream Italian shoe production has to offer, we set about creating our unrivalled RoSa Shoes collection.

Obviously, some women may feel a bit timid and self-conscious when they wear their first pointed shoes, but these worries soon pass - to be replaced by a craving for ever-pointier ones. Strangely, the female foot seems to develop some sort of "radar" which detects the extent of even a very long pointed toe so, after the wearer has become used to her new shoes, tripping up rarely, if ever, happens.

*A little history, based on our own personal experience and observation:

The original Italian-influenced stiletto shoes (affectionately known to some original wearers in England as "winklepickers") attained their pinnacle of refinement and popularity around 1960-61 and continued to be worn by devotees of the pointed stiletto style (despite the "swinging sixties" influence of Mary Quant, Andre Courreges et al)  right through to the end of that decade.

Despite the subsequent trend for brightly coloured, excessively chunky shoes, culminating in the platforms and stacked heels of the early 1970s, the sharp-pointed-toe stiletto shoe never entirely disappeared from the streets. Women did not see why they should stop wearing shoes which they and their partners found highly attractive merely for the sake of fashion, and those few independent shops which still had old stock of 1960s originals found that demand for them continued years after "Fashion" decreed it should cease.

Even before some women reluctantly gave up wearing them "first time around", surviving examples of the original pointed stiletto shoe were being brought out of retirement (by approx. 1976) as a retro fashion item, to grace the feet of a creatively dressed younger generation (often students of design, or women with careers in the media or the visual arts) thus spearheading the Punk-led concept of "alternative" fashion. Pointed Stilettos were big news again.

Shoe factories and shoe component suppliers, unable to meet (or, in some cases, even to comprehend) the renewed demand, quickly regretted that they had broken up and disposed of equipment they had stopped using in the mid 1960s, but production methods, especially for heels, had changed. The art of making beautiful stiletto-heeled shoes with long, fine-pointed toes had been lost.

This fastest-ever turn around from "passe mainstream" to "cutting edge" caused an unprecedented craze (certainly in the fashionable indoor markets of major cities such as London) for old stock, or even pre-worn, original-style pointed stilettos. Wardrobes and charity shops were emptied and all remaining stock was cleared from shops and warehouses. This persisted until the surviving supply of early 1960s "original" stilettos was completely exhausted, and contemporary attempts to copy them (using incorrect heels and dubious toe-lasting) by a few small factories in London's East End were the only available option.

Nowadays, even museums of costume and theatrical wardrobe departments don't seem to have any really good examples of those sexy, teetering, thin-heeled, long-point stilettos from the early 1960s. Young, stylish female characters in recently-made movies or television drama set in 1960-62 invariably have to wear disappointingly sensible, thick-heeled, matronly shoes, as would more likely have been worn back then by elderly ladies. Shops concentrating on vintage fashion long ago had to move on to promoting the appeal of other eras, e.g. the postwar 1940s and 1950s, or the Glam-Rock 1970s because there are, quite simply, no more really nice pointy stilettos from the early 1960s to be found.

We decided from the beginning that the first purpose of RoSa Shoes should be to recapture - perhaps even to improve upon - the classic extended-point stiletto styling, using modern developments in component design and shoe manufacture which now make possible an equally extreme-looking, yet more comfortable, shoe.

We have, as you will have seen elsewhere on our website, used an almost equally thin steel stiletto heel for the platform-sole styles we have added to our range. More recently still, in response to public demand, we have added a slightly higher (13cm, approx. 5 inch) stiletto heel, available in a choice of toe shapes - a very extended long point, a moderate medium-length point and a short, round 1950s "Baby Doll" or "Ballerina" toe. More style variations will follow.