We are all at home and feeling all comfy in our lounge-wear, but remember life will return to the fast lane and you don’t want to forget how you mastered the walk in your stilettos which contributed to your ultra glamours stature.

What do Louis XIV and Carrie Bradshaw have in common? Neither of them were fond of a flat. But the vertiginous heels sported by everyone’s favourite fictitious New Yorker were only made possible thanks to technological advances in the late ’40s and early ’50s.

Named after an Italian knife with a slender blade and needle-sharp point, the heel was engineered in the 1950s when new materials and techniques invented for aircraft carriers were applied to shoe construction. The use of aluminium and injection moulding to fuse metal and plastic made it possible to elongate and raise heels to new heights.

The key was in finding a way to support the arch of the foot, taking the pressure off the toes and the heel, and allowing the shoe to move with the body rather than against it.

We believe Marilyn Monroe was talking about heels when she was said, “Give a girl the right shoes and she can conquer the world.”