Wrapping Stilettos in Foot-Binding Debate

May 16 (Bloomberg) -- Named for a type of dagger with aslender blade, the stiletto’s defining characteristic is not somuch the height, but the girth, of its heel.

It was a design innovation, credited to designer Christian Dior and shoemaker Roger Vivier, that arose from postwar plenty,both in the shoemakers’ toolboxes -- the heel was reinforced withmetal, heavily rationed during World War II -- and in consumers’pockets.