Platform Sneakers

Vivienne Westwood, the UK fashion designer, re-introduced the high heeled platform shoe into high-fashion in the early 1990s; it was while wearing a pair with five inch platforms and nine inch heels that the super model, Naomi Campbell, took a tumble on the catwalk or runway at a fashion show. However they did not catch on quickly and platform shoes only began to resurface in mainstream fashion in the late 1990s, thanks in part to the UK band the Spice Girls, whose members were known for performing in large shoes.
The United Kingdom (and European) experience of platform shoes was somewhat different from that of the United States. Britain generally is not as concerned with women's feet appearing as small as possible; the long pointed shoes of the early 2000s, that give an elongated look to the foot, were and are still more popular in the US than in the UK.
Platform shoes took off in a very big way amongst most age groups and classes of UK men and women in the 1970s. Even today men wear shoes which increase their height. Such shoes are called elevator shoes. For instance, handmade Don's elevator shoes increase the height of a wearer from 2,6" to 3,2" and even up to 4". Whilst wedge heels were popular on platforms in the summer, high thick separate heeled platform boots and shoes were 'all the rage'. Many of the shoe styles were recycled 1940s and early 1950s styles, but both shoes and boots were often in garish combinations of bright colours.
The trend firmly re-established itself in the Developed World fashions of the late 1990s and very early 21st century with a much higher threshold of what was considered outrageous: mothers and fathers of 1997 to 2004 typically think nothing of buying their preschool-age daughters and sons platform sandals that US parents of 1973 would not have wanted their high-school-age daughters and sons wearing and UK parents of 1973 would not have wanted their prepubescent daughters and sons wearing, and the Walt Disney Company has licensed Mickey Mouse cutouts and "Disney Princess" and "Action Man" images on footwear that in earlier decades would have been considered totally inappropriate for the company's "wholesome" image.