Why did men give up bright colours and high heels?

Wealthy men once wore bright colours, elaborate shapes and heels. By the end of the 18th century wealthy Western men had stopped using bright colours, elaborate shapes and variety in their dress, and left these to women's clothing. The psychologist John Flügel called this the Great Male Renunciation in 1930, asserting that men 'abandoned their claim to be considered beautiful' and 'henceforth aimed at being only useful'.

Why? One cause was ideology. The shift began in the mid-18th century, inspired by the ideals of the Enlightenment, as clothing that signalled aristocratic status fell out of style in favour of functional garments. In the French Revolution, wearing royalist dress made you a target for the Jacobins, and working-class revolutionaries were called sans-culottes because they wore pantaloons, not silk breeches. In the American Revolution Benjamin Franklin gave up his wig.

Heels show the split clearly. Modern high heels reached Europe with Persian emissaries in the early 17th century, and men wore them to imply upper-class status, since only someone who did not have to work could afford such shoes. By the 18th century men's heels were thick and women's were thin, and by the late 1780s high, thin heels were fixed as feminine. The result at the start of the 19th century was the suit's monopoly on male dress codes.