As fashion embraces fluidity, there’s just one problem: How do men fit into stilettos?
Shaobo Han put on his first pair of heels at age 11. The pair wasn’t Han’s, exactly—he’d stolen them from his mother, to practice “prancing around the house when no one was around.” Han thought that boys weren’t supposed to wear heels, so he made sure to play with them in private.
“I have other male-presenting friends who have the same memory of trying on their mother’s clothes,” Han told The Daily Beast. “It’s fascinating that a collective memory exists. Even though nobody taught us how to wear heels, we all tried on our own.”
Years later, Han went to Forever21 to buy his first real pair of heels for $40. “I was lucky that my shoe size is a men’s eight, which is a women’s 10,” said Han. “Other people aren’t as fortunate. If they have larger feet than mine, it’s almost impossible to find something that fits.”
If a boy had larger feet, he could find stilettos at a drag store, but that resource would drastically limit any say he’d have in his own style. “Those shops cater to performers, so the shoes are much more outrageous,” Han said. At drag outlets you can find studded stilettos, leopard print pumps—but no subdued, day-to-day heels.
Han grew up to be a graphic designer, along the way running the femme footwear line Syro with business partner Henry Bae. The Brooklyn-based company sells heels and boots in men’s sizes 5-14. The styles are chic and trendy—plaid, patent, over-the-knee—but not gaudy à la Kinky Boots.
Whether a customer is male, trans, or non-binary, the mission of Syro is to promote femininity and encourage a fluid sense of style.
“We get emails where kids are saying how grateful they are to discover us, which is really heartwarming,” Han said. “They tell us that they’re wearing them to prom, or to a wedding. Those spaces are so gender-confirming so it’s nice to provide them a way to express themselves and challenge norms.”
http://archive.fo/83ldB