Carmen Miranda's Platform Shoes

Larger-than-life movie star Carmen Miranda. was a mere 5 feet tall.  She was key in popularizing platform shoes in the 1940s and had an amazing collection which she wore both on and off stage.  She would have the hems of her costumes lengthened to the floor so she appeared taller on film.

Many of Carmen's original costumes and shoes can be seen today at the Carmen Miranda Museum in Rio de Janiero.  The museum's website is in Portuguese, but you can see lots of wonderful pictures of items in the collection there.



This is a wonderful montage of clips from many of Carmen's movies.  Watch closely and you'll see her platform shoes peeking out of several of them.