Stiletto the Allied side, the French Lebel M1886 épée (needle sword) bayonet was frequently cut down and converted into a stiletto or thrusting knife ("Poignard-Baïonnette Lebel"). These weapons were used to eliminate sentries in trench raids as well as for personal defense. As a class, these daggers, knives, and stilettos were given the title trench knife. World War II saw a resurgence of the stiletto in the form of combat knives for commando raiding forces and other troops who needed a weapon for silent killing. In late 1940, the famed British hand-to-hand combat instructors William E. Fairbairn and Eric A. Sykes
Stiletto heel in the early 1980s. Subsequently, round-toe shoes with slightly thicker (sometimes cone-shaped) semi-stiletto heels, often very high in an attempt to convey slenderness were frequently worn at the office with wide-shouldered power suits. The style survived through much of the 1980s but almost completely disappeared during the 1990s, when professional and college-age women took to wearing shoes with thick, block heels. The slender stiletto heel staged a major comeback after 2000 when young women adopted the style for dressing up office wear or adding a feminine touch to casual wear, like jeans. Stiletto heels are particularly associated with the image