Footwear » The Story of Shoes

During the Renaissance, shoe fashions ran to ridiculous extremes. In the early 14th century, shoes with comically long pointed toes were all the rage. The higher the rank of the wearer, the longer were the toes. The French called these long shoes "poulaines" after Poland, and the English, "crakows" after Cracow, then the capital of Poland. (An Asian superstition that held that long toes made a witch powerless might have been to blame.) Some dandies wore shoes 2½ feet from heel to toe and held up the toes by tying them to the knees with chains. In 1463 King Edward IV of England put his foot down--he issued an edict decreeing a 6-inch toe for commoners, 1 12-inch toe for gentlemen, and a 24-inch toe for nobility. The style endured for 2 centuries, despite the church's disapproval of the shoes' suggestive shape. Then the duckbill came into fashion. Its ever-wider toe attained a width of 9 inches. Catherine de Medici introduced high heels and ballet slippers to France.

In the 15th century, elite Venetian women adopted the high Asian clogs, or ”chopines,” which had been popular in the east for centuries. They arrived in Europe through trade between Turkey and Venice. These were shoes on top of stiltlike blocks of wood, which gave them a literal leg up on their social inferiors while protecting their feet from the muck of the street. Some chopines were as much as 24 inches off the ground and the ladies wearing them required escorts through the streets. As an aside, walking canes became fashionable and escorts would walk on their right hand side to protect the ladies from the carriages passing on the streets, leaving their right hand to draw a sword. When the chopine fashion filtered down to the lesser classes, the elite scorned it. The last to wear the chopine were the Venetian street prostitutes who wanted to stand head and shoulders above the competition, and be noticed by prospective customers. The popularity of the "walking footstools" spread throughout Europe, particularly to France and England. Then early in the 16th century Catherine de Medici moved from Florence to Paris to marry the king. She was small in stature and wore high-heeled shoes to her wedding. The style became an instant success and the fashion remained in vogue throughout her lifetime.

Prior to 1600, there was no such thing as a true heel. During the 1590s some low heels of wood or cork had been produced, and before that wedges of cork or leather lifts had been tried as heels, but with very limited success, since they made walking difficult. Once true heels appeared, other forms rapidly disappeared. Experiments with heel construction led to heels held together with wooden pegs on robust bottoms, which were necessary to support the foot on high-heeled boots. This development led, however, to problems in pairing shoes, and from the early 17th century to the 1820s it was customary to make "straight" shoes to be worn on either foot. Generally footwear had been paired for left and right feet since Roman times, but the development of the raised heel created the need for shoe and boot bottoms with a more precise shape and greater stability. About the time of the American Civil War the manufacture of right and left shoes became generally accepted.

One of Napoleon's legacies was the fashionable balls that were he held in his honor. Paris succumbed to dancing for pleasure and then society's preference for grand balls swept through the civilized world. And since militarism was engulfing the continent, the men wore uniforms and the women the new neo-Grecian styles. With the new more vigorous dancing steps, the men's boots abused the women's slippers which were as delicate as modern ballet slippers. It was common for women to take a second pair to the ball. After one wearing, Empress Josephine discovered a hole in her dancing slipper and complained to her shoemaker. "Ah I see what the problem is, Madame," he exclaimed, "You have walked in them."

In the 1890s women wore a high-buttoned shoe with a toothpick toe.

Shoes were made primarily of wood and cork during the late 1930s and early 1940s due to the lack of leather and the wartime ban on rubber. Cork wedged sandals proved to be very popular to wear to the beach.

Many people still wear shoe styles that have not changed for generations. Such styles include the knob sandals of India and the moccasins of the North American Indian. Eskimos and other people living in cold climates wear soft-skin boots. Still in use is the wooden shoe, or sabot, worn by some Europeans.

Today in the U.S. the variety and quantity of shoes have increased greatly. Most shoe fashions, however, are variations of 16 basic styles: the balmoral, blucher, boot, brogue, d'orsay, gillie, gore, jodhpur, moccasin, monk, mule, oxford, pump, sandal, shawl tongue (or kiltie), and strap.

Members of certain professions may wear special shoes particularly suited to their work. Plus, sports shoes have shown much specialization as to style and materials in the last few years. Much study has been devoted to the shape and working of the foot and to details of shoe design that will enhance the shoe's function and comfort. The popular jogging shoe, for example, may have a specially designed heel and a sole that provides extra support to the foot. Hazardous occupations require safety shoes with reinforced toe caps of steel, fiber, or plastic. Some manufacturers produce corrective shoes designed to relieve foot conditions such as bunions, corns, and hammertoes. Such shoes may come either with built-in corrections or may be custom-made to individual specifications.