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Shoes
By Madeline | February 8, 2008
Shoes during the medieval days were very boring. They were often times made of plain leather that were either plain slide on slippers that required no fasteners or the fasteners were made of a plain toggle and loop. Men and women wore similar fashions and very little experimentation was done with stitching and decoration.
As the years progressed, the style of shoe remained about the same with the rounded toes and the basic slip on style, but silks were adhered to the leather giving them rich color and beauty and starting the issue for ever woman of “Do these shoes match my outfit?” Once the finer slippers came about, there was the issue of keeping them in good repair despite the muddy, unpaved roads in rainy areas. Thus the patten was born. Pattens were the first form of clogs - you know, those wooden shoes popular in Holland? The patten was made of wood (though later ones were also made of leather) and conneted to the foot over the shoe with usually a leather strap over the ball of the foot and around the heel. These usually had very thick soles - about one inch and kept the wearer’s shoes from being damaged by the muddy streets.
Over the years, there did come about the fashion of wearing the toes extremely pointed and long. Some people actually took this fashion to the extreme (there’s always that ONE guy, isn’t there?) and had points fashioned so long that they had to wear little chains on their knees to keep them up. How silly that must have looked and how uncomfortable to wear!
It is rumored that heels were initially introduced by Catharine de Medici stating that she was self conscious of her short stature and saw to fix that with the aid of heels. This fad spread through Europe and became very popular particularly with Italian courtesans and noble women. The heels didn’t really catch on in England though until the late 16th century. Once they did, they were often times favored more by men than by women. Though French and later in history, an example of a man famous for his heels is the Sun King, Louis XIV and his infamous red heeled shoes.
Over the years, shoes have had a wild ride - going from basic foot coverings like the ‘foot bags’ that are depicted on one cave drawing to the shoe craze of today where women (and some men) have countless pairs of shoes. I personally am a bit of a shoe freak myself, understanding exactly how a shoe can be called cute. :) I thought one of the interesting points in shoe history was the fad of men wearing heels more so or equally as often as women. It certainly makes sense as in almost every society throughout history, tall men are considered desireable. If anything, I think it strange that is taboo for a man in our society to wear heels (unless in drag, of course). Maybe in the next century they’ll come back into style and the men will understand a woman’s love for shoes… 
Topics: Clothing, Medieval Era, Tudor Era |
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