Mr Cameron Kippen
TBA
The Curious History of Long Toed Shoes
If ever a shoe style represented a symbol of status, then the poulaine remains unmatched. Throughout history, footwear has supplied a social ritual, the knowledge of which indicated, breeding. The wealthy classes of the Middle Ages indulged themselves by wearing sumptuous clothing made from fabulous fabric and leather. Shoes became symbols serving to indicate emotional states, such as joy and grief in the finer shades marking particular occasions as well as standards of conduct. During the High Middle Ages fashion took a bizarre turn and the European gliterati for four hundred years wore very long toed shoes. Shoes made from leather or wood were rarely preserved and subsequently their appearance was normally inferred from manuscripts, illustrations, monumental effigies and brasses, or contemporary writing. Documentation concerning this strange custom has been done in the absence of concrete archaeological evidence and may be appropriate to consider some of the more outlandish claims as apocryphal. The author attempts to outline the origins of long toed shoes and relate their social and sexual significance to historical events. Further the author argues the conventions governing the sizing of today's shoes, relate to this time in history when sumptuary laws were passed to govern fashion excesses.
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