Why Were Medieval Europeans So Obsessed With Long, Pointy Shoes?

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Doka
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Why Were Medieval Europeans So Obsessed With Long, Pointy Shoes?

Post by Doka » 08-01-2020 06:03 PM

"Winklepicker'S" did make a comeback in England in the 50s, kind of hung around the States 60s-70s.........



Why Were Medieval Europeans So Obsessed With Long, Pointy Shoes?

(Going to foolish lengths for fashion. )

In 1463, London outlawed the shoes of its fanciest men. These dapper lords had grown ridiculous in their dapperness, and had taken to ambling streets shod in long, carrot-shaped shoes that tapered to impish tips, some as long as five inches beyond the toe. These shoes were called “crakows” or “poulaines” (a term also used to refer to the tips alone), and the court of King Edward IV eventually found them offensive enough to pass a sumptuary law prohibiting shoe tips that extended over two inches beyond the toe.

Perhaps one of the silliest and most fascinating trends in medieval fashion, these shoes probably first emerged around 1340 in Krakow, Poland—both names refer to this origin—according to Rebecca Shawcross, the author of Shoes: An Illustrated History. Shawcross also serves as the shoe resources officer at Northampton Museum and Art Gallery in England, which claims to have the world’s largest collection of shoes (at 12,000 pairs, but alas, just one intact pair of poulaines).

Europe had flirted with long-toed footwear since the 1200s, but never to this length, or with this saturation. The lords and, to a lesser extent, ladies of 15th-century Europe wore these shoes almost exclusively for over a century. Every person who could afford shoes wore poulaines, though the longer tips were generally reserved for nobility who could afford to wander around in footwear seemingly designed for pratfalls.

Full (Fascinating)Article/Pictures

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/m ... inty-shoes
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