Shoes

I

Introduction

Shoes, stiff-soled, protective footgear that encloses the whole foot. Other forms of footgear include one-piece moccasins, soft slippers, backless mules, open sandals, and boots, which extend up the leg. For most of human history, fine footwear has been a costly luxury worn by the upper classes as a sign of status. In the earliest times people went barefoot, a custom that continued for centuries, especially in warm regions and indoors. Today Muslims still remove their shoes on entering a mosque to indicate respect. The first foot coverings were probably animal skins, which peoples of the Stone Age (until about 4000 bc) in northern Europe and Asia tied around their ankles in cold weather. Such footwear was the likely ancestor of Bronze Age European and Native North American skin moccasins and the leather and felt boots later worn by the Persians and Mongolians. Related forms of foot coverings include leather slippers, which originated in the Middle East and are still worn there, and the traditional fabric shoes of China, where leather was scarce. The other basic type of footgear is the sandal, which is appropriate to warm countries. Carved wooden shoes, such as European peasant sabots, and wooden clogs, such as those worn in Japan, give protection from wet or muddy ground.

II

Ancient World

Egyptian wall paintings show thong sandals with flat soles of papyrus strips or leather. Various laced sandals, some with heel guards and thickened soles, were worn in Mesopotamia, Crete (Kríti), and Greece. Akkadian sculpture shows slippers with upturned toes; such slippers also appeared in Persia. Soft shoes that reached the ankle, as well as sandals, were favored by Greek women. Boots were customary for war and the hunt.

Roman footgear included light sandals (soleae), soft leather shoes to the ankle (calcei), and open-fronted, laced, calf-length boots (cothurni). Patricians' shoes were red. Soldiers wore heavy, high-laced, hobnailed boots that left the toes open (caligae).

III

Middle Ages and Renaissance

During the Middle Ages (5th century to 15th century), peasants wore skin wrappings, sabots, or, for men, stiff leather soles combined with loose fabric hose or leg wrappings. Members of the nobility and churchmen wore soft cloth or leather shoes related to Roman calcei or to Byzantine shoes neatly laced over a front slit.

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By the 12th century, as a result of contact with the East through the Crusades, men's shoes with pointed toes, worn with tight hose made of silk, velvet, or soft leather, became fashionable. Called crackows or poulaines, they featured toes as long as 60 cm (24 in), shaped by whalebone and stuffing and sometimes chained to the knees. Commoners wore shorter, 15-cm (6-in) points. Wooden clogs (pattens) protected such shoes outdoors, and loose-topped boots were used for riding.

In the 16th century, shoe styles changed radically. Both men and women wore low-cut, square-toed slippers. The toes, rolled back and often slashed to reveal a colored lining, became enormously wide and eventually had to be limited by law. Also popular were mules, sometimes attached to high platforms (chopines) so as to raise feet and skirts above the mud.

IV

Modern Period

High heels, a late 16th-century innovation, characterized 17th-century shoes for both sexes. The fashion was encouraged by Louis XIV of France, who wore them to increase his modest height. A curved heel is still known as a French, or Louis, heel. These square-toed, long-tongued shoes were fastened with buckles or wide bows. Men also wore soft, wide-topped cavalier boots, which often revealed loose, lace-trimmed boothose.

In the 18th century the soft boot was replaced by the stiff cowhide jackboot, which was held up by a metal frame (jack) and often cut away behind the knee. Foot soldiers wore cheaper ankle boots with side-buttoned, canvas gaiters. High-heeled, buckled shoes had pointed toes. Mule types worn by women were of embroidered brocade, silk, velvet, or kid.

In the period of the Napoleonic Wars (1803-1815), officers and other gentlemen wore jackboots, including a style known as the Wellington. Male civilians wore narrow, flat, buckled pumps; women favored narrow, flat slippers laced around the ankle.

By the mid-19th century, shoes began to be mass-produced in factories and were thus more available to the general public. Men wore laced or elastic-sided ankle boots. Women wore heeled shoes, low cut or laced or buttoned to the ankle. Canvas-topped, rubber-soled shoes (sneakers) were introduced for sports.

The 20th-century emphasis on youth and informality influenced shoe design. Male footwear included low, laced oxfords in various leathers, slip-on loafers, ankle boots, and specialized sport shoes. According to changing fashion, women adopted high, spike, or low heels, with thin, platform, or wedge soles, in closed shoes or sandals; in the late 20th century, tight, knee-height boots were popular for day wear. With the growing interest in exercise for physical fitness, various adaptations of shoes for exercise became standard footgear for men, women, and children alike.

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