It's been too long since I wrote solely about shoes (pun intended), so I decided I should do some research on their herstory. Here are some very interesting facts:
Shoes have almost always signified which social class a person belongs to. In ancient Greece, aristocratic women hired slaves to carry around up to 20 pairs of shoes because shoes were meant to be worn to suit ANY occasion (I wish...).
In fashionable Europe elaborate footwear showed that the wearer did not and could not perform any physical labour. These are the original, genuine "loafers".
Women began wearing high heels in France in the sixteenth century. In Venice they took the heels so far that they more resembled stilts, and people were hired to help women in and out of their gondolas. Word on the river is that the men that created the shoes did so so that their women could not travel too far without them. Eventually, the stilt-like "shoes" were banned because so many woman had fallen to their deaths.
Pointed shoes also originated in France. Much like their exaggeration of heel height, points on shoes got so long that they often had to be stuffed to the toe and tied to the wear's leg below the knee.
It wasn't until 1818 when shoes were created to be worn on different feet. Before this, either shoe could be worn on either foot. Reminds me of modern day Uggs. Blah.
It is usually assumed that the Italian's were the inventors of the leather shoe, but the first genuine leather shoes were produced in Spain.
We all love our shoes but really.... falling to your death. That's a little bit extravagant.
B.
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