The Swing Timer - News: Fashion Tales: «If the shoe fits…»

Words and Photography by Anouk Lefavre

Shoes… One of my favourite accessories... I confess I occasionally start building up my outfit by the shoes!

Did you ever stop to wonder about the history of shoes while you are choosing which pair you will wear...? How did they become such an important fashion accessory? In my humble opinion, books could be written about this fascinating topic but I thought I could give you only a glimpse of the history of shoes.

A brief History of Shoes

Shoes were one of the first items Man learned to make. When walking through rough, rocky terrain, humans quickly realized the importance of finding a way to protect their feet. Historical records of Chinese, Egyptians and other early civilizations all show mention of shoes. The Bible has frequent references to footwear as well. Even fables and fairy tales transmitted over the centuries were often based on shoes, including Cinderella, Puss in Boots, and many others.

The earliest people wore sock-like coverings on their feet. The first shoes with a rigid sole, a sandal style, were created by early Egyptians. Like in present days, the quality of the shoes worn reflected the status of the wearer: Royalty wore sandals with a toe that extended upward in a spiral while lesser beings wore plain-toed sandals; and slaves, unfortunately, were not allowed to wear shoes at all and had to go barefoot.

Few early shoes have survived. Fragments of Bronze Age footwear have been found in excavations but not enough to determine styles. But from the Roman times onwards many shoes have survived suggesting that there were many more shoe styles than one would expect.

Romans wore the military sandal, called the caliga, which exposed the toes, had a lattice - patterned upper, front lacing and a heavily nailed sole. Other styles were the calceus and the gallica, both with a closed toe - a style more suited for the cold weather.

Footwear styles continued to change during the Medieval age. The length of one's toe was an indication of status. The King and his court had shoes with the largest toes. This style wasn't worn by women. The ankle shoe remained popular, it was usually side laced with three pairs of holes.

The pointed toe disappeared at the end of the Middle Ages and was replaced by round and square toe shapes. At first a sensible size, toes became larger and larger.

After 1500, a blunt pointed toe returned, followed by a round toe in the 1590s. It was about this time that heels emerged.

In the 17th Century, men wore shoes and mules with a square toe, often blocked and domed. Women decided that a pointed toe was more feminine. An important innovation in 1660 was the buckle to fasten a shoe. At first popular with men, women eventually wore them too, replacing ribbon latchets with buckle latchets.

In the 18th Century, women's shoes reflected the elaborate patterns of their dresses. Men's shoes became quite plain made of black leather with pointed toes and low heels.

Towards the end of the 18th Century and beginning of the 19th Century women's shoes became lower and lower cut, heels became lower until they disappeared altogether and the pointed toe is replaced by first narrow oval toes and then square toes. Shoes became so dainty made from satin and silks that ribbon ties are added to keep the shoe on the foot.

The 19th Century was characterised by the predominance of boots both for men and women. Popular styles were the Blucher boot, cloth boots, the elastic sided boot, the button boot, and the Balmoral boot.

Apart from boots, women wore court shoe style shoes in a variety of different materials, from satin and silk to reptile and drawn leathers. Men had a choice between the Oxford shoe, with front lacing and a closed tab and the Derby shoe, with front lacing and an open toe.

North America, saw the beginnings of a simple form of mechanical shoemaking. This made it easier to fabricate shoes to fit either the right or left foot. In fact, it has now been nearly 1900 years since right and left shoes began to be differentiated, but it was quite complicated to produce them before the industrialized era began.

In the 20th Century with growing living standards there was a variety of shoe styles and the rise of the shoe designer: from 1920s bar shoes to 1930s co-respondent two-colour shoes and 1940s utility styles.