During the 14th century a Punta shoes model which, within a few years, became of large fashion: these are poulaineleather shoes, like dad, ending with one padded tip which, from the sources available, also reaches the half a meter in length. The poulainesoon become popular among the noble men, women and children, representing a symbol of status and fashion, but are prohibited by the Pope in 1364. Their name derives from the fact that their realization starts from Polandfrom Kicow To be exact, so much so that they are also called crackowesthat is to say “Krakow shoe”: there is news of their production in this area since 1340.
How were the poulaine worn and what problems did they cause to the feet?
In the 1382in the middle of the Middle Ages, King Riccardo II of England marries Anna of Bohemia: the queen, on that occasion, Wear a couple of poulainewhich contributes to increasing their popularity, especially in England. In a text composed in 1394 From a monk in the writestershire it is said that the length of the tip also reached the 45 centimeters and, to be able to walk with such bulky shoes, often the end was tied to the shank or ankle with a silver chain. According to the historical reconstruction of Rebecca Shawcross, author of Shoes: An Illustrated Historyin some cases these shoes came Put even under the kneeusing a whale tooth as a fixing.
In 2021, a team of researchers from theCambridge University He published a study entitled Fancy Shoes and Painful Feet: Hallux Valgus and Fracture Risk in Medieval Cambridge, England (Dolorly -deimed shoes and feet: Allure valgus and risks of fractures in medieval Cambridge, England). This interesting research analyzed the burials of the medieval city, observing how theincidence of the alluce valgus – a bone deformity also given by the usual use of specific footwear – increases in lots reserved for nobles and clergy.
Punta shoes, symbol of wealth in the Middle Ages
The poulaine They were worn – above all, even if not only – by the nobles and the clergy: to make shoes with so much skin and such elaborate processing, High figures were required that clearly only the nobles they could spend. The length of the tip became, therefore, directly proportional to the social rank. In addition to this, wearing such uncomfortable shoes meant that those who brought them did not have to walk for a long time, work, work with the body and have agility in the movement: the poulaine They were therefore an expression of a level of well -being that only the rich could afford.
From the research carried out to Cambridgeit emerges that too some clerical ordersincluding the Augustinians, chose pointed shoes, albeit in a more modest form to join rules of poverty and sobriety. The researchers show that, at that time, the Church was in any case worried by the fact that the religious began to wear sought after clothes and More elaborate footwearincluding precisely The famous shoes designed in Krakow.
The Church and King of England prohibit the poulaines
Already in 1215therefore well before the advent of pointed shoes, The church had expressed itself against too elegant clothing For the members of the clergy but the question remained open, so much so that it was also taken up in the Stories by Canterburypublished in 1387 Edict promulgated in 1362 by Pope Urban V in which the poulaine they come prohibited both to curb the excessive opulence that ramps in the high clerical ranks and to brake The association between wearing pointed shoes and sensuality.
In this same period, in fact, thanks to the testimonies collected by London Museumas part of a research to reconstruct the history of the city of London through documents of different types, including vintage footwear, we have known of combination between the tip of the shoes and the false symbolismas well as shoes assimilated to objects of sin, so much so that it is called “Claws of Satan”.
Not only the Church, but also the Crown takes a position: in 1463a law that reads:
“No person in Lord’s rank, including knights, squires and gentlemen, can wear togas, jackets or coats that do not cover the genitals and the buttocks. Furthermore, he cannot wear shoes or boots with tips longer than two inches. No tailor can package such a short garment, or a padded favetto, and no shoemaker can make such tips”.
Like all fashions, also that of poulaine has passed: in 1475 On the throne Saliva Enrico VIII, and the tip of the footwear in England, as well as in the rest of Europe, was now short and square.
To review some very pointed tips We have to wait for the 1900s: iconic models such as those signed by Manolo Blahnik, who went down in history – among the various reasons – to be the favorite shoes of Anna Wintour, Global Editorial Director of Vogue, as well as the workhorse of Carrie Bradshaw, character of Sex and the City, will be born.
