The January sales offer the chance of obtaining all kinds of bargains, and those of you who are perhaps looking for new shoes may care to spare a thought at for the fashion conscious of the mediaeval era and the difficulties they could face in the quest for style.
The BBC News website reported the other day about surviving examples of later mediaeval footwear, notably the fashion for long point of shoes and the difficulties they caused, as well as the reaction of the most censorious members of society. It can be seen at How pointy shoes created a moral panic in medieval London
This appears to be derived from a recent and similar online piece from the Museum of London which can be seen at Why Were Medieval Europeans So Obsessed With Long, Pointy Shoes?
Wikipedia has quite detailed and informative articles about the fashion culprits at Poulaine and it’s all important accomplice at Patten (shoe)
On the same subject other articles have recorded archaeological evidence, which I think I have linked to previously, from skeletons of the period that show an increased incidence of bunions. These can be seen at
Medieval pointy-toed shoes led to Cambridge bunion surge and at Fashion for pointy shoes unleashed a wave of bunions in medieval England
Wearing fashionable footwear is something that is not infrequently cited as a cause of orthopaedic difficulties in later life, and clearly our ancestors were as prone to this as we may be today.
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