Lesson3

History of Fashion and Dress

Lesson 3:
Byzantium & Early Medieval Europe/Late Medieval Europe & the Early Renaissance

Lesson Instructions:

There were many interesting �freaks of fashion� in this period, including hennins, poulaines & codpieces. Choose one of these �freaks� or another that interest you, & write a brief report with image links on it.

Freak of Fashion -- Chopines

The dictionary definition of chopines is a woman's shoe with a very high thick sole; A woman's shoe worn in the 16th and 17th centuries that featured a very high, thick sole. English word for a platform shoe popular in Renaissance Italy, Spain and England; possibly of Eastern origin.

From Italy, 1580-16-20, this chopine has a wooden platform covered with gold-colored silk velvet. It is embellished with silver lace, silk ribbons & a tassel.

    The definitions in the dictionary do not convey the variety, nor the heights of ridiculousness that developed.

     What began as a practicality, to keep feet or clothing out of the wet or mess, grew to extravagant proportions. Chopines with 20� or even 30� platforms are recorded.

     High heels were originally a guy thing, according to the video, �Why Shirts Have Buttons�. One source even states that the high heel was invented by Leonardo da Vinci, in the early 1500�s. It's believed that heels developed from repeated patching of the wear on the heels of shoes. Over time, those patches built up into heels.

     Chopines were usually designed with cork or wood stacked as the rounded oval shape sole, with a velvet upper. It also acted as an overshoe" that slipped over a more dainty shoe. Many of the chopine illustrations show a rounded open toe that would accommodate this.

     There is no one defining moment when historians can say that chopines were invented. The most common answer to their origin is that they began in the Turkish bathhouse to keep feet off the heated or slick marble floor. It is also speculated that they came to Europe via the Orient; in ancient Greece, actors wore platform shoes on stage. A number of societies have platform shoes, such as the Japanese geta,

These children's geta (left) have bells inside the soles. They are wood soled & are decorated with flying cranes

Also Japanese, from the Edo period

Syrian kabkabs, whose name came from the sound they made,

Kabkabs,(left) decorated with
pearl & shell inlays

Indian padukas, and

18th Century, for ceremonial wear, from Jaipur, India

Korean namakshin, like these, (right) carved from
one piece of wood, to name a few.

    Regardless of the origin, the chopine made its main fashion debut in 15th century Venice. During the Italian Renaissance, the Republic of Venice prospered as a major trading between Europe and the East. It accumulated an incredible amount of wealth, and conspicuously consumed material culture. Some of the most aesthetically pleasing masterpieces surviving from this era consist of objects related to fashion, including footwear.

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