Why Did Medieval People Wear Such Pointy Shoes?

Medieval poulaines

If you could travel back in time to the medieval period, you’d soon see some fashion trends that are a far cry from today’s typical clothing. Depending on what century you arrived in — Europe’s medieval period lasted approximately from the fifth century to the 15th century — you might see an array of fanciful hats, from Robin Hood-style bycockets to towering cone-shaped hennin hats worn by wealthy ladies. Sleeves, too, were particularly flamboyant: Puffed-up bombast sleeves made male biceps look larger, while women of status wore long, hanging bliaut sleeves that trailed to the ground.

It was certainly an era of weird and wonderful fashion trends, and perhaps none is more peculiar to our modern eyes than the fad of wearing extravagantly pointed footwear. These pointy shoes were known as cracows or poulaines, both names referring to the origin of the footwear in Krakow, Poland, where it first emerged around 1340. The trend spread across Europe during the 14th century, and became particularly in vogue in England following the wedding of King Richard II and Anne of Bohemia in 1382, during which Anne sported a pair of poulaines.

But what was the reasoning behind this fanciful footwear? Why did pointy and highly impractical shoes become all the rage? Here, we consider the rise of cracows, and why this seemingly silly accessory became the style du jour in the late medieval period.

Credit: Florilegius/ Universal Images Group via Getty Images

Fashion is often about social display; this is true now and was perhaps even more so back in the Middle Ages. Medieval society was highly stratified, and clothing was one of the most obvious ways for a person to demonstrate their social status, whether through towering hats, billowing sleeves, or pointy shoes. When poulaines became popular, it was among the higher classes, who soon found that shoe length could correlate directly with social rank.

Only the nobility and wealthy merchants could afford to purchase such extraordinarily long shoes — and the longer and more costly they were, the more wealth and status they displayed. It was not uncommon for the points to extend 4 inches (10 centimeters) beyond the toe, with the extending area stuffed to keep it rigid. In a text from 1394, a monk from Worcestershire, England, claimed that some people wore shoes with pointed toes “half a yard [45 centimeters] in length, thus it was necessary for them to be tied to the shin with chains of silver before they could walk with them.”

It was very expensive to have such elaborate shoes made, so it was only the lords and, to a lesser extent, ladies of medieval Europe who could afford to wear them. This was especially true for the more lavish — and lengthier — varieties of pointy shoe, which were made by specialist master shoemakers for a pretty penny.

The fact that lengthy poulaines were highly impractical and hard to walk in didn’t seem to bother their fancy owners, who were willing to suffer for fashion. Researchers from Cambridge University found that cases of bunions increased significantly in the late medieval period, and placed the blame squarely with the rise in poulaine shoes.

Pointy Shoes Were Phallic Symbols, Too

Pointed shoes weren’t only an ostentatious display of wealth; they were also seen as phallic. According to the London Museum, extravagantly long shoes were favored by young men, some of whom would stand on street corners wiggling their shoes suggestively at people walking by. And if the shoes had bells sewn to the ends of them, it indicated that the wearer was available for intimate acts.

This didn’t please the Catholic Church, which saw the pointy shoes not only as symbols of vanity and excessive pride, but also as a corrupting force that could only lead to deviance and sin. Eventually, there was a crackdown on cracows. As early as 1362 — before Anne of Bohemia had even popularized the shoes in England — Pope Urban V tried to ban them completely. Later, in 1463, the English Parliament under Edward IV passed a law banning anyone lower in rank than lord from wearing shoes with points longer than 2 inches. Anyone found breaking the law could be fined, and cobblers were strictly prohibited from selling overly pointed shoes to people of insufficient status.

All of the controversy made wearing pointy shoes far less fun than it used to be, and by 1475, the poulaines trend was largely at an end. Yet for one spectacular moment in history, people did indeed wear incredibly silly pointy shoes in what was a complex display of status, wealth, misplaced manliness, and the occasional ringing of foot-based bells on street corners.