Why did medieval Europeans wear pointy shoes?

Medieval Europeans had a weird sense of fashion, and that includes their shoes. Some of their footwear had toes so long that they stretched far beyond the foot, sometimes by several inches. They were common among the royals as well as the common folk.

But why? Why did medieval Europeans wear pointy shoes? Here are the facts.

What exactly were these pointy shoes?

Medieval people had a few names for pointy shoes, including poulaines and Crakows. They used both terms to talk about a slim, low-cut leather shoe that had a stretched tip. The shoe’s front extended to look a bit like a beak.

The shoes had quite a simple structure. They had a flat sole & upper cut close to the foot, along with a long extension. Some shoes included a small lace on the side.

The shoes were made of soft leather, usually from a cow or calf, and they were so thin that they kept their shape when archeologists pulled them out.

Where and when did people wear them?

Medieval Europeans weren’t the first people to wear pointed shoes. However, it was the elongated style that really took off in Europe during the mid-1300s.

The style spread all over Europe, including France, Poland, the Low Countries (like the Netherlands), Germany & England.

The shoes remained popular throughout the 15th century. You can still see surviving shoes in late-medieval riverside dumps in England, and they were a big part of clothing laws & illustrations until the end of the century.

How were pointy shoes made?

The majority of poulaines were stitched inside-out & flipped after sewing. They were known as “turnshoes.” Shoemakers left the seam inside so the shoes looked smooth on the outside, while the soles were far thinner than the ones we have today.

The extended toes did cause some problems. Shoemakers had to reinforce them with moss or horsehair to make sure that they kept their shape, although that didn’t always work. Some pairs were slightly more flexible than others.

Who actually wore them?

You might assume that such shoes were only for the nobles. But you’d be wrong. Archeologists discovered a whole range of sizes for both genders & all age groups. They were meant for city populations as much as they were meant for court circles.

However, there was a slight distinction between the pairs.

The longest & flashiest versions were for nobles, while women usually got the shorter, pointier choices. Yet other people wore moderately pointed ones alongside more practical footwear. They were shoes that were, quite literally, for people from all walks of life (pun intended).

Laws, sermons, and complaints

But not everyone liked these shoes. In fact, a few medieval rulers were completely against them, and Charles V actually banned shoes that stretched out too far in Paris.

Edward IV of England also set limits. He stopped people below a certain rank from being able to wear pointed shoes that were longer than a few inches, with later acts targeting shoemakers themselves.

Why did they dislike the shoes?

Simply because they wanted people’s clothes to match their position. Everyone wearing stretched-out toes made it harder for rulers to keep track of who was who. Other rulers thought that making pointed shoes took too much time & energy. They believed the money could be better spent elsewhere, so they banned them.

Why did people wear them?

But the commoners wearing poulaines weren’t thinking about city budgets or clothing politics. A lot of them just liked the style. They wanted to keep up with the new fashion, and shoes were one of the easiest ways to stay trendy. You could simply change your shoes without changing your entire wardrobe.

At first, the shoes were only for the rich. Wearing a pointed shoe was quite impractical for work, so only those who didn’t need to work (AKA the rich) would wear them. The shoes were essentially a status symbol.

However, this changed. Regular people liked the shoes because they went well with the newly popular styles of the time, like fitted hose & shorter tunics. A lot of modest families liked poulaines because they were so cheap to make. You didn’t need any rare dyes or fine fabric to create something that felt modern.

How the style faded out

The shoes began to lose popularity by the late 1400s. Records show that people’s shoes began to widen again, and a style called the “duckbill” or “bear paw” became more common. These shoes were broader & more blunt-toed than poulaines.

Of course, the shoes didn’t immediately fall out of fashion & later centuries did experiment with the use of pointed shoes. But none of these quite matched the stretched and stuffed leather beaks of the 14th to 15th centuries.

The following sources were consulted in the preparation of this article: