L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, APRIL 5, 2018 www.italoamericano.org 18 L'Italo-Americano LIFESTYLE FASHION FOOD ARTS ADVICE W e don't know exactly how high Venetian shoes had become, but by 1430 the state was so worried about their vertiginous altitude that they felt it necessary to pass a law limiting their height. Despi- te this, fashion-conscious Vene- tians continued to totter around in foot-high platforms as the style spread from the lagoon city all around Europe. Queen Elizabeth I of England and Louis 14th of France were even seen wearing high heels, setting the fashion for courtiers, courtesans and aristo- crats alike. And today the high heel is a ubiquitous sight at every Milano catwalk. This is the story of Venetian chopines, the first high heels to hit the high street. So before we go any further, what are chopines? In their simplest form the Venetian chopine was a forerun- ner of what we'd call a platform shoe today. The upper part was usually made from soft, decorated leather and looked like a normal shoe with the wearer's feet secu- red by leather straps or silk rib- bons tied by maids. But instead of being attached to a flat sole, the upper was fixed to a wooden or, later, cork block, itself covered in leather, which formed both the sole and the heel together. The base was often splayed to offer a more secure support. And rather than having a low-profile sole with a high heel like today, the chopine sole and heel were the same height, elevating the wearer without pitching them forward like modern stilettos do. The intention was to raise the wearer anything from a couple of inches to a foot or even more above the floor. And unlike high heels today there was seemingly no limit to the height of fashion so ladies tolerated ankle-breaking heights of 12 inches and more. In fact, the tallest chopines still in existence date from the late 1500s of the Italian Renaissance, tower 20 inches above the ground and can be found in the Venetian Cor- rer Museum. Some even suggest that chopines reached a whopping 24 inches. Either way, they would have taken quite some skill and not a little practice to walk in them. It used to be thought that savvy, fashion-conscious Vene- tian shoemakers or couturiers invented chopines to keep 15th century hemlines out of the mud and filth of the unpaved streets of the merchant city. And certainly this seems like a perfectly reaso- nable idea or explanation until you realize that the skirt lengths of Venetian ladies of the day were extended to cover the chopi- nes, not to stop at them. So chopi- ELIZABETH SALTHOUSE Venetian chopines, the first high heels to hit the high street for the wearer or made the husband or father liable for the punishment but the fashion con- scious and fashion designers con- tinued to circumvent the edicts. Indeed rather than send the wea- ring of high heels into decline, the Venetian sumptuary laws merely seem to have promoted the fashion which quickly spread, first to Spain then to France and Elizabethan England. For all their influence on the Renaissance world of fashion, the true origins of Venetian cho- pines remain something of a mystery. Some suggest that they evolved first as overshoes, others that prostitutes developed them to literally stand head and shoul- ders above the rest whilst others still see them simply as a sign of wealth and extravagance in-kee- ping with the debauchery that was consuming Venice. Whatever their roots, howe- ver, chopines continue to inspire designers today. From Alexander McQueen's gravity defying heels to Lady Gaga's Giuseppe Zanotti designed stilts these precarious platforms helped to shape the way women wear shoes for the last 600 years. So despite the fact that the trend for sky-high chopi- nes was overtaken by a new fashion in the 17th century inspi- red by hooked heel-wearing Per- sian horse riders Venetian high heels were very much at the van- guard of fashion in their day and continue to be relevant. So how far would you be prepared to go to reach the height of fashion? Venetian chopines were the forerunners of what we'd call today platform shoes nes were meant to be hidden whilst hems still skirted the floor and still became muddied regard- less of the new shoes. In fact, few people who've seen or tried to walk in chopines would call them practical at all as apart from their lack of use in the mud department they were incre- dibly unsteady to walk in, espe- cially the higher the block. Anything over a few inches in height required ladies to lean on their husbands or one if not two maids to maintain their balance. In reality, chopines weren't real- ly worn by anyone intending to walk any great distance. But despite their apparent folly, the Venetian chopines did serve a number of symbolic cultural pur- poses however. Firstly, the chopine-wearing lady was marked out for her social standing as she was physi- cally and metaphorically head and shoulders above everyone else. The higher the chopine, the higher the status of the lady, or so the suggestion implied. This wasn't, however, a strai- ghtforward rule as high heels weren't just worn by the nobles. Courtesans also wore chopi- nes. But far from being street prostitutes down on their luck, Venetian courtesans were some of the best-educated, most refi- ned ladies in the city delighting salons and casinos with their conversation as well as offering other entertainments. They were some of the best-looking and best-dressed ladies, too. Indeed the dress of the courtesan and the respectable noblewoman was often almost indistinguishable so as well as being at the height of fashion, courtesans were also claiming the "height" of society by wearing their heels high to raise themselves above their rivals. Secondly, chopines were a way to control and confine women to their homes so they couldn't wander around the deca- dent city un-chaperoned. Upper class Venetian ladies were sel- dom seen walking in the streets anyway, living a highly sheltered life at home and venturing out only in a gondola or sedan chair. And certainly there was plenty to protect the ladies from, as Venice was renowned for its debauchery and extravagance during the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries. So chopines were undoubtedly used by some families to protect the morality of their women prefer- ring to parade them gracefully (and safely) across the piano nobile of the family palazzo, instead of promenading them through the streets or twirling them around a dance floor. But not all chopines were an eye watering 2-foot tall. Some were a mere 4-6 inches high, which would have been much easier to walk in much as high heels today. And again the use of chopines by salon ladies to give them a sensuous gait to attract prospective clients suggests that whilst restriction may have been the purpose of some noble fami- lies, it clearly didn't apply to everyone. And thirdly, chopines demon- strated the wealth of the wearer. The very fact that a lady was wearing the high heels at all meant that she could afford the additional inches of the rich fabrics used to make Renaissance dresses of the day. Chopines were meant to be worn but not seen so had to be covered. And with fabric coming from across the known world, including silks from the East, the extra expense of even just another few inches of gold brocade or soft velvet wasn't insubstantial. Chopines also indicated that you were so wealthy that you didn't need to work or walk and could afford transport such as a sedan chair or family gondola. It was possibly the extrava- gance of the dresses that alerted Venetian authorities to the growing altitudes of chopines when they passed the first Sump- tuary Laws in 1430 limiting shoe height, not that many people took much notice. And Venice wasn't the only city worried about the profligacy or excessive lavish- ness of their citizens' appearan- ce. Breve della Campania banned the use of rich furs whilst Siena and Bologna banned trains on dresses, Florence outlawed but- tons and the Genovese dres- smakers were forbidden to insert slashes into dresses as a way of displaying previously prohibited opulent gold threaded fabrics. Many such laws set fines either Women wearing chopines

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