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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Richard Brooks

From poverty clogs to killer heels: the 1,000-year story of British footwear

Black patent leather women's shoes with very high heels, bright red soles and aggressive studs all over the uppers
‘Alti’ shoes by Christian Louboutin, circa 2010, featuring the designer’s trademark red soles and a studded uppers inspired by punk rock: one of the exhibits on display at Shoes: Inside Out in Winchester. Photograph: courtesy of Hampshire Cultural Trust. © Hampshire Cultural Trust

You can always judge a man by his shoes, or so the old adage goes. And the same goes for woman, as shown in an exhibition in Winchester which promises to reveal the use and role of all sorts of footwear through the ages – and what it conveyed about the wearer’s status. Co-curator Tara McKinney Marinus says: “It’s a story of our social history, rather than footwear as fashion.”

Nearly 60 pairs of shoes and boots, slip-ons and clogs, plus some unusual one-off items, will be on display, most made in Britain over the past millennium.

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