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Show 4 Zidawrigrit As with other articles of clothing, cloth-ing, during . the world's history, fashions in shoes have been carried to excess. As it has been said, fashion is a twist of good taste. There was a period when the long pointed toes of shoes became so extreme that the famous Sumptuary Laws of England included in-cluded restrictions to control them. For four centuries these long pointed shoes, called "poulaines" held sway, points increasing in length to such extent they had to be fastened to the knee with chains of gold or silver ribbons. The laws provided those of Princes and nobility to be 2 feet long, while those of the lower classes were to be six inches. Colors in shoes denoted the rank of the wearer. In early Greece, for example, consuls wore red shoes, senators, black with a silver crescent. The poorer classes were allowed only plain black. Nero had shoes of gold, and Caligula had his shoes ornamented with precious stones. High heels on shoes, of course, have fluctuated in height from low to high and back again. The current cur-rent "high fashion" in ladies shoes, we see, has taken a radical change. "Little heels" are a must, but if you prefer the high, it is a tiny narrow spike heel, dime-size. For several centuries, high heels were always red, with other colors used on the upper parts, and remember, re-member, men wore those high heels too. These bright red high heels were worn by all who laid any claim to gentility. During the reign of the French King Louis 16th, high heels extended ex-tended to England, and like other vanities, they became a fertile field for criticisms among Puritans. One wortliy preacher announced his sermon as, "High heeled shoes for dwarfs in holiness." |