LottaShoes.com

Shoes

Behind the knack and genius and efficiency of modern shoe production unfolds the tale of the shoemaker's craft ages old, rich in tradition, heritage, prestige. But even more intriguing to most of us is the story of shoe styles. It's an ever-changing drama chock-full of romance, pathos, strange folklore, hilarious comedy all tied up with that very human characteristic of vanity! It's a thousand-and-one stories all in one, involving more colorful and eccentric characters of history and fiction than any all-star movie you ever saw.

Did you know that the people of many centuries were restricted by law as to which styles and materials their shoes could include, when they could or couldn't wear their shoes and even how many inches their shoe toes could extend? Some shoes were so characteristic of a particular city or district that should a distant traveler suddenly be struck with amnesia, it would take no guess-work at all to send the poor fellow straight back to his home town. A woman's shoes might tell you whether or not she was married, and if so her husband's profession. The color of your shoes could once have determined whether folks would salute you with great respect or have you arrested and thrown in jail.

Stepping Around The World And Down The Centuries

Long before a baby utters a word that makes sense, his own two feet facinate him. He inspects each toe with rapt curiosity as if, somehow, these were his precious "travel tickets" which will carry him out into the great, wide, wonderful world! A growing child displays more genuine pride in wearing a shinny new pair of shoes than he does over any other article of new clothing.

As we look back through the ages at shoes that have walked in all regions of the world and at the multitude of strange customs, beliefs and superstitions that surround them we see that grown-ups, too, of all races, creeds and eras have taken a strange inherent pride in the articles with which they dress their feet.