China

In China women wanted smaller feet. Small feet were desirable and fashionable during the 10Th century and the early 20Th century. The binding of girls feet began when they were around the age of three to eleven, this was before the bones in their feet had developed. The young girls feet were soaked in an mixture of animal blood and herbs, this was thought to soften the feet, cloth was also soaked in the mixture. Then the toenails were cut back as far as possible to prevent in growth. Then the toes are broken and then pressed tightly to the sole of the foot. they were then bound tightly using the cotton bandages. The end of the cloth was sewn together to stop the girls from loosening them themselves. The bandages caused a great deal of pain for the girls and a lot of problems in later life such as extreme back pain. This idea never spread to any other part of the world. This picture shows the shoes that these girls would have worn.

As time went on shoes became more popular and the idea of showing wealth by the height of your shoes spread from ancient Egypt,Rome and Greece towards Europe. In Turkey during the 1400s a new pair of platform shoes were created called Chopines. They were made and quickly spread throughout Europe. They could even be 30inches high, they were mostly worn by women. With the height of these shoes servants were needed to help the women walk, showing the higher class of these women. These shoes were made from either cork or wooden stacked to give these shoes height. Chopines are a bit like today's wedges, with cork still sometimes being used.