Pair of chopines

Shoes of this type are called chopines or pantobles in England. These 'platform-soled' shoes are well documented as a Venetian fashion that spread to the rest of Italy and Europe by the early seventeenth century. Some chopines were worn as overshoes outdoors, while others, like this pair were intended for indoor use, worn with stockings alone. The chopines are 'straight' in shape, having no difference between the left and right shoes.

An elegant example of the most fashionable style of women's footwear, this pair of chopines is made of wood covered with silk velvet and trimmed with silk ribbon and silver-gilt bobbin lace, and a woven silver-gilt lace. The upper is divided with holes for lacing. This suggests that the silver-gilt bobbin lace which covers that area may have been added slightly later. However, the lace was made at about the same time as the shoes, in the late 1500s or early 1600s. In 1591 Elizabeth I had made for her two pairs of pantobles open at the toes and 'laid on with silver lace'.

Numerous early 17th century Italian paintings depict women with very long skirts, often a sign that they are wearing chopines, although they cannot be seen. This meant that their gowns and petticoats needed additional fabric to give the extra length required. The chopines not only reflected the wearer's high status in society by increasing her height, they also demonstrated her wealth.