The Shoemaker

In this print a ‘mannish woman’ is begin fitted for a type of ‘manly’ shoes called slap-soles. Heels were impractical off the horse and sank in the muck. To correct this some men wore their heeled footwear slipped inside separate overshoes that looked like flat-soled mules, others wore shoes with extended flat soles pieces. The slapping sound made by the extended sole as it hit the heel when their wearers walked, loudly announcing them and declaring with every step that they wore high heels. The Shoemaker, plate 4 from "The Trades", by Abraham Bosse, 1632–1635.