PAGAN SHOES

The shoe that fits one
person pinches another;
there is no recipe for living
that suits all cases.
~~Carl Gustav Jung~~

PAGAN SHOES are called poulaine. It was the long-toed (phallic) shoe
that was very popular in the 15th century. They were the original 'high heels' or 'platform shoes', but with toes so long that sometimes they had
to be tied by a string leading from the toe to just below the wearers knee.

It has been said that playing the game of 'footsie'
with the person opposite of you was thought up by someone wearing
these shoes. The sexual connotations of the pointed toes is obvious.

Found in "Shoes and Pattens" by the Museum of London and "Stepping through Time"
by Olaf Goubitz, Carol van Driel-Murry and Willy Groenman-van Waateringe
this shoe is a common noble's shoe for the 14th Century. There are five
different length of point as described in "Shoes and Pattens", .0 being
a rounded toe and .5 being grossly exaggeratedly long points.