MAPACA

Mid-Atlantic Popular &
American Culture Association

Viewing fashion through an anthropological perspective and understanding its symbolic language is essential for fashion historians to truly master garments and clothing practices of the past. One way to achieve this is through the study of language, as language is a system of symbols within a specific structure, and each culture associates various meanings to those symbols.

By taking the concept of fashion being a system of symbols further and focusing solely on fashionable footwear, an understanding of these symbols can be explored. Starting with footwear examples from the tenth century in Asia through shoes worn in today’s Western society, multiple styles will be examined and studied. These include foot binding practices for women in Imperial China, the poulaine of the fifteenth century, the chopine of the Italian Renaissance, red-soled shoes worn by Louis XIV and their inspiration on French contemporary designer Christian Louboutin, and the American sneaker culture that began around 1980. The practice of foot binding, the male poulaine shoe, the female chopine, red soles and sneakers are all examples of footwear traditions that can be studied from an anthropological viewpoint. Each has association with class, membership and gender, and brings up other connections.

These footwear examples may not be readily apparent as holding deep meaning at first, but further study shows how designations such as class, gender and membership are all ultimately relevant within fashion choices. As seen in both historic shoe options as well as with footwear from the present time, there is much hidden meaning within shoes. Although footwear can at first appear to be mundane, it can also be rich in symbolism.