By the late middle ages and the Tudor period (1450-1600), shoe designs had been standardized. Pattens or clogs became common as an overshoe for protection from water or mud. Advances in shoe construction technique allowed heavier soles to be attached to shoes and by 1480, the first shoes made right-side out on a last (a mold) were developed in Germany and spread throughout Europe. The simple turnshoe remained as a less expensive alternative for laborers, sailors, and other common folk. Nobility, on the other hand, went from ridiculously long pointed shoes to ridiculously broad shoes, called Duck's Bill, Scarpine, or Bear's Paw shoes. These shoes were often as much as 12 inches across with uppers made from silk, brocade or velvet. They were heavily decorated with embroidery, padding and were often fur lined with slits in the upper to show off the wearer's colored hose or the lining of the shoe. This fashion passed into a desire for high-fronted shoes with bulging toes. Colored hose were all the rage for men and the shoe was the ideal way to display them. Men's shoes were closed at the ankle with rounded toes and uppers that were slashed diagonally. The style was popular for about a hundred years until Queen Mary (aka Blood Mary) passed sumptuary laws limiting the breadth of shoes. Slimmer shapes replaced the Duck's Bill shoes and the T strap was introduced in the 16th century. It was during the reign of Elizabeth I that platform shoes and high heels came into vogue. Mules and high heeled slippers for court ladies were often fur trimmed and studded with jewels or pearls. Chopines, wooden platforms that strapped on at the ankles, were used to protect expensive and delicate shoes from the elements until women of Florence began the wear them as fashion. Some were as high as 24 inches off the ground and ladies were required to be escorted as they tottered unsteadily through the streets. Venetian prostitutes wore chopines to stand out of the street, echoing the fashion of elevated sandals on Greek prostitutes in an earlier era. The style quickly fell out of favor, however, ever many women reported miscarriages as a result of falling.
In the 17th century, fashion of the previous eras reversed themselves. High heels became fashionable for men and flat shoes with criss-crossed ribbons in imitation of classical sandals were a mainstay for women. Square toed shoes were popular the beginning the century while in the early 18th century women began wearing high heeled slippers again. It is supposed that the fashion of high heels began in the 1500's when Catherine de Medici moved to Paris to marry the king. She was a petite woman and chose to wear high heels to her wedding. During the reign of Louis XIV (aka the Sun King), high heels for men were the pinnacle of fashion. The Sun King was so fanatical about these shoes that he banned everyone except the nobility from wearing them. Louis was a short man and preferred the added height provided by the heels. Different shapes and ornamentation, including miniature paintings on the heels, were experimented with but men's shoes commonly had silver buckles. The Louis Heel, a heel with a splayed base and tapered in the middle, was invented by Louis XV and survives to this day as the most common shaped heel for women's dress shoes. Heels on women's shoes were eventually introduced and thigh-length boots became quite fashionable for men. Heel heights were only curbed by the French Revolution in 1789. The new socialist regime brought about equalization with a lowering of heel heights and many silver shoe buckles were "donated" to the cause as their noble owners lost their heads on the guillotine.
Until the 1830's, the average person wore straight last shoes- shoes that were not fitted for right and left feet. The complexities and cost of carving compound curves into the last (the form that the shoe is molded over) and then making a mirror image for the other foot limited ownership of such shoes to the very rich. Colonial shoes were stiff leather shoes, with slight heels and buckles, but advances in shoemaking and the roots of the shoe industry in the U.S. began in Massachusetts.In 1828 a foreman by the name of Blanchard at the Springfield Armory in Massachusetts developed a duplicating lathe for the manufacture of gun stocks. A Philadelphia shoemaker thought that Blanchard's new duplicating lathe was also ideal for making shoe lasts and soon discovered that, by reversing the cam which guided the cutter, a mirror image could be produced. Since a wooden last gets chewed up by tack holes in a few hundred uses, there was a constant demand for new lasts and soon all new lasts were made in left and right mirror images. By 1841 the U.S. military was using left/right shoes. By 1851 left/rights were officially specified.
Some slippers and light women's shoes continued to be made on straight lasts by the turn-shoe method until approximately 1880. Turn-shoe lasts were usable for a longer period because they did not suffer wear and tear from tack holes used in welt construction.
