![Chopine (PSF)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3e/Chopine_%28PSF%29.jpg)
A chopine is a type of women's
platform shoe
Platform shoes are shoes, boots, or sandals with an obvious thick sole, usually in the range of . Platform shoes may also be high heels, in which case the heel is raised significantly higher than the ball of the foot. Extreme heights, of bo ...
that was popular in the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries. Chopines were originally used as a
patten,
clog
Clogs are a type of footwear made in part or completely from wood. Used in many parts of the world, their forms can vary by culture, but often remained unchanged for centuries within a culture.
Traditional clogs remain in use as protective f ...
, or
overshoe to protect the shoes and dress from mud and street soil.
Chopines were popularly worn in
Venice
Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...
by both
courtesan
Courtesan, in modern usage, is a euphemism for a "kept" mistress or prostitute, particularly one with wealthy, powerful, or influential clients. The term historically referred to a courtier, a person who attended the court of a monarch or other ...
s and patrician women from c. 1400 to 1700. Besides their practical uses, the height of the chopine became a symbolic reference to the cultural and social standing of the wearer; the higher the chopine, the higher the status of the wearer. High chopines allowed a woman to tower over others. During the
Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...
, chopines became an article of women's
fashion
Fashion is a form of self-expression and autonomy at a particular period and place and in a specific context, of clothing, footwear, lifestyle, accessories, makeup, hairstyle, and body posture. The term implies a look defined by the fashion in ...
and were made increasingly taller; some extant examples are over high. In 1430, the height of chopines was
limited by Venetian law to three inches, but this regulation was widely ignored.
Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...
joked about the extreme height of the chopines in style in his day by using the word ''altitude'' (''
Hamlet
''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...
'' 2.2, the prince greets one of the visiting players – the adolescent boy who would have played the female parts in the all-male troupe – by noting how much "nearer to heaven" the lad had grown since he last saw him "by the altitude of a chopine").
Surviving chopines are typically made of
wood
Wood is a porous and fibrous structural tissue found in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic materiala natural composite of cellulose fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of lignin th ...
or
cork
Cork or CORK may refer to:
Materials
* Cork (material), an impermeable buoyant plant product
** Cork (plug), a cylindrical or conical object used to seal a container
***Wine cork
Places Ireland
* Cork (city)
** Metropolitan Cork, also known as G ...
, and those in the Spanish style were sometimes banded about with
metal
A metal (from Greek μέταλλον ''métallon'', "mine, quarry, metal") is a material that, when freshly prepared, polished, or fractured, shows a lustrous appearance, and conducts electricity and heat relatively well. Metals are typicall ...
. Extant pieces are covered with
leather
Leather is a strong, flexible and durable material obtained from the tanning, or chemical treatment, of animal skins and hides to prevent decay. The most common leathers come from cattle, sheep, goats, equine animals, buffalo, pigs and hogs, ...
, brocades, or jewel-embroidered
velvet
Weave details visible on a purple-colored velvet fabric
Velvet is a type of woven tufted fabric in which the cut threads are evenly distributed, with a short pile, giving it a distinctive soft feel. By extension, the word ''velvety'' means ...
. Often, the fabric of the chopine matched the dress or the shoe, but not always. However, despite being highly decorated, chopines were often hidden under the wearer's skirt and were hidden from any critical observation. Although due to the design of the shoes, they caused the wearer to have a very "comical walk".
According to some scholars, chopines caused an unstable and inelegant gait. Noblewomen wearing them were generally accompanied by two servants in order to walk around safely, by supporting themselves on the servants' shoulders.
Other scholars have argued that with practice a woman could walk and even dance gracefully. In his dancing manual ''Nobilità di dame'' (1600), the Italian dancing master
Fabritio Caroso
Fabritio Caroso da Sermoneta (1526/1535 – 1605/1620) was an Italian Renaissance dancing master and a composer or transcriber of dance music.
His dance manual ''Il Ballarino'' was published in 1581, with a subsequent edition, significantly dif ...
writes that with care a woman practiced in wearing her chopines could move “with grace, seemliness, and beauty” and even "dance flourishes and
galliard
The ''galliard'' (; french: gaillarde; it, gagliarda) was a form of Renaissance dance and music popular all over Europe in the 16th century. It is mentioned in dance manuals from England, Portugal, France, Spain, Germany, and Italy.
Dance f ...
variations". Chopines were usually put on with the help of two servants.
In the 15th century, chopines were also the style in
Spain
, image_flag = Bandera de España.svg
, image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg
, national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond")
, national_anthem = (English: "Royal March")
, i ...
. Their popularity in Spain was so great that the larger part of the nation's cork supplies went towards production of the shoes. Some argue that the style originated in Spain, as there are many extant examples and a great amount of pictorial and written reference going back to the 14th century. Chopines of the Spanish style were more often conical and symmetric, while their Venetian counterparts are much more artistically carved. Turkish sources claim the origin of the ornate Venetian chopines were
nalins developed for turkish baths.
That is not to say, however, that Spanish chopines were not adorned; on the contrary, there is evidence of jeweling, gilt lettering along the surround (the material covering the cork or wooden base), tooling, and embroidery on Spanish chopines.
There are a great many cognates of the word chopine (chapiney, choppins, etc.). However, neither the word chopine nor any word similar to it (chioppino, cioppino, etc.) appears in Florio's dictionaries of either 1598 or 1611. The Italian word, instead, seems to be "zoccolo" (English plural: clogs), which likely comes from the Italian word "zocco", meaning a stump or a block of wood. Florio does, however, use the word "chopinos" in his English definition of zoccoli.
See also
*
Geta (footwear)
A Geta, ( zh, 木屐, ja, 下駄; geta or getas) is a traditional East Asian footwear that resembles flip-flops. A kind of sandals, geta have a flat wooden base elevated with up to three (though commonly two) "teeth", held on the foot with ...
*
Chopine, volume
References
External links
*
*
* http://www.aands.org/raisedheels
* http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~ebernhar/index.shtml
* http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/ho/08/eustn/hod_1973.114.4a,b.htm
{{Historical clothing
Historical footwear
Medieval European costume
Shoes