A chopine is a type of women's platform shoe that was popular in the 15th and 16th centuries. Chopines were originally used as a clog or overshoe to protect the shoes and dress from mud and street soil. They soon became an article of fashion and were made increasingly taller; some extant examples are over 20 inches (50 cm) high. Surviving chopines are typically made of wood, or sometimes metal. Filth like human waste, which was thrown on the streets. Streets in those days had no sewage, or an open sewage, with all the consequences. Chopines were popularly worn in Venice by both courtesans and patrician women from ca. 1400-1700. Besides the practical use, the height of the Chopine would eventually be a symbolic reference to the cultural and social standing of the wearer. The higher they were, the more the status of the owner. Women also used them to appear taller. The height of the shoes often easily exceeded 20 inches. Chopines brought with them inevitably an instable and inelegant gait. Women wearing them generally were accompanied by a servant or attendant on whom they could help balance themselves. They were usually put on with the help of two servants. The height of the shoes often easily exceeded 20 inches. - The platforms itself were fashioned out of wood or cork, and covered with leather or jewel-embroidered velvet. The type of fabric covering the shoe depended on the type of shoe worn in them. In the fifteenth century, Chopines were also the style in Spain. The popularity in the Spain of that time was so great that the larger part of the cork supplies of the nation went to the production of the shoe.
