DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.22262#0037
JUNE SWANN
International consultant on the history of shoes and shoemaking
CRACOWS, POULAINES AND POLONY FASHION
For years I puzzled over these English names for shoes. So long, as it was not easy
to explore behind the 'Iron Curtain', faced with a language which relates little to
those I know. It was not until 2000 that I succeeded in reaching Kraków. I really
should have guessed there was something tremendous here, if I had considered the
continuing Polish influence.
Though the crackow/poulaine style actually starts ca. 1340 in Poland, and soon af-
ter 1350 in England, the first written references I have found to the words are ca.
1362 ('turned-up toes a fmger long, called crackows'). They were used steadily to
1475 to describe the extravagantly long pointed toe, sometimes also called a pike.
Though some uses are ambiguous, most appear to mean just the toe, rather than the
whole boot, shoe or overshoe. I suggest that the style flourished as a reaction to the
horrors of the Black Death of 1348-1349, when between one third and half the popu-
lation died, from all levels of society. Those who survived can be forgiven for act-
ing a little strangely.
So why the Polish names? This is of course the beginning of the Golden Age of Po-
land, created by Kasimir the Great (1333-70), with Kraków its capital. By the mid-
fifteenth century, stretching from the Baltic to the Black Sea, it had become the larg-
est country in Europę. Doubtless much envied, that was inevitably reflected in lan-
guage. Strangely, in the fifteenth century, certainly by 1475, the introduction of the
style was blamed on our Queen, Anne of Bohemia, wife of Richard II (1377-99). She
was born in 1366, and married and came to England in 1382, long after the style
had become popular.
I have yet to fmd the difference between crackow and poulaine, though the word
poulaine is more common. The crackows seem to be linked more with the devil
from 1362-1400, while the poulaine in 1365 might whip the ground in walking, have
a beli or bird beak on the end, or curve under the foot like griffin's claws - as some-
times seen on men riding horseback. In 1392 the French found poulaines difficult
to dance in, as they were liable to tread on others' toes. So it is not surprising that
International consultant on the history of shoes and shoemaking
CRACOWS, POULAINES AND POLONY FASHION
For years I puzzled over these English names for shoes. So long, as it was not easy
to explore behind the 'Iron Curtain', faced with a language which relates little to
those I know. It was not until 2000 that I succeeded in reaching Kraków. I really
should have guessed there was something tremendous here, if I had considered the
continuing Polish influence.
Though the crackow/poulaine style actually starts ca. 1340 in Poland, and soon af-
ter 1350 in England, the first written references I have found to the words are ca.
1362 ('turned-up toes a fmger long, called crackows'). They were used steadily to
1475 to describe the extravagantly long pointed toe, sometimes also called a pike.
Though some uses are ambiguous, most appear to mean just the toe, rather than the
whole boot, shoe or overshoe. I suggest that the style flourished as a reaction to the
horrors of the Black Death of 1348-1349, when between one third and half the popu-
lation died, from all levels of society. Those who survived can be forgiven for act-
ing a little strangely.
So why the Polish names? This is of course the beginning of the Golden Age of Po-
land, created by Kasimir the Great (1333-70), with Kraków its capital. By the mid-
fifteenth century, stretching from the Baltic to the Black Sea, it had become the larg-
est country in Europę. Doubtless much envied, that was inevitably reflected in lan-
guage. Strangely, in the fifteenth century, certainly by 1475, the introduction of the
style was blamed on our Queen, Anne of Bohemia, wife of Richard II (1377-99). She
was born in 1366, and married and came to England in 1382, long after the style
had become popular.
I have yet to fmd the difference between crackow and poulaine, though the word
poulaine is more common. The crackows seem to be linked more with the devil
from 1362-1400, while the poulaine in 1365 might whip the ground in walking, have
a beli or bird beak on the end, or curve under the foot like griffin's claws - as some-
times seen on men riding horseback. In 1392 the French found poulaines difficult
to dance in, as they were liable to tread on others' toes. So it is not surprising that