Original photo by Paul Marriott/ Alamy Stock Photo
Queen Elizabeth II was known for being on her feet for hours at royal events, and for walking at a pace that could tire out even trained bodyguards. With all that standing, it made sense that she had a little help making sure that her shoes were comfortable. In 2012, The Sunday Times reported that someone on the queen’s staff helped break in new pairs of the queen’s favorite shoes — usually Anello & Davide loafers — before the queen wore them herself. Then, in 2019, the queen’s aide and senior dresser, Angela Kelly, revealed that she was the “flunky” tasked with the job. During the break-in period, Kelly was required to wear beige cotton ankle socks and walk only on carpeted floors.
Oops, incorrect!
It's a factA 2020 study found that the average British adult walks about 74,462 miles in a lifetime. A trip around the globe is just under 25,000 miles, meaning the average Briton will walk enough to circumnavigate the planet three times. (The average American’s step count is similar.)
While having someone to break in your shoes may seem like the height of opulence, there was arguably a good reason for it. In 2017, the queen’s wardrobe designer, Stewart Parvin, defended the practice by explaining, “The queen can never say ‘I’m uncomfortable, I can’t walk anymore.’” (To do so would be a major royal faux pas, not to mention a disappointment to waiting visitors.) The queen’s shoe care also extended beyond just one Buckingham Palace staffer with a similarly sized foot: Her highness had a team tasked with taking care of the royal footwear by airing out shoes, polishing them, and then storing them in silk drawstring bags. Talk about service truly fit for a queen.
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The world’s oldest leather shoe, dated around 3500 BCE, was found in a cave in ______.
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The world’s oldest leather shoe, dated around 3500 BCE, was found in a cave in Armenia.
Queen Elizabeth I decreed strict laws about clothing.
Today, many of us live in a largely “wear what you want” culture, but Elizabethan England played by some vastly different rules. During Elizabeth I’s reign from 1558 to 1603, the queen issued eight separate proclamations concerned with the “excesse of apparel,” part of a category of regulation known as sumptuary laws. Among other things, the proclamations banned anyone but relatives of the royal family from wearing purple — a color long associated with royalty — and from buying extravagant foreign garments. Elizabeth feared that excessive spending on clothing would bankrupt the realm and lead to “the wasting and undoing of a great number of young gentlemen.” Those found in violation of the rules were usually fined. The laws were a reaction, in part, to the rise of wealthy merchants who were now capable of purchasing garments that had once been reserved for nobility. Although Elizabeth I’s laws may seem harsh, they’re only a part of a long history of sumptuary laws, which can also be found in ancient Sparta, the Roman republic, and feudal Japan.
Darren Orf lives in Portland, has a cat, and writes about all things science and climate. You can find his previous work at Popular Mechanics, Inverse, Gizmodo, and Paste, among others.
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