chinese lotus shoes

a pair of chinese lotus shoes for bounded feet. both are embroidered with flowers at the front part. The main color is a green, the decoration comes in purple and green and the shoelace at the backside is blue.

tiny feet were symbols of feminine beauty, elegance, and sexuality in china for over a thousand years. In order to achieve the "lotus feet", most young Chinese girls had their feet bound tightly with strips of cloth to prevent growth. Once the painful process was completed, the deformed feet were placed into this kind of beautiful, lotus shoes that were made especially for bound feet. the practice dates back at least to 900 C.E. and continued in remote areas until the beginning of the twentieth century.