The Myth of Tiny Feet “Back Then“

Thanks Birch for sponsoring! Get $400 off your organic mattress, plus two free pillows, at The idea that feet were smaller “back then“ is a story almost as old as “back then“ is! While Cinderella feet certainly did exist and were often referenced in poetry and stories, it doesn’t really give us a full and accurate concept of actual shoe size in the past. But how do we go about giving numbers to an era before records like that were kept? If we look at shoes in museums, they often look impossibly tiny. And plenty of documents from the early 20th century talk about the “size 3“ feet of women past. Does that evidence amount to enough? Of course not! Just like clothing styles and construction have changed, so have shoes. They aren’t made like they used to be! So there’s a lot more than just an arbitrary number assigned. How shoes fit, how feet were measured, and what survives all skew our modern view.