Very tall platform shoes or wooden platform clogs popular in Renaissance Italy and Spain, sometimes reaching 20 inches high.
From Italian 'cioppina,' possibly related to Venetian dialect. These specialized shoes became fashionable in Venice in the 15th century and spread throughout Europe.
Chopines were so tall and unstable that women needed servants or canes to walk in them—they signified wealth (only rich women could afford tall chopines) and caused such comical waddling that Shakespeare made jokes about them on stage.
Plural of chopine; same gendered historical narrative applies. Often described in fashion discourse as 'women's footwear' despite evidence of broader historical use.
Refer to chopines as historical footwear styles worn by people of various genders without gendering assumptions.
["platform shoes","elevated footwear","platform styles"]
Scholars including women fashion historians have documented that chopines transcended gender; linguistic gendering of them reflects modern bias rather than historical reality.
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