Ten shoes that changed the world.

Gold Sandal (About 30 BC-AD 300)

Shoes have always been powerful status symbols, even in antiquity – as this delicate gilded

 papyrus sandal from Roman Egypt reminds us. Embellished with nearly pure gold leaf, 

it is a wonderfully slender and refined object – but it bears little relation to the actual

 physical shape of the average human foot. As a result, this elfin piece of footwear belongs 

at the beginning of a long tradition of shoes distorting our feet for one reason or another.

 Often, as well as pleasure, high-end shoes can cause their wearers extravagant pain. 

(Credit: V&A)

Gold Mojari (1790-1820)

This sumptuous pair of men’s “mojari” (mules), which were most likely made in 

Hyderabad in India, makes the gilded sandals from ancient Egypt look positively 

ordinary. The leather uppers have been entirely covered with gold embroidery, while

 the throats are decorated with gold designs embellished with precious gems including 

diamonds, emeralds and rubies. The quality of the construction is so high that they may

 once have belonged to the Nizam of Hyderabad – though it also appears that they

 were never worn. Whoever commissioned them wanted his feet to project an

 unambiguous statement about his seemingly limitless wealth and power. 

(Credit: Bata Shoe Museum)

Red Ballet Shoes (1948)

As well as attributes of power, shoes can also be objects of fantasy. Historically, they

 have played an important role in folk and fairy tales: when Cinderella’s foot fits the 

glass slipper, for instance, she is elevated from housemaid to princess. A version of the

 Cinderella story – involving the ruler of Egypt, a Greek slave girl and a “slipper test” – can

 be traced back to the 1st Century BC. These red ballet pumps, made out of silk satin 

and leather, were produced for Moira Shearer when she starred in Michael Powell and 

Emeric Pressburger’s 1948 film The Red Shoes, which was loosely based on a fairy tale

 by Hans Christian Andersen. (Credit: V&A)

Poulaine (1375-1400)

During the Middle Ages, European fashionistas didn’t bother with high heels. Instead, they

 were obsessed with narrow shoes boasting long and unnaturally pointed toes, like this

 example made out of practical leather. Since courtiers were more likely to wear 

impractical versions made using velvets and satins, it probably belonged to someone

 middle-class. A craze for shoes like this, which to modern eyes look like precursors

 of the winkle-picker, swept the continent in the late 14th Century, when they acquired

 various names, including “crackows” (from Krakow) and “poulaines” (French for “Polish”).

 In order to keep their shape, the points were stuffed with moss. They were then curled 

upwards, to facilitate walking. Still, poulaines were hardly known for providing comfort:

 medieval wearers would have complained of bunions and hammer-toes. 

(Credit: Museum of London)

Bath Clogs (19th Century)

Beginning in the 16th Century, men and women visiting the hammam, or communal 

bathhouse, in the Ottoman Empire commonly wore bath clogs – or “qabâqib” in Arabic.

 A trip to the hammam was part of everyday life, and originally bath clogs had a 

practical function: they were designed to raise the bather above the hot, dirty, slippery

 floor. In time, though, practicality was sacrificed on the altar of fashion – as attested by

 this improbably tall pair of wooden qabâqib used in 19th Century Egypt. Lavishly 

decorated with shell and metal inlay, they are 28.5cm (11.22in) high, making them the

 tallest shoes in the V&A’s new exhibition, Shoes: Pleasure and Pain. They would have

 ensured that their affluent owner could elevate herself above her fellow bathers. 

(Credit: V&A)

Super Elevated Gillie Shoes (1993)

While Ottoman bath clogs suggest that using shoes to gain height is nothing new, one

 pair of high heels is more infamous than any other: British designer Vivienne 

Westwood’s leather-and-silk blue “mock-croc” Super Elevated Gillie platforms, with 

their 21cm-high heels. In 1993, the supermodel Naomi Campbell was wearing them on

 the catwalk during Westwood’s show in Paris Fashion Week, when they proved to be

 so lofty that they caused her to fall. Without warning, one of the shoes suddenly keeled 

over, sending Campbell tumbling to the floor of the catwalk. It was an iconic moment in 

fashion history – and a reminder of the extreme lengths to which some women will go in 

pursuit of appearing fashionable. (Credit: V&A)

Brogued Oxfords (1989)

As any Sex and the City fan will know, haute-couture shoes by the likes of Manolo 

Blahnik can be exorbitantly expensive. So can handmade shoes for men: even a 

relatively simple pair of bespoke Oxfords could cost more than £3,000. This pair of

 brogues was made by traditional British shirt and shoemaker New & Lingwood, using

 Russian calf leather salvaged from the wreck of a Danish ship sunk in Plymouth Sound

 off the coast of Cornwall in 1786. Even though the leather was hundreds of years 

old, it could still be used because it had been wrapped in oilskins. Constructing a pair

 of luxury shoes like this can be exceptionally complicated, involving more than 200 

specialist steps. (Credit: V&A)

Furry Ankle Boots (1943)

Sometimes it is possible to achieve a luxurious high-fashion look with a make-do 

approach. These ankle boots were commissioned during World War Two by a well-to-do 

Londoner who took a mink stole and two coats – one made of red leather, the other 

from ocelot fur – to her local shoemaker in Kensington, and asked him to turn them into 

a new pair of shoes. The eye-catching results stood out in a period of wartime rationing. 

“They are a bit too flashy, a bit too high,” says Helen Persson, who has curated Shoes: 

Pleasure and Pain. “But I think that’s the most wonderful story: that in the middle of war it

 was still important to have something beautiful and new – so she came up with the idea 

of sacrificing her clothes. If I could take away any pair of shoes in the exhibition, it would be

 these.” (Credit: V&A)

Pair of Geta (1880-1900)

Shoes are an essential weapon in the armoury of seduction and desire. The prostitute

 in Manet’s scandalous oil painting Olympia (1863), for instance, is naked except for a

 black ribbon around her neck and one high-heeled mule on her left foot (the other mule

 has already provocatively slipped off). In feudal Japan, high-status courtesans called

 “oiran” wore traditional “geta” like this vertiginous velvet-and-lacquer pair, more than

 20cm (7.9in) high, which resembles a hybrid between clogs, flip-flops and a 

skyscraper. The idea was that, while wearing them, prostitutes would be forced to adopt

 a slow, shuffling gait – alternately dragging their feet in a half-circle – so that their 

beauty could be scrutinised more easily by men. (Credit: V&A)

Imelda Marcos’s Beltrami Sandals (1987-92)

No exhibition about footwear could fail to mention Imelda Marcos, the widow of former 

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos, who is a notorious shopaholic with a penchant for

 shoes. Born in 1929, over the course of her life she supposedly amassed a collection of

 some 3,000 pairs of shoes – including these sling-back high-heel sandals, decorated 

with black embroidery and rhinestones, which were made by the Italian designer 

Beltrami. Marcos signed the upper lining of each sandal in the pair, which now belongs to

 Toronto’s Bata Shoe Museum. Today Marcos embodies the obsession that shoes still

 engender in many people, including those passionate collectors who acquire footwear

 never to be worn, but only to be marvelled at. (Credit: V&A)

You'll need seven month's rent for a flat in this city

For years, Denmark has repeatedly topped surveys as the happiest place on Earth, touted for its positive quality of life, favourable start-up business environment and healthy work-life balance. But now Denmark, and its capital Copenhagen, may have something to cry about: its sky-high rental market.

Popularity, after all, comes at a price. And with Copenhagen’s burgeoning population, the influx of newcomers has led to a housing shortfall, particularly when it comes to rentals, with demand outpacing supply. The City of Copenhagen forecasts that the city will grow by 11,000 people by the end of 2016 and a full 100,000 by 2027.

Affordable flats are hard to find in the happiest country on Earth. (Credit: Alamy)

"We will hit a milestone this year when we pass 600,000 Copenhageners. That means that we will continue to have an enormous need to build housing that Copenhageners with normal incomes can afford to buy,” says the city’s mayor Frank Jensen. The city hopes to earmark 9,000 new residences for lower and middle class workers and has worked to avoid a city of only luxury apartments.

The game changer

There are two main reasons for the rise in housing competition — more Danish couples are staying in the city once they start a family rather than moving to nearby suburbs, plus there are more people moving into the city. City officials say that 45,000 new residences need to be built in the next 10 years to accommodate this rise.

It isn’t uncommon for someone to spend three months trying to find a flat

There is a lot of new development in the city, notably in Nordhavn, Carlsberg Byen and Sluseholmen, all former industrial areas. But Charlotte Larsen, who runs a company called Copenhagen Housing assisting expats in finding places to live in the city, fears these areas are not necessarily going to benefit people seeking rentals.

“Unfortunately most of the newly built apartments in Copenhagen are big, expensive places. We need smaller apartments for less than 10,000 Danish kroner (about $1,500) per month… to meet the demand.” A 97-square-metre apartment in Carlsberg Byen or 70-square-metre one in Nordhavn will set you back 3.4m kroner ($501,422) to buy. By comparison, rental of a 100-square-metre apartment with sea views in Nordhavn is currently at 18,000 kroner ($2,655) a month.

Construction of new flats is full-on in the Carlsberg Byen area of Copenhagen. (Credit: Alamy)

Playing the field

The rental market in the city has become incredibly complex and massively competitive, Larsen says. “The biggest challenge for people hoping to move to the city is that the number of apartments available for rent is so low and demand far exceeds supply,” she says. It isn’t uncommon for someone to spend three months trying to find a flat at their target price.

Landlords keep upping the ante to secure a lease

Trine Lohmann Pedersen who decided to return to Denmark from Portugal in 2015 agrees. “You need to get on the portals first thing in the morning and keep refreshing the page otherwise somewhere can be listed and gone within hours,” she says. A Danish speaker, Pedersen didn’t have the language barrier when searching, but even so, “was a full-time occupation looking for a place”. It took Pedersen two months to find an apartment.

Rent-stabilisation regulations further complicate matters. Similar to New York City, rent-stabilisation regulations in Copenhagen keep a large swathe of the rental apartments in the old buildings in city centre artificially low in rent so they rarely become free. This means those that aren’t rent controlled (for example apartments that are renovated or built after 1991) are expensive to rent, Larsen explains. A 70-square-metre rent-stabilised apartment of could cost as little as 6,400 kroner ($943) per month, whereas the average one-bedroom apartment on the open market in the city centre runs 8,634 kroner ($1,272). Between 1% and 6% of rentals were built after 1991, according to reports from 2015 and 2016.

A100-square-metre apartment with sea views in Nordhavn is currently at 18,000 kroner ($2,655) a month, if you can find an available flat to rent. (Credit: Alamy)

And landlords keep upping the ante to secure a lease. It is not unusual, for example, to be asked for the equivalent of seven months’ rent upfront (three months’ rent as a deposit, three months prepaid rent and then the first month’s rent) to secure a property. Many people take out loans to cover this. 

Looking further afield

As is the case with many popular metropolitan cities around the globe, the prices drop considerably and options increase if you decide to live further out of the city. “It is essential to set expectations right and to be prepared to accept living other places than the city centre,” Larsen says. “With public transport many outlining places are still within a half hour commute of the city.”

Alex Ross, a former teacher from the UK, moved to Copenhagen in March 2016. “It was challenging to find a home within the budget we had, but it was made easier by not being picky about the areas we were looking at.  We wanted to be close to Copenhagen but were happy to live outside of the city, and this allowed us to get more for our money.”

Copenhagen wants to earmark 9,000 new residences for lower and middle class workers. (Credit: Alamy)

Ross was also flexible when he arrived in Copenhagen. “Our first move to Copenhagen was into a shared accommodation.  This had some huge benefits in terms of getting to know the local community and make friends.” 

And before arriving, be sure to do your homework and set realistic budgetary expectations. Kara Wong from San Diego, California, in the US found the prices in the city a lot higher than she expected.

“I ended up having to increase my budget by about 25% in order to find a place in the city. The location I ended up in was not one of the options of neighbourhoods I had originally hoped for,” she says, adding that she loves the city nonetheless. “One must either be prepared for disappointment or increase budget significantly in order to find an accommodation here.”

Our ancestors may have spread anthrax all around the world.

Siberia has become the scene of an anthrax outbreak. Reportedly, a region of permafrost melted in a heatwave, exposing an infected reindeer carcass.

Anthrax has a reputation as a bioweapon, particularly after the infamous 2001 anthrax attacks in the US. But the disease has a surprisingly long history.

Ancient Chinese texts document anthrax-like outbreaks 5,000 years ago. The Roman poet Virgil described an anthrax-like plague in First Century BC Europe that "raged through an animal's veins and shrivelled its flesh" before "virtually dissolv[ing] the bones".

Some historians think the disease was present in pharaonic Egypt, and it may have been behind the fifth of the ten plagues. As the Bible puts it: "Behold, the hand of the Lord is upon thy cattle which is in the field, upon the horses, upon the asses, upon the camels, upon the oxen, and upon the sheep: there shall be a very grievous murrain [plague]."

But it is actually strange that so many regions of the world experienced anthrax problems in antiquity. Anthrax kills within days, so infected animals fall ill before they can travel far from the source, and this means anthrax should remain localised.

Somehow, a disease that is intrinsically unfit for international travel became a globetrotter thousands of years ago – and there is a good chance humanity is, inadvertently, to blame.

Historical manuscript showing five of the plagues of Egypt (Credit: British Library/Science Photo Library)

Anthrax is a potentially lethal infection caused by the bacterium Bacillus anthracis.

The anthrax letter attacks really helped spur the development of whole-genome sequencing

The microbes form spores that can survive in soil for several years, although exactly how long is not clear. "The figure I always hear is 10 years," says Talima Pearson at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff. "But I don't think that's been rigorously tested."

An animal or human can become infected if they breathe in the spores, eat food tainted by them, or even pick up spores through an open wound. Without prompt treatment, death can come quickly.

B. anthracis bacteria are very similar at the genetic level, which initially thwarted researchers' efforts to study their evolutionary history. However, this changed about 20 years ago when geneticists developed state-of-the-art technology that allowed them to identify the small genetic differences between strains.

"Then the anthrax letter attacks really helped spur the development of whole-genome sequencing," says Pearson.

Bacillus anthracis forms long-lived spores (Credit: Science Source/Science Photo Library)

In a 2004 study, Pearson and his colleagues showed that B. anthracis bacteria fall into three main groups dubbed A, B and C. All three shared a common ancestor, but when and where that first bacterium lived is unclear.

A disease that is intrinsically unfit for international travel became a globetrotter

It probably originated in Africa, argues Martin Hugh-Jones of Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. In parts of southern Africa the genetic diversity of B. anthracis in soil samples is particularly high, and that is often a good indicator of where a species first appeared.

However, Pearson thinks geneticists need to analyse many more soil samples to be sure. "In terms of diversity I could argue for Africa or Europe," he says.

What is not in doubt is that B. anthracis has come a long way since its point of origin. In particular, the A group strains are now found on almost all of the major continents. They account for about 85% of recent anthrax cases around the world.

It is unlikely that they made it so far on their own.

Pearson once took part in an anthrax study in South Africa. Historically, the region had lots of the large herbivores that are particularly vulnerable to infection. These animals migrate across southern Africa, so in theory anthrax strains could travel with them. But they do not.

As early humans migrated across Eurasia... they unwittingly carried anthrax spores with them in their clothes

"When we looked at the anthrax, the different groups tended to be highly localised," says Pearson.

This initially prompted some head-scratching, he says. But once the researchers considered how rapidly anthrax kills its host, it no longer seemed so unusual. Pathogens often rely on their hosts to spread the infection, but B. anthracis kills its host before it can travel far. Anthrax is a highly localised problem.

Or, at least, it is in southern Africa. However, in Eurasia some strains have a much wider distribution. Somehow they have managed to become long-distance travellers.

Anthrax frequently infects herbivores like zebras (Credit: Richard Du Toit/naturepl.com)

"Why is there this difference in Europe and Asia?" asks Pearson. "We don't really know the answer. But we can speculate."

He suspects human behaviour is the key difference.

The first Americans almost certainly arrived in the New World from north-east Asia

Prehistoric humans were always looking for ways to exploit their environment. When they came across the carcass of a dead animal, they might well have taken its skin and used it for clothing. If some of those animals had died from anthrax, their skins might have contained anthrax spores.

As early humans migrated across Eurasia, Pearson thinks they unwittingly carried anthrax spores with them in their clothes, scattering them in their wake.

Ancient humans were just as active in southern Africa, but the climate here was far more benign than in Eurasia, says Pearson. "They perhaps didn't need to carry animal skins with them for warmth at night," he says. As a result, B. anthracis in southern Africa retained its ancestral localised distribution.

If prehistoric humans did help spread B. anthracis outside Africa, it might help explain the unusual distribution of A group anthrax in North America.

The first Americans likely came from Siberia (Credit: Hanne & Jens Eriksen/naturepl.com)

Until a few years ago most researchers assumed anthrax arrived in the Americas a few hundred years ago, with the first European settlers. But when Pearson and his colleagues looked at the data for a 2009 study, they realised it did not fit that story.

The farming revolution might well have intensified the anthrax problem

The data showed that the earliest forms of B. anthracis are restricted to the north-west of the continent. Later forms are found further south, with some reaching into Texas. This suggests that anthrax arrived in the Americas through Alaska and Canada, then spread south and east.

That pattern of spread is quite unlike the movement of European settlers, who arrived on the eastern seaboard. But it does match the route that the earliest Americans took when they first settled on the continent over 13,000 years ago. These first Americans almost certainly arrived in the New World from north-east Asia, taking advantage of a land bridge that linked Asia and North America during the last Ice Age.

This implies that, by the time people began farming about 10,000 years ago, their hunter-gatherer forerunners had already carried anthrax across Eurasia and into the Americas.

However, the farming revolution might well have intensified the anthrax problem.

Livestock can be a source of anthrax (Credit: Cheryl-Samantha Owen/naturepl.com)

In 2007, researchers including Pearson produced the most comprehensive analysis to date of the global history of B. anthracis. It suggested that the A group went through a dramatic radiation between about 6,500 and 3,300 years ago.

There is no definitive evidence that humans are responsible for the global spread of B. anthracis

This coincides with the dawn of the Bronze Age and the beginning of long-distance trade of commodities – including farming goods – across Eurasia. That long-distance trade, coupled with the fact that livestock farming brought people into closer contact with large herbivores, may well have created the perfect conditions for A group B. anthracis to spread and diversify.

In keeping with this idea, a 2009 study of B. anthracis in China revealed that the microbe is at its most diverse in western China, near to the city of Kashi. This city was a crossroads on the famous Silk Road, which might first have been used as a trade route in the Bronze Age.

As yet there is no definitive evidence that humans are responsible for the global spread of B. anthracis, or of A group strains. But there is a lot of circumstantial evidence pointing that way.

Such a story might even explain why A group B. anthracis in particular became so prevalent.

Jiaohe in China lay on the Silk Road (Credit: Noboru Komine/Science Photo Library)

A study published in 2000 suggested that A group strains are better-adapted to a wider range of environments than B or C group strains. The A group B. anthracis might also have an edge when it comes to surviving in the soil.

"Maybe it has a mutation rate that allows its fast adaptation to whatever soil it finds itself in," says Hugh-Jones.

The A group strains are now found on almost all of the major continents

However, Pearson thinks these biological differences alone cannot really explain why A group strains have so spectacularly outperformed B and C strains. The difference, he says, might simply be that A group strains were swept up by human activity to a far greater extent.

"They were just in the right place at the right time," he says.

Either way, it is looking increasingly likely that anthrax is as common as it is, not because it is good at spreading itself, but because our distant ancestors carried it all over the world – without realising it.