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.