Tiffan Fairamay

Project: Creating a pair of Roman Carbatinae

East Kingdom Wiki: https://wiki.eastkingdom.org/index.php?title=Tiffan_Fairamay

Links to full article, sources and additional photographs: https://thornandthread.wordpress.com/2021/05/15/creating-a-pair-of-roman-carbatinae/

Objective: The objective of this project was to start exploring Roman shoes, and to fashion a pair for myself. My focus was on drafting a pattern to fit my own feet after studying drawings of finds from Romano-Germany, and then use materials that I had on hand to make a functional pair.

Initially inspired by Norma Goldman’s chapter in The World of Roman Costume about Roman footwear, I decided that the carbatinae style shoe looked most promising, considering the leather and tools that I had on hand. I also loved the beautiful, asymmetrical, almost lacy design, of these soft soled shoes, as well as the method of construction in which a single piece of leather is cut, one seam stitched up the heel, and tabs around the toe and vamp laced to form the shoe.

Using one of the illustrations in Goldman’s article, and an image online that would later lead me to a publication by the Landesmuseum Hannover, I drafted my pattern and constructed the shoe. Based on observations of other Roman shoes with elaborate cutwork, I started out thinking that the pattern of triangles on the vamp were cut holes, and prepared my pieces accordingly. But after seeing the photographs in the book from the Landesmuseum Hannover, it became clear that these designs were tooled into the leather. The soft bison skin proved almost brittle when cut, and difficult to stitch and tool. This was frustrating, but I am very pleased with the fit of the shoes and how comfortable they are to wear. I’m looking forward to using them, knowing that when they wear out I can make another pair using what I’ve learned to improve the next version.

Conclusion/Next Steps: Though this project emerged out of my simple need for a pair of Roman style shoes, it has led to many new questions and research rabbit holes, including a desire to learn more about Romano-German lifeways and history, bog bodies found in that area, and the mystery of finds lost during the upheaval of the modern wars in Europe. My initial frustration with the leather that I used to make this pair of shoes has also left me feeling inspired to learn more about leather tooling. I look forward to digging in and learning more.

Photo Credit: Solivere of Malagentia