Winklepicker

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Winklepickers or Winkle Pickers are a style of shoe or boot worn from the 1950s onward by both certain male and female British rock and roll fans. The feature which gives both the boot and shoe their name is the very sharp and quite long pointed toe, reminiscent of medieval footwear and approximately the same as the long pointed toes on some women's fashion shoes and boots today. This pointed toe was called the winkle picker toe because, in England, winkles are eaten with a pin or pointed object to get the winkle out of the shell (hence the term "to winkle something out").

Winklepicker boots and shoes were part of the standard clothing worn by Teddy Boys. The male boots were of leather, elastic-sided and had a two-inch, and later as much as two and one half inch, Cuban heel. The male shoes were lace-up Oxford style with a one and a half or two inch usually Cuban Heel.

Winklepicker shoes and later boots, were also worn by the Teddy Girls as well as being a fleeting fashion for young women generally. These were almost the same as some of the fashion shoes of today and the most exaggerated ones were very similar to the extremely long pointed toe which has been fashionable on women's shoes and boots in Eastern Europe of late. The long sharp toe was always teamed with a stiletto heel (or spike heel) which as today could be as low as one and a half inches or as high as five inches, though most were in the three to four inch range.

They attained some notoriety as a result of being used in gang fights (sometimes by both sexes!) to kick prone and helpless victims who were unable to protect themselves properly, even if rolled into a ball; this was because of the penetrating nature of the long toe tip which focused all the force of the kick and a number of serious eye and testicular injuries resulted. In fact the term "winkle" is also used in slang to mean the flaccid penis and coupled with their use in kicking the private parts of opponents, the very name "winklepickers" took on vulgar overtones. This seemed to have been reinforced by the suggested practice of increasingly liberated and forward young women using such toes on female footwear to surprise and perhaps embarrass their male partners by prodding their private parts under tables in public places. Thus effectively turning the historical tables, as in the 14th and 15th Century, long pointed male footwear called poulaines or Cracowes were allegedly used to do the same to females! A practice that was also allegedly revisited by some males wearing winklepickers.

The Winklepicker toe ended up being too long to be practical and in the early 1960's the point was effectively chopped off and gave rise to the "chisel toe" on the footwear of both genders. However, winklepickers with traditional sharp-point styles are making a comeback of sorts in the goth scene, where they are known as "pikes".