Basic Information
Unsurprisingly, perhaps, the foot-cloth (vulgarly "toe rag") is a piece of cloth, used to wrap the feet (not to the extent of Chinese foot binding - that was another thing entirely). In extreme cases, these, sufficiently layered, could be the whole of the wearer's footwear or could simply be predecessor of the sock or stocking, especially in the case of pre-modern, not-fitted shoes (i.e. those with no real size adjustment or difference between left and right) or in rigid footwear such as clogs, serving in either case as insulation, shock adsorbent padding, protection against rubbing and fit adjustment. Era depends on culture - in Russia, their use persisted well into the mid C20, at least partially because they provided better thermal protection inside winter snow boots.
Quality could be anything from scavenged sack-cloth wrapped around the feet of a beggar to the silk lining a court lady's slippers, and may be built up in layers, as though bandaging the feet. Freshness would also vary along the same lines - with the inner layers around a beggar's feet demonstrating how "toerag" came to be considered an insult.
Sources
Game and Story Use
- A much ignored item of pre-modern clothing