History Main / TheGirlWhoFitsThisSlipper

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[[quoteright:300:[[WesternAnimation/{{Cinderella}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/glass_slipper_remastered.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:300:Looks like you have your future Princess.]]

* In the retelling of [[{{WesternAnimation/Cinderella}} film]] above in ''Videogame/KingdomHeartsBirthBySleep'', Aqua is present during the scene where the Grand Duke brings the slipper to the Tremaines' home and actually buys time for Cinerella to arrive by asking the Duke if she can try on the slipper since she ''is'' a young woman [[VagueAge roughly of the same age]] as the girl that attended the ball. After that it plays out much the same as the original movie plot... except for the obligatory BossBattle afterward.
* Combined with OnlyTheChosenMayWield in ''VideoGame/DragonQuestV'', where the Hero cannot wear the Zenithian gear [[spoiler:but his son can.]]

* {{Defied}} in ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic''. Near the end of "The Best Night Ever", the ponies are running away from the chaos they accidentally caused at the Grand Galloping Gala. Rarity drops a glass slipper, and Pinkie Pie tells her, "Now your prince is sure to find you!" Rarity, who has no interest in meeting [[PrinceCharmless Prince Blueblood]] ever again, screams and crushes the slipper into shards.
* An... interesting variation occurred in the ''WesternAnimation/RockosModernLife'' episode "Seat to Stardom": When Rocko accidentally mooned a newspaper camera during a movie premiere, a fashion designer saw the picture, and decided the owner of the posterior would make a perfect underwear model. To find the potential model, all of the men in O-Town took turns sitting in an imprint made of Rocko's bottom in the cement that night.
* ''WesternAnimation/LolaAndVirginia'': While wearing a yogurt costume, Lola met a celebrity boy. As she left, she lost her glasses and the boy uses them as a clue to find her. Being interested on the boy, Virginia gets her own yogurt costume but Lola proves the truth by being the one who can see while wearing the glasses.

* In ''WesternAnimation/RocketPower'' After sneaking into the skate park to see the new ramp, Twister accidentally slips in the wet cement, leaving an imprint of his head and hand. Determined to find the culprit, the owner overhears Sam sarcastically suggesting they do what Cinderella did and find out whose head matches the shape in the cement. He then lines up the skaters and lets those who don't fit cement imprint into the park. Its subverted in that Otto ends up fitting the imprint instead, and Twister is forced to confess so Otto doesn't get wrongfully banned from Mad World.
* In the "Scarecrowella" episode of ''WesternAnimation/MagicAdventuresOfMumfie'', Bristle comes to Mumfie's house to give back a hat left at the ball, which they find out fits Scarecrow the best. Then Bristle says he has to marry The Queen of Night. Scarecrow likes this idea [[spoiler:until he is told that he can't visit Mumfie and Pinkey, go on adventures, or scare crows.]]

* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'', Roger finds a nipple pastie the night after a wild party at his bar/attic and goes around trying to find the girl whose nipple fits it. He eventually finds his match, weirdly enough, in a small cottage living with two mean stepsisters.

* Parodied in the ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf'' manga by a story arc titled "Cinderella's Favor" in which a guy has gathered girls to his private island and asks them to step on his head, so he can compare their feet and find [[LoveAtFirstPunch the girl who stomped on his head a long time ago]] (which, of course, is actually [[GenderBender Ranma]]).

* Parodied in chapter 14 of ''Manga/KaguyaSamaLoveIsWar Official Doujin'' where [[ButtMonkey Maki]] is playing the role of Cinderella. The shoe doesn't fit when she tries it on, since her lack of experience with wearing heels caused swelling. Meanwhile, it fits Kashiwagi just fine so she ends up with the prince instead.

* One Chinese comic serial briefly parodied ''Literature/{{Cinderella}}'' and this trope specifically in, of all things, [[https://www.aiguoman.com/chapter/12719-2965.html a crossover it did]] with the ''Franchise/{{Shrek}}'' franchise. The slipper in question turns out to be so massive that it requires two knights to handle... because [[spoiler:Cinderella's ''feet'' are equally enormous, [[ShoeSizeAngst much to her embarrassment]]. No wonder the slipper would fit only her among anyone in the entire kingdom]]!

* A legend from Ancient Greece (found first in Strabo's ''Geographica'', also in Aelian's ''Various History'') relates how the courtesan Rhodopis of Naucratis supposedly became the wife the Pharaoh of Egypt: An eagle carries off one of Rhodopis' sandals while she is bathing and drops it into the lap of the Pharaoh at Memphis. The Pharaoh forms the idea that the shoe must belong to a very beautiful woman and believing that the incident is a cue from the Gods, sends messengers over all of Egypt to find out the owner of the sandal to marry her. Note that it is not clear whether Rhodopis was the only woman who fit the sandal, or whether she was identified by her having the ''other'' sandal.

* {{Justified}} in ''Literature/YehShen,'' one of the earliest versions of the Cinderella tale--it's specifically the golden slipper's small size that makes it so that no other woman will fit it. (Well, presumably the king only tested it on those of marriageable age.) In Chinese culture small feet are traditionally an important standard of beauty, hence the practice of foot-binding (which is believed to have begun about a century after this story was written).
* In "[[http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/celt/pt1/pt118.htm The King Who Wished to Marry His Own Daughter]]" and several others of the type, the dying queen gets a promise to never marry a woman who can not wear an article of her clothing. [[{{Squick}} It turns out that their daughter is the only one who can.]]

* Several ''Literature/HarryPotter'' fanfics have each pureblood family having a ring that automatically resizes itself to fit whoever becomes head of that family.
* In ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4903119/1/A_Dream_is_a_Wish_the_Spark_Makes A Dream is a Wish the Spark Makes]]'' [[Franchise/{{Transformers}} Prowl]] finds the visor that Jazz lost while fleeing the party and uses it to track the mech down. It helps that the visor, rather than merely being used for decoration, enables the blind Jazz to see, thus narrowing down the number of technicians who could have made it.

[[folder:Films -- Animation]]

* Perhaps the earliest instance of this trope in film is ''Aschenputtel'', a 1922 silhouette shadow play short by Lotte Reiniger retelling the Cinderella tale. This short silent film shows Aschenputtel's step-sisters [[AgonyOfTheFeet graphically hacking their feet off]] to fit into the glass slipper.

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
* Subverted in ''Film/StarTrekVITheUndiscoveredCountry''. The boots of one of the assassins are found, but in the locker of the alien crewman Dax ([[Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine no relation]]), who has webbed feet, and the boots are for humans. [[DefiedTrope They were obviously planted to avoid this trope]]. Chekov even mentions the aphorism from the "[[CulturalPosturing old Russian fairy tale]]" -- ''"If shoe fits, wear it."''. He notably fails to look down to make sure that the boots might indeed fit the person he's accusing.
* In ''Film/InglouriousBasterds'', [[spoiler:Bridget]] gets busted as a spy for the Allies because she left her shoe in the basement where the shootout happens and Landa finds it and puts it on her.
* At the end of ''Film/{{Enchanted}}'', Giselle has left her shoes in the ballroom. Edward slips one on Nancy's foot, thus beginning the PairTheSpares.
* GenderFlipped in ''Film/DrJekyllAndMrHydeAyoy'', where Lolita and the police look for Hyde by making people try on his shoe.

* In ''Film/OnceUponACrime2023'', the glass slippers that Tekla produces can only be worn by the recipient. As usual, Cinderella leaves one behind at the ball and the prince comes by the next morning for her to try it on. Subverted in that [[spoiler: he had her try on a *different* glass slipper, one that was connected to the scene of the murder and thus proof that Cinderella was the murderer]].

* Book 4 of ''Literature/TheFaerieQueene'': The winner of the BeautyContest will be the one who can wear the [[NotQuiteDead (supposedly) dead]] Florimell's golden girdle, as it can only be worn by a {{virgin|power}}, and virginity is beautiful. At least, those were the rules, but when the belt fits none of the girls except Amoret, the judges stubbornly award it to who they think is the most attractive girl anyway (who is actually a clone of the real Florimell), chaste or not, despite the protests of Amoret's KnightInShiningArmor, who is actually a SweetPollyOliver. Yes, it's an interesting story.

* ''Literature/WitchesAbroad'' utterly dismantles this trope. Lilith is trying to {{invoke|d trope}} the trope for the Cinderella story she's masterminding, and Nanny Ogg and Granny Weatherwax point out that a lot of feet can fit a shoe that size with enough socks... and even if you don't have socks, there must be a ''lot'' of [[SuspectIsHatless people with that shoe size in the city]]. The only way to use it as a test is if you know who dropped it in the first place....
** Nanny Ogg ''is'' one of the women the shoe fits. And she actually pretends to consider marrying the Duc, even though she knows he's [[spoiler:a frog]].
* Used in Creator/MercedesLackey's remake of ''Cinderella'', ''Literature/PhoenixAndAshes''. Cinderella's wicked stepmother chopped off her pinky finger in the first chapter, so when she leaves her gloves behind at the masquerade ball, there's no question about who they belong to (and it was irrelevant anyway, since the LoveInterest knew full well exactly who he'd been dancing with). Doesn't stop her wicked stepsister from trying, though, and coming out to the hero to claim her gloves still loopy from the painkillers.

* In ''Bound'' by Donna Jo Napoli, a Chinese ''{{Literature/Cinderella}}'' story, it was justified because the shoe was designed for unbound feet, like main character Xing Xing who grew up without binding her feet.

* One mystery short story had a detective telling a suspect that a killer had left a print behind in blood at the scene of the murder, but it was the print of a glove. The suspect pointed out that would not help identify the killer. The detective said the glove had a distinctive characteristic that would identify the killer exactly and asked the suspect to show him his hands. It turns out, the glove [[spoiler:was made for someone with six fingers]].

* The children's book ''Literature/InterstellarCinderella'' is a sci-fi version of the classic tale which has an interesting take on this trope: here, Cinderella is a WrenchWench whose ensemble for the royal Gravity-Free Ball includes a fancy sonic socket wrench. After [[GeekyTurnOn impressing the Prince with her expertise]] and dropping her wrench when she has to leave at midnight, the challenge he offers is to see ''who can fix-up a broken-down space ship with the wrench''.
* In Lawrence Block's ''The Burglar Who Studied Spinoza'' Ray presents a rubber glove with the palm cut out as evidence that Bernie was involved in the Colcannon burglary. Since the glove was actually lost by his partner-in-crime Carolyn, Bernie tries to divert suspicion by demonstrating that it doesn't fit.
* In Babette Cole's ''Literature/PrinceCinders'', Cinders loses his trousers and Princes Lovelypenny uses them to find the man she fell in love with.
* The main plot of ''Literature/HensukiAreYouWillingToFallInLoveWithAPervertAsLongAsShesACutie'' is main character Keiki Kiryū trying to find which of his club's female members is the one that left an anonymous love letter in his locker... only that the "slipper" they left behind is actually a pair of panties. This, naturally, makes it a lot harder to find who did it - not helped by the fact that all the girls are hardcore perverts who are interested in him and want him to participate in their fetishes.

** An early Muppets special, ''Film/HeyCinderella'', has a subversion similar to the Disney version. Here, the prince accidentally steps on the glass slipper, making finding the wearer highly unlikely. The king, however, reasons that while there may be a maiden out there with a pair of glass slippers, the right maiden would be the one who has only ''one'' glass slipper.
* ''Series/MightyMorphinPowerRangers'': Several episodes had [[ThoseTwoGuys Bulk and Skull]] trying to learn the identities of the Power Rangers. In one episode, Bulk took inspiration from "Literature/{{Cinderella}}" and decided to make imprints of the Rangers' boots. An opportunity presented itself when Lord Zedd's MonsterOfTheWeek in that episode had the Rangers battle illusions of past monsters at the beach. At the end of the episode, Bulk and Skull went to Ernie's juice bar with a cement block with imprints of all five Rangers' boots. One of the rangers turned the music on so the musicians would make Bulk drop the block. While he managed to keep holding the block despite the dancers, he was caught unprepared for Skull's congratulatory tap on the back.
* In the ''Series/DoctorWho'' episode "The Beast Below", Liz 10 (Elizabeth X, queen of a future Britain) has a royal mask moulded to the exact shape of her face. This leads to the discovery that [[spoiler:she has been ruling for centuries, not for ten years as she believed - her memories are erased every ten years to keep her from remembering the Star Whale.]]
* Parodied in ''Series/TheGoodies'' episode "Punky Business". Graeme turns Tim into a punk by cutting his leg off. After re-attaching it, he warns Tim that the catch won't last much past midnight. Tim goes to the Trendsetter's Ball, where he loses his leg at midnight. Caroline Kook vows to marry the man whom the leg fits. Cue punks cutting off their own legs.
* Subverted on ''Series/TheFreshPrinceOfBelAir''. Will finds a last-minute date to a Halloween party in a kind waitress named Cindy, who just happened to dress as Cinderella. At midnight, she flees and drops her shoe and Will thinks he's been "touched by magic"... but then Cindy comes back to claim her shoe and gives Will her phone number.
* In ''Series/{{MASH}}'', BJ is accused by a general of throwing a party in the hotel he was staying at, which leads to the general being caught in an embarrassing situation; but BJ insists he was back at camp at the time, and that the real culprit was likely a friend of his who is a notorious practical joker. The general's main piece of evidence is a hat left in the hotel room, and has BJ put it on. It is obviously ''not'' BJ's hat.

* ''Series/{{The Electric Company|1971}}'' spoofed the original scene in a sketch about suffixes; Cinderella's stepsister claims that she has a small foot, while the WickedStepmother boasts that she has a small''er'' one, and Cinderella declares her foot as the small''est''. After the prince's page finds the slipper to fit Cinderella, [[spoiler:they hand her a traffic ticket, with the prince explaining, "Your pumpkin is illegally parked outside the palace."]]
* ''Series/FatherBrown'': Inverted in "[[Recap/FatherBrownS1E2 The Flying Stars]]". Suzie finds an old pair of James Trewlove's shoes in the Adams' attic, [[spoiler:but they don't fit Van Ert... thus he is not James Trewlove]].

* An episode of ''Series/{{Whitechapel}}'' has the investigative team track a witness by the shoes she left behind in a graveyard (having kicked them off to better out-run her would-be attacker).

* In ''WesternAnimation/RocketPower'' After sneaking into the skate park to see the new ramp, Twister accidentally slips in the wet cement, leaving an imprint of his head and hand. Determined to find the culprit, the owner overhears Sam sarcastically suggesting they do what Cinderella did and find out whose head matches the shape in the cement. He then lines up the skaters and lets those who don't fit cement imprint into the park.

-->-- ''{{WesternAnimation/Cinderella}}''

* Subverted in ''Film/StarTrekVITheUndiscoveredCountry''. The boots of one of the assassins are found, but in the locker of the alien crewman Dax ([[Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine no relation]]), who has webbed feet, and the boots are for humans. [[DefiedTrope They were obviously planted to avoid this trope]]. Chekov even mentions the aphorism from the "[[CulturalPosturing old Russian fairy tale]]" - ''"If shoe fits, wear it."''. He notably fails to look down to make sure that the boots might indeed fit the person he's accusing.

* GenderFlipped in ''Film/AyoyDrJekyllAndMrHyde'', where Lolita and the police look for Hyde by making people try on his shoe.
* This is subverted in the 1947 Russian version of ''Film/{{Cinderella|1947}}''. The prince's palace guard goes out, like in all versions of this story, looking for the match. But with Cinderella's (actually in this version, "Zolushka's") help, Anna the older sister manages to cram her foot into it. Eventually Anna is exposed as an impostor when she stumbles at court and the shoe pops off. Zolushka never does put the shoe on. She eventually proves who she is by producing the matching shoe.

* ''Anime/OkamiSan'' : The first episode features a tennis player contemplating retirement trying to find the girl who fits the sneaker that kicked him in the face. [[spoiler:He does, and is revealed to be a bit of a pervert and only did so to determine that said girl had great control of her body to do so. They end up going out.]]

* ''LightNovel/OkamiSan'' : The first episode features a tennis player contemplating retirement trying to find the girl who fits the sneaker that kicked him in the face. [[spoiler:He does, and is revealed to be a bit of a pervert and only did so to determine that said girl had great control of her body to do so. They end up going out.]]

[[quoteright:275:[[{{WesternAnimation/Cinderella}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cinderella_glass_slipper_fitting.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:275:[-Looks like you have your future Princess.-] ]]

'''King:''' That's his problem. He's given his word, we'll hold him to it.

* Subverted in ''Film/StarTrekVITheUndiscoveredCountry''. The boots of one of the assassins are found, but in the locker of a crewman with webbed feet, and the boots are for humans. [[DefiedTrope They were obviously planted to avoid this trope]]. Chekov even mentions the aphorism from the "[[CulturalPosturing old Russian fairy tale]]" - ''"If shoe fits, wear it."'' He notably fails to look down to make sure that the boots might indeed fit the person he's accusing.

* In ''WesternAnimation/CinderellaIIIATwistInTime'', Prince Charming ''himself'' acknowledges the flimsiness of a shoe size as proof of one's identity, but also points out they don't have any other means of finding Cinderella. His and the king's doubts about this plan become confirmed when Lady Tremaine uses [[ItMakesSenseInContext a stolen magic wand]] to make the glass slipper fit stepsister Anastasia instead.

* The main plot of ''LightNovel/HensukiAreYouWillingToFallInLoveWithAPervertAsLongAsShesACutie'' is main character Keiki Kiryū trying to find which of his club's female members is the one that left an anonymous love letter in his locker... only that the "slipper" they left behind is actually a pair of panties. This, naturally, makes it a lot harder to find who did it - not helped by the fact that all the girls are hardcore perverts who are interested in him and want him to participate in their fetishes.

[[folder: Radio]]

* In Season 9, Episode 4 of ''Radio/JohnFinnemoresSouvenirProgramme'', a young Vanessa is trying to tell Newt the story of Cinderella, and he keeps interrupting with annoying FridgeLogic. When she says that one stepsister's feet were too small, and the others were too large, he comments that Cinderella was identified by having "the most average-sized feet in the kingdom."