1720s shoe
Garment: Female shoe
Materials: Paper & thread
Size: Life size
If you click on the picture of the back of the shoe below you can read about the inspiration behind this piece
Shoes for both men and women in the early 1700s tended to be ornate and glamorous.
Click on the shoe to open it in a pop-up
"Shoes in the early years of the eighteenth century, for both men and women, were designed to complement the luxurious fashions of the period, adding a final flourish and touch of opulence to an outfit…High heels were common for both sexes, as was the use of sumptuous fabrics. Shoes typically included a high rising vamp (upper front part of the shoe)…giving it a long elegant appearance, as well as providing a space for decorative displays of silver lace, beadwork or embroidery. The use of such exquisite and expensive materials made the shoes of the wealthiest more than just functional items, instead they became aesthetic objects of desire and outward symbols of the wearer’s refined tastes and high social status…the squared toe characteristic of the late seventeenth century evolved into a point toe by 1710, the…‘Louis’ heel, inspired by the court of Louis XIV of France and worn by England’s elite from the 1660s, was a trend which endured until the mid-1770s.”