The Art of the Shoe. Marie-Josèphe Bossan

“I wear pointed shoes with a pad under the heel making me high enough to aspire to the title Royal Highness.”

      46. Hiacynthe Rigaud. Louis XIV, 1701. Canvas, 277 x 194 cm. Louvre Museum, Paris.

      47. Anonymous. The Count of Toulouse Dressed as a Novice of the Holy Spirit, around 1694. Condé Museum, Chantilly.

      48. Woman’s shoe in blue leather with decoration embroidered in silver. Italy, 17th century. International Shoe Museum, Romans.

      Jean de la Fontaine (1621–1695) was well aware of the dilemma women faced walking on awkward high heels. In his fable called The Milkmaid and the Jug of Milk, he has Perrette the milkmaid wear flats so that she can take big steps, move with greater agility, and get to town without incident. Around 1652, the fashion was pointed shoes; later they became square. Women’s shoes were based on masculine forms, but always utilized more refined materials, primarily silk brocade, velvet, and brocart, a rich silk brocade sewn with silver and gold thread. Leather on women’s shoes was sometimes trimmed with fine silk embroidery. Overshoes called galoches were worn to protect these smart-looking and delicate shoes from muddy streets. Some shoes exhibited a unique feature whereby the quarter terminated with two tabs attached to the throat of the shoe with a buckle. The throat lay as a flap over the top of the shoe; in French it was called the oreillle.

      These shoes were originally decorated with a large ornament made out of two ribbon loops called ailes de moulin à vent, or windmill sails. This was the look Molière (1622–1673) derided in The School for Husbands when Sganarelle Scoffs, “Those little ribboned shoes make you look like you have big feathery pigeon feet.”

      Between 1670 and 1680, buckles embedded with a combination of real and fake pearls and diamonds replaced bows on tops of shoes. Unembellished bronze buckles were worn during mourning. Buckles were stored in jewelry boxes and adapted for use on different shoes. Children’s shoes were smaller versions of adult models. Children of the wealthy wore shoes made of tripe blance, a type of wool velour.

      Shoes worn by the lower classes exhibited little development. The masses wore wooded clogs or big leather shoes until they were completely deteriorated. Examples are depicted in paintings of the period by the Le Nain Brothers.

      49. Coat of arms granted by Louis XIV to his standard shoemaker, Master Nicolas Lestage, inventor of the incomparable boot without seams.

      50. Woman’s shoe. Italy, 17th century. International Shoe Museum, Romans.

      51. Woman’s shoe with its protective clog. Louis XIV period, 17th century. The fragility of these shoes necessitates the wearing of protective clogs to walk outside or face muddy grounds. The protective clog has a notch to place the heel. International Shoe Museum, Romans.

      52. Woman’s shoe in damask embroidered with threads of gold and silver. Louis XIV period, 17th century. International Shoe Museum, Romans.

      53. Le Brun, The Chancellor Séguier, 295 x 351cm, The Louvre, Paris.

      54. Woman’s mules. Around 1720–1730. Weissenfels Museum, with the authorization of Irmgard Sedler.

      55. François Boucher. La Toilette, 1742. Oil on canvas. 52.5 x 65.5 cm. Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection, Madrid.

      18th century

      At the beginning of the 18th-century, France still held sway over the world of elegance.

      From the Regency to the French Revolution (1715–1789), there was little variation in shoe shapes. The toe could be round or pointed and was sometimes raised, but never square. A heel was named after Louis XV le Bien-Aimé (1710–1774). Elegant ladies favored two different styles: the mule for indoors and high-heeled shoes for more formal outfits. Mules with heels of variable height had uppers of white leather, velvet, or silk, which was usually embroidered. Many models of mules and shoes are depicted in the work of the period’s artists, including the prints of Beaudoin and Moreau le Jeune and the paintings of Quentin de Latour, Boucher, Gainsborough, and Hogarth, among others. Fragonard’s The Swing shows a mischievous young woman in a wind-swept skirt carried high by her swinging, which sends her pink mule towards the nose of her suitor stretched out among the branches beneath the lovely creature.

      The curved lines of the Louis XV style are also recognizable in the period’s heeled shoes, which now attain their maximum height. The curved heel, positioned under the arch of the foot, served as a shank and stabilized the shoe’s balance, although walking in them remained precarious – like walking in Venetian chopines during the Renaissance. To overcome this drawback, fashionable women began using canes in 1786, as the Count de Vaublanc noted in his memoirs: “If she wasn’t holding her weight back with a cane, the doll would fall on her nose.”

      The pinnacle of 18th-century refinement would come to be nestled in diamond-encrusted heels, which in this instance were referred to as venez-y voir (take a look), although the coquetry was secret, due to the fact that dresses almost touched the floor. Restif de la Bretonne (1734–1806), whose glorification of the feminine foot and shoe is well known, is clearly referring to the shoe in the following description:

      “It was a shoe of mother-of-pearl with a flower made of diamonds: the edges were trimmed in diamonds, as was the heel, which was quite slender in spite of this ornament. This pair of shoes cost two thousand écus, not counting the diamonds in the flower, which were worth three or four times this amount: it was a gift from Saintepallaire” (The Pretty Foot, p. 240). These enchanting shoes were of white embroidered leather or precious silks to match dresses and were finished with a buckle that could be changed for each outfit. As in the previous century, polished silver buckles, decorated with glass gems or precious stones, were stored in jewelry boxes and passed down through inheritance. Women continued to protect their shoes when going out by wearing the wooden pattens, which were now secured with two leather straps fastened to the top of the foot; the sole was fitted with a notch for the heel. 18th-century France experienced a passion for the East, as evidenced in historical, economic, and cultural contexts. In the context of footwear, the taste for the exotic led to a craze for pointed shoes with raised toes, variously referred to as shoes à la turque (Turkish) en sabot chinois (Chinese), or à l’orientale (Eastern).

      Men wore simple, flat-heeled shoes embellished with a buckle. Made of dark-coloured or black leather, these shoes emphasized the light-coloured stockings men wore with silk pants. Certain shoes of this type made of silk or velvet to match men’s doublets enjoyed great popularity. A taste for imported English boots (and many other English fashion details) was revived around 1779. A new type of soft leather boot with cuffs to be worn with hunting outfits and court uniforms began to gain popularity during the last twenty years of the 18th-century and would remain common until the 19th century.

      56. William Hogarth. Mariage à la Mode. After the Marriage, 1734–1735. Oil on canvas. 70 x 91 cm. National Gallery, London.

      57. Fragonard. The Swing. Oil on canvas. 81 x 64.2 cm. Wallace Collection, London.

      58. Woman’s shoe. Louis XV period, France, 18th century. Silver buckle accentuated with stones from the Rhine. International Shoe Museum, Romans.

      59. Woman’s shoe, toe upturned