The Art of the Shoe. Marie-Josèphe Bossan

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      19th century

      19th-century women wore woolen ankle boots, but were especially known for their ballet shoes of fine glazed leather, satin, or silk. Ballet shoes fit a woman’s foot closely like a glove and were held by ribbons crossed around the ankle. Very fragile, these ephemeral shoes scarcely lasted the duration of one ball.

      An 1809 inventory of the wardrobe of Empress Josephine (1763–1814) listed seven hundred and eighty-five pairs of ballerinas made by the shoemaker Lalement. Dancing took place frequently during the Empire period, at court and elsewhere, during interludes between battles.

      As for men’s footwear, knee pants and silk stockings reintroduced by Napoleon showed off Empire-style escarpins, flat pumps made of patent leather and decorated with a buckle. The military-style boot was standard footwear for soldiers; it could be short or tall, with or without cuffs.

      The Emperor, a shrewd strategist declared: “A well-equipped soldier requires three things: a good rifle, a military coat, and good shoes.” Yet Napoleonic military shoes could be the subjects of humor, as in this story from the memoirs of an officer in the Great Army: “One day I went with General P… into an uninhabited house; it was pouring down and our clothes were soaking wet, so we lit a fire and warmed ourselves.

      – Sit down, the General said to me.

      – Why?

      – I want to take your boots off.

      – You’re kidding me!

      – No, I am not. Give me your foot.

      – General, I can’t allow it.

      – Your boots are soaked and your feet are in water. You’re going to catch cold.

      – But I can take them off myself.

      – I want to take them off for you.

      Against my wishes, the General would remove my boots, to my extreme astonishment. When he was finished: Now my turn, he said. One good turn deserves another. Take off my boots.

      – I’d be delighted.

      – It was in order to get you to do this that I acted as I did

      During the Restoration and the reign of Louis-Philippe, men wore boots and escarpins made of black leather. Only soft half boots were allowed to be beige, tawny, or brown.

      The British dandy George Brummell (1778–1840), better known as Beau Brummell, wore laced ankle boots with narrow pants. Nicknamed the “fashion king,” his clothes become a standard of elegance that knew no boundaries. The Prince of Wales and King Georges IV of England (1762–1830) were among his admirers.

      Women also wore flat ankle boots made of cloth and laced on the side. A taste for satin and silk escarpins tied with ribbons lasted until 1830.

      The heel returned under Louis-Philippe (1773–1850), but it was not until 1829 that news of its astonishing reappearance was published in the fashion periodical Le Petit Courrier de Dames: “We dare risk reporting shoes with a high heel positioned mid-sole, raising the in-step and thereby lending grace to walking. At least if our heels are constructed this way, they will not be ridiculous like our grandmother’s heels.”

      Another fashion publication, Les Modes Parisiennes, in 1850 reported: “Some women are wearing heeled shoes according to their whim; this shows a desire to succumb to fashion, because they are very uncomfortable for dancing; ankle-boots have also begun to have little heels; these can only be suitable for women who do not have to wear rubber overshoes.” The Second Empire preferred luxury and had an appetite for parties.

      70. Louis Boilly. Portrait of a Man, 1805. Museum of Fine Arts, Lille.

      71. Boots of Imperial Prince Jean-Joseph-Eugene-Louis Napoleon, only son of Napoleon III and Eugenie de Montijo. International Shoe Museum, Romans.

      72. Woman’s shoe in bronze kidskin, double attachment. Charles IX. Buttoned on the side, embroidery with gilded metal beads, leather sole, reel heel. 19th century. International Shoe Museum, Romans.

      73. Pair of men’s shoes in black leather and openworked black silk. Around 1830. Galliera Museum, Fashion Museum of the City of Paris. Photo by Pierrain, PMVP.

      74. Bride’s shoe, bead design in heart shape. Marriage the 10th of November 1896. International Shoe Museum, Romans.

      75. Bride’s shoe, detail, bead design in heart shape. Marriage the 10th of November 1896. International Shoe Museum, Romans.

      In contrast to the bourgeois court of Louis-Philippe, that of Napoleon III (1808–1873) proved to be extremely brilliant. Its salons and boulevards became a theater of society life, while the operettas of Jacques Offenbach, in particular La Vie Parisienne, mirrored the period’s joie de vivre with a sense of humor. The passion for crinoline born around 1850 led to a revitalization of couture. The Empress Eugenie (1826–1920) brought fame to her couturier, Charles-Frederic Worth, who opened his salon in 1858, clothing the actresses and courtesans of the period, in addition to his imperial client. The bourgeoisie meanwhile accelerated their rise and pursued financial gain. The ankle boot reigned supreme, made of leather or cloth and very narrowly shaped. Decorated with embroidery and braids, it was either laced up or buttoned via a row of little buttons, whence the invention of the tire-bouton or buttonhook. The Second Empire also marks a decisive stage in the history of footwear, characterized by advances in mechanization and large-scale industry. Traditional shoemaking, which changed in 1809 when a machine for tacking soles appeared in England, was transformed by the industrial revolution. In 1819, another new machine made wooden pegs for tacking soles. But the biggest change came from Thimonnier’s invention of the sewing machine, patented in 1830. A perfect invention, the sewing machine made it possible to stitch uppers of soft materials and began to spread among shoemakers in 1860. The technique improved their production yields, as machines positioned the heel, stitched the upper, and attached the upper to the sole. After 1870, it became common СКАЧАТЬ