Closed Women's Shoes

These delicate blunt toed shoes have a closed fore-section with a raised, tapered instep flap. Two delicate flowering branches in metal and sequin embroidery adorn the front leaf with a ribbon rosette above. All edges, lateral seams and the heel seam are trimmed in pink silk ribbon, and the narrow, tapered heel is covered in silk. This is the Italian heel about which Gentleman’s Magazine wrote in 1776: “Heels to bear the precious charge,/More diminutive than large,/Slight and brittle, apt to break,/Of the true Italian make” (Mackenzie 2004: 44).