Shoes, back

Shoemakers in the 1700s did not create a left and right shoe, instead they made straights, where both shoes were the same shape. Closed with the buckle, the toe of the shoe would have peeped out beneath the hem of a woman's large skirt or petticoat. The brocaded silk, with motifs of ears of wheat and sprays of flowers, may have complimented or matched the petticoat. Towards the end of the 1750s there was a move away from a pointed toe to a squarer toe. The heel shape is known as a 'Louis' heel named after King Louis XIV of France whose tastes and style a century before had epitomised fashionable dress.