The Costumer's Manifesto: 18th Century Shoes

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18th Century Shoes

A shoemakers shop, 1760's France, from Diderot

Heels to bear the precious charge
More diminutive than large
Slight and brittle, apt to break
Of the true Italian make.

The top boot, the typical male footwear of the 17th Century, faded away into the areas of riding dress during the early 18th Century as it was replaced by the shoe.

French military boots of the style worn from the late 17th century to the middle of the 18th century. From the Army museum in Paris.

Men's Seventeenth & Eighteenth Century Costume : Cut and Fashion

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Shoes : A Celebration of Pumps, Sandals, Slippers & More

Shoes : Their History in Words and Pictures

Shoes

Four Hundred Years of Fashion (V&A Costume Collection)

English riding boot c.1750

Fashionable men’s shoes in the early 18th Century had high but sturdy heels, painted red for court wear and high fashion, a high tongue, and long square ended toes.

Louis XIV & Son

Informal men’s shoes had lower heels and shorter wider toes, and were invariably made of black leather.

Shortly into the century, the dominant shape became that of informal shoes and dress shoes began to be made in a similar fashion to ordinary shoes, with the addition of red heels and buckles.

Shoe buckles became the prime focus of men’s shoes for most of the century until the late 18th Century when political revolutions prompted members of the radical left to discard them as decadent aristocratic luxuries.

The poet Cowper's shoe buckles

In the 1790’s boots were also reintroduced and adopted as the new high fashion foot gear for men.

Gentleman in boots, 1786. (Quicherat)

Eighteenth Century French Fashion Plates in Full Color

Early Dance Part 2 (Baroque Dance)

Women’s shoes in the 18th Century were divided into three categories: mules, or backless slippers, shoes, or closed foot gear, and pattens, outdoor shoe coverings which protected delicately made shoes.

Shoe and "clog" type patten, c.1700

A "ring" Patten,

Mules...

...and shoes.

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Marie Antoinette

How To Dance through Time Vol. IV: The Elegance of Baroque Social Dance


FRONTIER 8822 Spike Angel, black cow leather Apparel

The Forbidden Best-Sellers of Pre-Revolutionary France

Women’s shoes had sharply pointed toes and high curved heels. Buckles were also a central attraction on women’s shoes.

Brocade shoe, English, c. 1700

A Quaker Bride's shoes 1771
American shoes of 1735, 1770, & 1780

Women’s shoes were almost unchanging in shape (only narrowing the curved heels) from 1700 to 1780, when shoes took a dive to low heeled slippers.

bridal slippers, American c. 1800

By the late 1790’s, heels disappeared entirely and the soft, flat, square toed slipper which dominated the next 50 years of women’s shoes had appeared.

shoeshop.jpg

Image from Diderot's Encyclopedia, c. 1762

Links:

The Art of Dress : Fashion in England and France 1750 to 1820

Dress in France in the Eighteenth Century

The Costumer's Manifesto is proudly hosted by William Baker.

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This Page is part of The Costumer's Manifesto by Tara Maginnis, Ph.D. Copyright 1996-2010. You may print out any of these pages for non-profit educational use such as school papers, teacher handouts, or wall displays. You may link to any page in my site.