Shoes

E. Pattison

1806–15 · (a, b) leather, silk · Costume Institute

It is a sad reality that many of the extraordinary manifestations of fashionable dress do not survive. Frequently, what has come down to us is not the extreme expression of a time as represented in fashion plates, but rather the slightly more muted quotidian example that most-generally privileged-women actually wore. On occasion, there are fortunate exceptions, such as these shoes. In the high Neoclassical style, they represent a Regency fantasy of Greco-Roman footwear. The color is astonishing for its freshness, and is generally seen only in the hand-tinted fashion engravings of the time rather than in actual artifacts. Worn with a white mull dress, perhaps with a tinted underdress, the shoes would have been a vivid accent or, if paired with a colored silk gown, a noticeably refined coordination.

Artist

E. Pattison

Date

1806–15

Medium

(a, b) leather, silk

Culture

British

Department

Costume Institute

Credit line

Purchase, Gerson and Judith Leiber Foundation Gift, 2001