Evening slippers

Unknown

1835–45 · silk · Costume Institute

In the first three decades of the 19th century, evening slippers were often worn in both bright and pastel colors. As tastes changed and skirts lengthened to obscure the feet, less attention fell on footwear and black and white satin slippers became predominant. The grass green of this pair of shoes was one of the few bright colors which persisted for evening wear into the 1840s, albeit a distant third behind white and black judging from surviving examples and accounts. Although this basic form remained the standard evening slipper for over fifty years, one can see the distinctive wide square toe commonly worn around 1840 in this example.

Artist

Unknown

Date

1835–45

Medium

silk

Culture

probably American

Department

Costume Institute

Credit line

Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of the Brooklyn Museum, 2009; Gift of Herman Delman, 1954