Slippers

Unknown

1866 · leather · Costume Institute

Worn by a girl of five years in age, these decorative slippers are a miniature version of an extremely popular women's style of the 1850s and 1860s. Bronze kid slippers with an elaborate chain-stitched cutout medallion on the vamp backed in colored silk were sometimes known as "chameleon shoes", as on some models the silk backing was removable, and could be interchanged with another color to complement the wearer's dress. Despite the elaborate appearance, this type of shoe was worn for morning dress, not for formal occasions.

Artist

Unknown

Date

1866

Medium

leather

Culture

French

Department

Costume Institute

Credit line

Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of the Brooklyn Museum, 2009; Gift of Harriette Yeaton, 1947