Cocktail shoes

Frattegiani

1958 · leather · Costume Institute

The Osgood collection comprises 179 objects, chiefly fashionable Italian-made women's shoes dating from the years 1954 to 1958. The shoes were collected by Charline Osgood, Director of the Kid Leather Guild, a trade organization of American kid leather manufacturers. Highlighting the use of kid leather in footwear, the collection provides a fascinating and enticing view of high-style European shoe design from the period, representing many of the finest and most inventive Italian makers. In her commentary on the shoes she collected, Osgood frankly acknowledged the sex appeal in Italian shoes. This pair of pumps was notable for its emphasis on the "derrière" of the foot, a fascination which she saw as paralleling clothing fashions. She also praised its flowing, continuous lines and its slight, anatomically sensitive asymmetry.

Artist

Frattegiani

Date

1958

Medium

leather

Culture

Italian

Department

Costume Institute

Credit line

Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of the Brooklyn Museum, 2009; Gift of Charline Osgood, 1960