Boots

Unknown

1895–1900 · leather, cotton · Costume Institute

Owing their style to prevailing taste in womenswear, this unusually elaborate pair of child's ankle boots features patterned fabric insertions set under a fancy serpentine cutout, highlighted with topstitching. Cutouts were an important trend in women's boots at the time, sometimes in very elaborate Art Nouveau motifs. The use of patterned woven fabric is also a notable contemporary element, as is the preference for dark colors. Within a few years, all of these elements would be distinctly unfashionable.

Artist

Unknown

Date

1895–1900

Medium

leather, cotton

Culture

American

Department

Costume Institute

Credit line

Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of the Brooklyn Museum, 2009; Gift of The Jason and Peggy Westerfield Collection, 1969