Pumps

Luxus

1955 · 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. Asymmetry and sexy low cuts were two of the Italian shoe trends Osgood brought to her American audiences. This pump from a firm in Turin illustrates both those qualities aptly, baring the flexed inner instep, which Osgood identified as the sexiest part of the female foot.

Artist

Luxus

Date

1955

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