Shoes

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This pair of simple but elegant latchet shoes exhibits all the classic features from the second quarter of the 18th century, beautifully crafted and extremely well preserved. The favored trim of a wide band of metallic lace up the center front and often up the center back came into style in the last decades of the 1600s and persisted until around 1750. Also of note is the dog-leg (stepped) side seam, a feature which developed as latchets widened to support increasingly large buckles in first half of the century, and which was retained until about 1770. The white rand (strip of leather around the sole edge of the vamp) is a conspicuous feature of quality women's shoes beginning in the 17th century and dying out in the 1760s.

The Costume Institute

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Costume Institute's collection of more than thirty-three thousand objects represents seven centuries of fashionable dress and accessories for men, women, and children, from the fifteenth century to the present.

Metropolitan Museum of Art