Slippers

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The contemporary style and taste for simplicity are well exemplified by this pair of attractive slippers. Large and ornate shoe buckles had begun to go out of style in the 1780s, but their demise was radically accelerated by the anti-aristocratic sentiments of the French Revolution. The way was then clear for the slipper to supplant the latchet shoe as the primary style of fashionable womenswear. Strong or dark colorations were often seen around the turn of the18th century, and the attractive dark teal blue color seems to have been one of the favorite choices. The shoes are extremely well preserved, and the smooth, angular lines give us a sense of how they would have looked when new.

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