Slippers

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Worn by a girl of five years in age, these decorative slippers are a miniature version of an extremely popular women's style of the 1850s and 1860s. Bronze kid slippers with an elaborate chain-stitched cutout medallion on the vamp backed in colored silk were sometimes known as "chameleon shoes", as on some models the silk backing was removable, and could be interchanged with another color to complement the wearer's dress. Despite the elaborate appearance, this type of shoe was worn for morning dress, not for formal occasions.

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