Shoes

For all the floor-sweeping plenitude of fabric in an eighteenth-century gown, feet were not forgotten as an opportunity for the expression of refinement, luxury, and style. Paintings of the period invariably represent the delicacy of finely wrought shoes bared by the aristocratic sitter as she crosses her legs at her ankles or knees. Standing, it is the toe and counter of her shoe that are discretely exposed. Although the front of the shoe bore the greatest embellishment, as it was the part most exposed, the "Louis" heel, with its delicately sculptured profile, is what has come to characterize the style of the period. The fine line of white piping between the sole and the upper is a detail that, for the most part, disappears after the mid-eighteenth century.