18th Century Footwear
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Glasgow Museums has a very small collection of five pairs of eighteenth-century women's shoes dating from 1700 to 1800. This includes examples with embroidered or woven silk uppers. There are also a small number of leather and metal pattens from the late 1700s into the early 1800s.
The majority of shoes in the 1700s were made as straights, with no specific shaping for the left or right foot. These were easier to make and would have moulded to the wearer’s feet with time. Wealthy, fashionable women wore shoes with silk uppers that may have matched the woven patterned fabrics of their gowns. For many decades shaped heels were popular which are now known as Louis heels, named after Louis XV of France (1710–1774). However, with the move to slimmer silhouettes for dresses in the 1790s flat slipper-style shoes became popular made with silk or leather uppers in either plain colours or decorated with small-scale patterns.
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