March et Démarche--The History of the Shoe

Marche et Démarche or Step by Step is an exhibit at the Musée des Arts Décoratif, housed in a part of the Louvre Palace.

Musée des Arts Décoratif

It was a blustery day in Paris but the sky was so pretty. One minute there was blue sky and the next the wind blew in the gray clouds.

I have been seeing the posters all over Paris for this exhibit and I was intrigued. I had never been to this museum and the exhibit looked fun and interesting-and it was!

Entrance to the Exhibit

There were so many different kinds of shoes from different countries and centuries. Below on the top row is a leather shoe called a Poulaine that was worn in the 15th century. They liked the elongated foot and pointy toe.

1400s vs 1700s

The fancy red shoes with pointy toes were worn in the 18th century. While peasants and workers wore heavy wooden clogs or sabots, those living in the cities, mansions and at the court wore beautiful shoes made of silk and fine leather. These fancy shoes were better for looking elegant than for walking.

Sabots and Boot

The men's wooden clogs to the right were worn in the 19th century as work shoes by the poor. The sabots were only worn outside and padded with thick socks, felt slippers or sometimes straw to give a good fit.

Below the sabots are a pair of button up boots made of wool and leather worn by men in 1900. So fashionable!

















The heel originated in Persia where they were practical to keep men's shoes in the stirrups when on horseback. Through Persian merchants, the heel made its way to Europe where noble men and women adopted them in the later part of the 16th century. I love the curled up toes on these shoes.

Persian Shoes from the 17th Century

In the 18th century, heels were phased out for men but women's heels for the nobility kept getting higher. Moving in these shoes where only the tip of the toe touches the ground required special lessons from childhood with a dance master.

Early 1700s Woman's Shoe
Duc de Guise Style

In Europe, beginning in the 17th century, small feet were seen as a sign of virtue among the nobility (think Cinderella, written in 1697). In the 18th century, "mignon" (cute or sweet) feet became the feminine aristocratic ideal. In order to achieve the requisite foot size, a lady's slipper--often compared to a vice--would shape and squeeze the foot. The women were unable to actually walk. 

Below is Marie Antoinette's shoe. It was taken from her room in the Tuileries Palace by a member of the Paris National Guard after she fled their attack with her husband, Louis XVI. It is only 8-1/4 inches long and 2 inches wide. By 1800, during the Empire period, women's shoes again lost their heels but remained very narrow and pointy. Heels came back into vogue for women in the 1840s.

Marie Antoinette's Shoes

François Pinet patented a new type of heel in 1854 made of one piece of leather and filled and capped in latex. It was a revolution in shoe production-the shoes were light, economical, quick to produce and very elegant. The Louis XV heels for men came back into vogue in the 1860s and heels went higher and higher into the 20th century.

The shoes and socks in the layette below were given to Princess Mary of England in the 1920s before her baby was born. But the baby turned out to be a prince named George, not a princess. By this time, pink was a girl's color so the shoes were returned and never worn.

Salvatore Ferragamo kept shoe forms for many famous women, including Audrey Hepburn, Sophia Loren and Ava Gardner, which he could use to customize shoes for them.

Salvatore Ferragamo 1954

Audrey Hepburn and Ava Gardner
Shoe Forms

John Lennon's Boot

This boot with rhinestone heels was worn by John Lennon in 1964.












In 1992, Christian Louboutin took his assistant's nail polish and painted the sole of the shoe he was working on bright red. Since then, the red soles have identified this designer's shoes.

Louboutin Shoes 2004

Charlie Chaplin, as the Tramp, wore this scuffed up boot. His boots were unusually wide, which contributed to his iconic walk. He had to lift his feet up high in order not to trip.

Charlie Chaplin's Shoe

Tennis shoes and ballet shoes have changed over the years.

Tennis Shoes

1775-1790 Dance Shoes

These tennis shoes were worn in the 1920s.















Until the end of the 18th century, aristocrats at balls and professional dancers on stage wore shoes that resembled their street shoes. They were narrow with a high heel and not really adapted to the way they were dancing.







This ballet shoe belonged to the painter Edgar Degas in the second half of the 19th century.

Cléo de Mérode, who danced at the Folies Bergère, wore these blue ballet slippers about 1910.

Cléo de Mérode's Slippers

Folies Bergère

Finally, shoes that were impossible to wear were displayed. Some of these were pretty crazy!

Iris Schieferestein creates shoes from roadkill or skins she collects at slaughterhouses or her local butcher. I can't imagine wearing these horse boots.

I enjoyed the rest of the museum with rooms from different periods from the 17th to the 20th centuries. I stumbled on Napoleon's throne and the 1819 cradle of the Duke of Bordeaux, both stunning.

And the evolution of the chair in the 18th century hung on one long wall. The change in female fashion influenced the form of the back, legs and armrests of the chairs during the century.

I enjoyed this museum--and learned a lot about shoes!