Announcing: American Duchess’s 18th Century Dyeable Silk Shoes – the not-quite-yet-Saturday-shoe!

Fed up of boring shoes?  Looking for the ideal 18th century footwear for a Lady of Fashion?  Want to bring a bit of elegance to 21st century footwear? Now you can!  I am rather excited at the prospect of American Duchess’s Georgiana shoes – today pre-orders open for these pretties: (And, no, it’s not an [...]

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The Saturday Shoe, The Elder

I usually post and lust after pretty shoes of early modern history … but we have been wearing shoes for thousands of years.  As you can imagine, they looked rather different then: Looking at shoes so often, I was curious about what the oldest shoes found were. For one thing, they’re far older than I [...]

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Bargain Antiquing – Part II

Here you are, dear reader, he promised pictures of yesterday’s pretties (or, to thieve The Dreamstress’s phrase, Pogey Bait!).  We set off early on the bus to get to Heanor and hit the Antiques Centre and plenty of charity shops. First off, some true sewing pogey bait – a few bags of mixed buttons: Vintage [...]

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The Saturday Shoe – Vivienne Westwood

The Saturday shoe returns with a little homage to Vivienne Westwood and her crazy-awesome shoe designs.  And me being me, there’ll be little references to her historical influences. First, some lovely buckles from Ms Westwood:Are they shoes?  Are they boots?  Who knows! OK, so these are rather too extreme for everyday wear and they don’t [...]

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The Saturday Shoe – Shoes Fit For an Angel

For the triumphant (?) return of the Saturday Shoe, what better theme than the queen of triumphant returns (and falls from grace, but we’ll skirt over that for now) – Angelique.  Now, if you don’t know Angelique, then I think you should get acquainted post haste!  Here’s Wikipedia’s very brief summary, while the official website [...]

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The Saturday Shoe – The Old Slapper!

Well, not a slapper in that sense, but a slap sole shoe. These are from the Northampton Museum, which has the world’s largest collection of footwear.  How handy, then, that my mum lives in Northampton!  When I have a new camera, I’ll be paying another visit to the museum, but back to the shoes… It [...]

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The Saturday Shoe (or should that be stilts?) – Chopines

Today for your visual pleasure and curiosity, dear reader, allow me to present to you these most marvelous chopines from the Bata Shoe Museum: Yes, they look gorgeous and bizarre, but so what? you might say, but have another look – these bad boys were made around the turn of the 17th century.  And they [...]

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AWOL! (And the Saturday Shoe)

Hello again, my lovelies… Sorry I’ve not been able to post as I’d hoped – things have been (and still are) really hectic around here – I hope to be able to resume some sort of normal service next week. In the meantime, as it’s still Saturday – here’s your weekly dose of shoe-love: Mid [...]

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The Saturday Shoe – How To!

This week’s shoe is the gift that keeps on giving (or something) – give a woman a picture of a shoe and you feed her soul for a week, but give her a how-to on recovering her own pair of 18th Century style shoes and you feed her soul for life… And here’s part 1 [...]

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The Saturday Shoe – French Fancies!

It’s Saturday, which means it’s shoe-day!  And do I have a very dainty, pretty pair for you today: They are silk brocade from around 1775 and “probably” from France.  The shape is lovely – a gentle little point on the toe, emphasised by the flowers, and a rather practical sized heel.  I adore the detail [...]

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