Step 3 of 10

Out Of Fashion

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  • Fig. 1. Manchu Women's Shoes, ca. 19th century, China. From the collection of the Brooklyn Museum. Accession Number: 34.1057a-b. [brooklyn museum](https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/38404)
  • Fig. 2. Shoes for Bound Feet, ca. 1850-1890, Zhejiang province, China. From the collection of the Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto. [Wikicommons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chinese_shoes_for_bound_feet,_Zhejian_province,_Ningbo-Shaoxing,_1850-1890_AD_-_Bata_Shoe_Museum_-_DSC00064.JPG)
  • Fig. 3. Child’s Shoe, ca. 1873, Shache, China. From the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Accession Number: 2077(IS). [Victoria and Albert Museum](https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O453564/shoe-unknown/)

First, let us examine the clues that are available to us. According to the information provided by the museum, these slippers were collected in China, and were created sometime during the 18th or 19th century. Even though this dating is not exactly precise, it is an adequate enough time frame to determine these slippers as originating from late Qing dynasty The Qing dynasty was established in 1636, and lasted until 1912..

However, if these shoes are indeed designed for the feet of a lady, they do not quite fit in with the contemporary styles of the Qing dynasty. The dynasty was a fascinating age during which the assimilation of the Manchu and Han cultures saw the rise of Chinese material culture as we know it today. Naturally, the fashionable footwear of this era included a wide variety of colorful and interesting shoes. Prominent during this era was the high-heeled Manchu platform shoe (see fig. 1). These shoes, with their distinct variations of high-heeled soles and striking colorful designs, were an important part of the Manchu cultural identity Shengfang Chou, “Manchu Horse-Hoof Shoes: Footwear and Cultural Identity”, V&A Online Journal, no.2 (2009).. Another shoe popular during this dynasty, despite the Manchu-dictated restrictions against foot binding, was the Han lotus shoe (see fig. 2) Unfortunately, the Western fascination with this type of shoe and the practice of footbinding has created an environment in which it is difficult to find information on other types of Chinese footwear. Additionally, the Western perspective on this important part of Chinese cultural history is more often than not quite problematic. For a different approach to this subject I highly recommend the following work: Dorothy Ko, Cinderella’s Sisters: A Revisionist History of Footbinding. Berkeley and London, 2005.

However, our slippers lack the prominent elevation associated with the horse-hoof shoes. And with a length of 21 centimeters, they would not fit the small footprint of a pair of bound feet. The mules are somewhat similar to the more comfortable cloth shoes often worn by children (see fig. 3) However, the flattened toe box and open heel design are not featured in these examples. Then, how can we be sure of the origin of these slippers? Perhaps we will find more clues in the decorations…