Evening Dress with One Shoe

circa 1892
Label: Russell & Allen
VC1992003

This gown consists of a fitted, boned bodice and a full gored skirt with back pleating and train, all made from an ivory silk satin with an ornate, seventeenth century-inspired gold and pink floral metallic brocade. It was made by Russell & Allen, well known English couturiers known for their court dress. It likely included ornate embellishments that were removed at some point during alterations for the stage, and would have been worn by a wealthy woman in the 1890s who could afford handmade, fashionable garments.

“Satin to match the gown is still considered the proper footwear for evening.” This quote from an article on evening footwear from an 1894 issue of Harper’s Bazaar illustrates that this shoe conforms to the correct standard of contemporary high society evening wear. This article implies that these shoes could only be worn with this dress, and that any other dress the wearer might have owned should have had its corresponding set of matching shoes. This practice would only have been sustainable by the very wealthy, identifying the owner of this dress as a member of the upper class who possessed the luxury to follow the latest fashion trends.

What are the social implications of wearing a shoe such as this? Actually, standing in and dancing on this shoe during a social function. Certainly, it functions of an indicator of status; A golden heel would have literally supported the wearer as she milled about a party.

Both the bodice and skirt required a great deal of work; in fact, this work is ongoing. While the bodice has been successfully reinforced, the skirt is a victim of its own weight. Despite significant reinforcement of the fabric at the waistband and re-pleating of the skirt, it continues to tear just below wherever it is reinforced. This is likely due to the deterioration of the silk threads over decades of contact with their neighboring copper threads in the brocade.

Researched and Stabilized by Sharon Scoble ‘10 and Sierra Starr ‘12