Whether it's 1770 or 2010, ladies have always loved their trendy shoes. As we've learned in Colonial Williamsburg, making 18th c. ladies shoes were a specialized trade, and the shoes were often sold in their own shops, separate from men's shoes.
Shoe making was also a trade that welcomed female craftspeople, with women documented as being not only shoemakers, but owners of shoe making shops. It was also a highly skilled trade to learn, with apprenticeships of seven years. An accomplished shoemaker could produce a hand cut and sewn pair of shoes in about eight hours' labor. (Shoe makers in the 18th c. are not to be confused with cobblers. Cobblers only mended shoes, and were regarded as less skilled. By the mid 19th c., when factory-produced shoes were putting the skilled shoemaker out of business, they, too, began to repair shoes, and the trades of cobblers and shoemakers merged into one.)
We've posted earlier about the beautiful embroidered flats made by the CW mantuamakers. Here we can see a heeled shoe in progress at the shoe maker's shop. The heels were carved from beech, a wood chosen for being lightweight but hard, and then covered with leather or cloth. The rest of the shoe would be constructed from the heel and sole upwards, fitted and designed for the individual customer's foot and taste. Often the mantuamaker would supply the embellished silk upper, and the silver or brass buckle that closed the lappets over the tongue would be purchased from a jeweler. When done, this particular pair will have yellow leather-covered heels and silk uppers. We can't wait to see them!
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One of us -- 
22 comments:
Good post, very interesting. Thank you.
Regards.
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Great post!
I'd never heard of a female shoemaker. Hmmm...could conjure a good character now, couldn't it? Of course,I know some people *points finger at TNHGs* who could really do a character like that justice
Am I subtle enough? ;o)
This was so interesting! I'd no idea there were women shoemakers. And I really want a pair of those shoes! Can't wait for the ostriche feathers you're promising next.
Great post! I'm covetting a new pair of shoes now...will content myself with blacking and polishing my old pair :)
Lovely coincidence - there's a great post over on History Myths Debunked about whether "Pop Goes the Weasel" is a cobbler's work song, with more info about the shoemaking trade in general:
http://tinyurl.com/25g3m63
Another term for shoemaker is cordwainer. I know this because my daughter is determined to go to Cordwainer's College in London. This is also where Jimmy Choo went.
The term comes from a Cordoba a source of top quality leather, thus a worker in leather.
Given our previous discussion on the distinction between tailors and mantua makers I wonder if women made both cloth and leather shoes.
Saw a fantastic show at the Bata Shoes museum on shoes through the ages a few years back.
One of my ancestors, the first in the direct family line, to come to America, was a cordwainer in London in the late 1600's. I finally looked the term up (I thought it had something to do with winding ropes on a ship). Imagine my surprise when the definition had to do with Cordoba leather. I realized that my ancestor was a skilled craftsman rather than some flunky on a ship.
Another ancestor, a woman, was described as a tailoress, not a dressmaker.
Great site,fantastic shoes.
@Karenmc Isn't it fascinating to find out such things?
I had an ancestor who was a fashion pirate. She'd go to Paris in the mid 19th century to see the latest and rush back to be the first with the new looks.
I love the stories about the women walking up the steps at the Opera in their big hoop skirts. They would wear nothing underneath them and gentlemen below would get an eyeful.
Thank you for the post, Susan! As mentioned above I agree that it would make an interesting story. :)
I just found this link, put up by the Honourable Cordwainers' Company. I'm guessing they understand the finer differences between shoemakers, cobblers, and cordwainers. Interesting, too, that their current crest features both male and female cordwainers:
http://www.thehcc.org/backgrnd.htm
http://www.thehcc.org/logo.htm
Thank you for noting my eighteenth century silk brocade shoes listed on eBay. I feel it important to let you know the shoe have matching pattens which makes them so rare. Also, they have been deaccessioned from a major American museum. You can view them at:
www.Antique-Textile.com
You're most welcome, Sarah Elizabeth. I hope you find a good home for the shoes - they're lovely.
I always like long boots shoes because long boots really very attractive
Interestingly, the Annals of Philadelphia recall that fabric shoes, rather than leather shoes, were the norm -- see http://larsdatter.com/18c/womens-shoes.html (which also shows a LOT more extant fabric shoes than leather) -- though 18th century re-enactors are more likely to wear leather shoes rather than "pliable woven stuff"!
The V&A has a c. 1725 book which includes patterns for embroidering shoes, too.
i really happy to see it.
i was looking for such ladies shoes. so thanks for sharing such kind of shoes.
Hello! I am currently working as the only female shoe maker in the shoe shop at Colonial Williamsburg (gasp). And though I know this post was written years ago, I just wanted to clarify some research that may have changed since the time of the creation of this post.
We have found that most women in the 18th century, including those of the "lower and middling shoes", almost never wore leather or black shoes. For the women who work at CW, we are provided shoes that, though they have the same general style which is accurate to the period, the leather, and especially black leather were extremely out of fashion.
What you find almost all of the time for ladies shoes is that they are made out of the materials that you listed, calamanco or a worsted wool and they will be extremely colorful.
Now of course this will depend on the colony that you are in, though certainly in these fine English colonies we English ladies would not be wearing black shoes unless we were mourning, and would certainly not be caught outside our own homes in a leather shoe! Even women working in a field or in their kitchen gardens would be wearing a colorful calamanco or wool shoe with a timber heel and an overshoe to keep the dirt off. Even the overshoe would often be made out of the same fabric as the shoe itself, and just as colorful!
and by "lower and middling shoes", I meant "lower and middling sort", haha!
Hey, CW Female Shoemaker - would you please email me (Susan Scott) directly at SHScott21@gmail.com? Sounds as if this blog post needs a serious update, and I'd love to hear from you further....:)
Hi, may I know where can I buy this stuff? I really want to have one :)
Thanks!
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