The Strangest Shoes in my Collection of Antiques

[@NicoleRudolph]

Because I've gotten so many questions about this- they aren't likely to be ballet shoes. That style is familiar to us because this is the era in which ballet slippers really develop and fossilize. So these are completely typical every day slippers for European and American women. Ballet slippers just kept this style around after we added heels back onto shoes in the 1850s and slowly changed styles! They are a wonderful example of how old fashions became something new. Likely they were worn for ball dancing or evening events, more so than heavy walking (although plenty of articles mention women wearing light slippers out and about causing bad health). It's not that they CAN'T be ballet slippers, it's that the odds are very against them. Hundreds of thousands of these were made for regular wear vs a very small number for ballet. And there's no wear that indicates any use other than walking (no toe wear etc).

[@Kathywake23]

On a slightly different note, it would be fun to see you go to Freed in London and ralk with the pointe shoe makers.

[@BlueDragonfly3]

I think they could still be for ballet; perhaps for class or a single performance. You mention no wear at the toe. I wonder if you are referring to the tip of the toe. During this era almost no one went on point as Marie Taglioni had just introduced it around the 1820's, so a flat slipper like this would not likely have been altered (darned and or padded) to go on pointe by most dancers.

[@NicoleRudolph]

@@BlueDragonfly3 Oh, no, I meant the upper portion of the vamp. When you point your feet in ballet dance it's common to brush the top of your foot occasionally in drags. The type of ball dancing that was popular at this time stays more flat footed. All of my ballet slippers (non-pointe) would wear out in areas other than the sole, and these all have lots of wear only on the sole. Odds are just way against these being anything other than the most common shoes of the era.

[@AnnabelleDrumm]

My guess is that they belonged to a travelling shoemaker providing different sizes for the client to try before making an order.

[@traveljournal9928]

because early ballet slippers were just ballroom slippers we can't rule out they didn't do ballet in these shoes, but ballroom was probably more common. If they were ballet slippers, it probably was before they started shortening the toe and bringing in the arch (I'm a dancer not a shoe person sorry I don't have the vocabulary). But I agree that these were dance shoes.

[@saraht855]

Alternative theory: shoes owned by one person who is so terrible at dancing they did in fact have 3 left feet

[@gangoolie68]

😂😂😂

[@maddiejoy6619]

Your comment about shoes not being commonly altered and reused made me remember something. When my grandma was little, her family was very poor. Her parents would buy the three kids one pair of shoes per year at the beginning of the school year. By the next year, they would be pretty worn out and too small. So, my great grandfather would cut the toe and back part off the shoes, turning them into weird sandals that their toes could stick out of so they didn't hurt. Those shoes would be their play shoes. This probably wasn't a very common solution, but it worked for them!

[@NamiSparrow]

These shoes make me think of the twelve dancing princesses story! With shoes like these of COURSE they could wear through a pair after a night out 😅 IT FINALLY ALL MAKES SENSE

[@katlover4442]

Ballerinas can kill off 1-2 (or more) pairs of pointe shoes during one performance, depending on how much time they are en pointe, technique used, etc… imagine having to be the person who has to order all of the shoes for companies like ABT, NYC, SFB, Joffrey, lol!!! 🩰

[@ritageorge8748]

Oh my I'm in my 70's & do so love it when a person in any comment section brings out something that snaps a visual for me👍thanks

[@ceciliadueppen]

Omg I'm glad you connected it, it never made sense to me that they would do so much dancing that their shoes would fall apart at the end of the night, but with such flimsy shoes it makes so much sense! It also kinda dates the story itself in a way

[@KenZchameleon]

I love the idea that these were saved as mementos by friends or sisters. Once again, a lovely history lesson.

[@raraavis7782]

That would be a lovely idea for some kind of mystery novel. Three almost identical left dancing shoes are found in some old lady's house upon her passing... what's the story behind them?

[@ursulaoreilly3013]

Or they could have belonged to one person, who grew out of one size and purchased another etc. Or possible a one legged woman? Just a thought.

[@terramarini6880]

Perhaps they belonged to one (still growing) young lady who had a signature color. Maybe she always wore out the right shoe and as indicated by the increase in size would get a new pair in her current size to match her existing wardrobe. She kept the remaining good shoe of each pair for the memories they held. This is fun!

[@glitterberserker1029]

I love the idea that these were matching shoes for a trio of sisters. I could see my sisters and i buying the same shoes for some sort of event. Even know when I'm about to turn 30 my mom still gives us 3 versions of the same thing for Christmas all the time. Usually just the same sweater or blanket in different colors.

[@angiebee2225]

I have two sisters and definitely got the same gift as one of my sisters, and sometimes both (age differences accounted for one sister not getting the same things as the younger sisters).

[@thirza9508]

I study archaeology, and your thought process behind the dating, style, and the possible stories are somewhat similar to what is done with archaeological artefacts. I love how we look at objects and can tell so much about them, and imagine the stories of how they came to be and ended up where they end up. Totally fascinating, I would love more videos like this!

[@aimeemorgado8715]

Isn’t the study of material culture more exciting when it is shared across disciplines!

[@caitis1091]

This makes me think of dancing schools or maybe a ladies finishing school, where they give you a list of required things that you have to buy from a certain shop. Maybe three sisters all went to the same school hence the identical shoes and probably nostalgia too?

[@karenneill9109]

I was thinking they could have been purchased for an event such as a wedding. But I don’t think the whole ‘matching’ thing was fashionable at the time. The idea of a finishing or dancing school is very intriguing.

[@MrsBrit1]

The birth of the ballet slipper! Thank you, dancing shoes, for giving us ballet as we know it!

[@abbydavis6015]

Oh my goodness I was so excited to see you make this video! I’ve dreamed of adding these to my collection for years now, even before I was really into antique shoes. While I’m not a fashion historian by any means, I’m almost certain these are 19th century ballet shoes or at the very least (based the the small bows at the top of the vamp) dance shoes inspired by ballet shoes. The only reason I believe they could be a copy of professional ballet shoes are because most examples of early ballet shoes (and even modern ones) do not have any decoration on the vamp as the audience would be too far away to see it. It would be a waste of time for shoemakers to add that little bow to something that breaks down and needs to be replaced with a new pair so frequently. Typically a bow is only seen on shoes inspired by ballet slippers because people mistake the elastic ties at the vamp as being for fashion over function. However, considering the stitching, the actual vamp elastic, the slight wear at the tips of the toes, and the fact that you can see and feel the imprint of the person who wore them, (not too mention the differences in the shapes of the vamps) it’s possible they are legitimate 19th century ballet slippers! Before the mid-18th century ballet shoes actually did have small heels on them, but Marie Camargo is noted as being the first ballet dancer to wear a flexible flat “slipper-like” shoe which allowed her to perform jumps and turns safely. Ballet dancers are also recorded as first being seen dancing en pointe in 1795 when Charles Didelot used cables to lift the dancers up onto their tiptoes. This quickly gained popularity with audiences, and the ability to dance en pointe without the use of cables was finally achieved by Marie Taglioni in the 19th century. Her shoes were noted as being a slightly modified version of Marie Camargo’s. They still did not offer any support for the dancer but they were made with a leather sole and satin fabric much like the ones in your video. Leaving her to use only the strength of her feet and ankles to lift her up en pointe for brief moments throughout her choreography. If these are indeed an example of the first “pointe shoes” that could also explain the shapes of the vamps and why they’re so narrow, as many dancer’s feet tend to compress when they pointe and/or stand up on their toes. It leads to us buying more narrow shoes as they’ll only be worn for a short period of time and the majority of that time will be spent with our foot in that compressed position. I’m sorry for nerding out a bit. As a professional ballet dancer and vintage lover, this video was such a joy to watch and I really hope you’re able to find more information on these!

[@NicoleRudolph]

It's actually the other way around! Ballet developed so much during this time that they picked up the style of standard shoes and slowly modified and codified them. This style picked up in regular fashion starting in the 1810s and had minor changes until the 1850s. Everything about them is VERY typical for regular shoe construction during that time. But very functional! Hence ballet shoes haven't changed much from the every day shoes dancers first started wearing.

[@annhartley8425]

I’ve seen examples of Regency shoes that look very much like these. The shoes used for dancing were so delicate that they were never worn to the ball, only at the ball, and women would have several pairs alike as they could wear out one or more pairs of shoes in an evening, depending on how much dancing they did. I suppose a young lady could measure the success of her evening by the number of shoes she ruined!

[@misspeach3755]

​@@annhartley8425 Makes sense. In German folklore, there is a fairytale from the 1800s called "Die zertanzten Schuhe" ("The Shoes that Were Danced to Pieces") - it's about twelve princesses who escape to a ball each night. In the morning, their father, the king, is left wondering why and how his girls' shoes always have holes in them. The shoes were probably of this type.

[@annhartley8425]

@@misspeach3755 I remember that story, I know it as “The Twelve Dancing Princesses”.

[@sarahgoldberg6614]

I worked in a shoe store for 15 years. The left shoe is the display shoe. People tend to grab the display shoe and walk around in it and if a shoe is out long enough it can show some wear and need some in-house reviving.

[@ragnkja]

The smallest of the shoes is in the smallest size you typically find adult women’s shoes in, so while the smaller two are definitely smaller than average, they’re not necessarily child-sized either, and the largest one is pretty average (the middle size in feminine styles tends to be around 38).

[@999Giustina]

I'm the middle shoe size so definitely not that small! I'm a regular shoe size.

[@ragnkja]

@@999Giustina 36 is the smallest shoe size you find on the “regular” shelves in the women’s section of a Norwegian shoe store, but there’s usually also a shelf with a smaller selection of size 35, and also size 42.

[@angiebee2225]

@@ragnkja My half-Norwegian mother would appreciate the special section. She wears a US women's size 5 (which the internet tells me is a 35) and has trouble finding shoes in stores sometimes. On the other end of the spectrum, my dad's feet were too big to buy his shoes in most stores and we had to go to some special shoe store to get his shoes (internet tells me his size in European sizing would be 48.5/49).

[@pcbassoon3892]

The biggest one is an American 7.5, which is small, but not absurdly small. I wear a 6.5 and it's usually the smallest, or close to the smallest, size stores carry, but not the smallest size made. So if the biggest is a 7.5, these are very small shoes, at least by American foot standards.

[@ragnkja]

@@pcbassoon3892 While they’re all smaller than the average women’s shoe, the largest is only very slightly smaller, and only the smallest is just outside the standard range of sizes offered (it would be on the “size 35 and 42” shelf).

[@LynnHermione]

I am a ballerina. Those are 100% dance shoes. You can see in the most worn the wear in the toe bit, my half pointe shoes look the same. The elastic, the construction, everything is exactly like ballet shoes. The second number may be the how much "cleavage" (idk the word in English) it has, ie how high or low the front goes on your feet.

[@MrsBrit1]

They are! These are the style of shoe that gave way to, not only ballet slippers and pointe shoes, but ballet itself! Edited to say that I should say, ballet as we know it!

[@ragnkja]

A pointe shoe is practically a stiffened, reinforced version of this.

[@LualaDy]

I do watch Josephine from the Pointe Shop and this screamed as dance shoes to me!!!!

[@MrsBrit1]

@@ragnkja yes, it basically is! Took a long time to get there, and the modern ones are extremely different to the earliest hardened pointe shoes, but the idea, and most of how they would have been made, remains pretty much the way this shoe was made: a turn shoe, handmade on a last with leather and satin. Just add the extra layers of glue and fabric for the pointe and viola!

[@AerinMoriarty]

Yeah, I was wondering if they were mementos from a ballet corp myself!

[@kohakuaiko]

those shoes make me think of "twelve dancing princesses" as they look like they could easily be danced through in a very long night.

[@nidomhnail2849]

Really enjoyed your analysis of the shoes. As the oldest of three sisters, your story fits. I have an alternate idea of how these shoes came about. I do not have any training in the history of theatre costumes, so your comments would be very informative. The shoes strike me as ones purchased and maintained by a theatre company. They are the same color but vary by size and use/age. My suggestion assumes that theatre companies at that time purchase the costumes and shoes for the dancers and actors. What are your thoughts?

[@ragnkja]

This type of shoe is indeed what ballet dancers of the time would have worn (and the pointe shoes that appeared in the late 19th century are basically a stiffened and reinforced version of this), so that sounds very plausible to me. Two of the shoes are smaller than average but still just about in the adult size range, whereas the largest is pretty average for women’s shoes.

[@seregiel9541]

This would have my guess as well. Or even if not the company itself, the troupe ordering them together.

[@raraavis7782]

​@@ragnkja You're spot on. I don't dare try to put a direkt link here, lest my comment gets deleted by KZbin...but if you google Emma Livry slippers You'll find an article about the history of ballet shoes with a picture of these exact same shoes, allegedly worn by dancer Emma Livry, circa 1860. Now I can't vouch for the correctness of the information, obviously. I'm not that deep into the subject. But I knew, these shoes looked familiar, right away.

[@helenamizera3807]

That's what I thought too. My imagination goes further and I'm imagining a stage door Johnny collecting shoes from his conquests.

[@sArnoldsdotter]

And now all I can see is that one sister died and the other two split their matching shoes as a memory. Great video, and shoes from my favourite era 💜💜💜

[@angiebee2225]

That was my thought, too. That era, it's a real possibility.

[@cutecats532]

Or maybe one could've been the mom's and it was 2 sisters.

[@aeolia80]

Haven't watched video yet, but as a former dancer, they just look like dance shoes to me, lol, even modern ballet shoes don't really have a right or left until they are broken in. edit. watching more, I'm more convinced they are dance shoes, and the "gauche" stickers if I had to guess were placed there after the shoe was broken in. I mean they look almost exactly like what Marie Taglioni wore when she first went on point where she stuck a butt ton of lambs wool in the box and slipped in a wood shank on the arch. There were no real pointe shoes back then only modified flat shoes

[@NicoleRudolph]

Modern ballet slippers developed during this era and are basically standard 1840s shoes fossilized in time! These are the same construction and style that had been popular with very little change since the 1810s. Ballet just didn't feel the need to change them later!

[@sadmac356]

Yeah looking at the thumbnail I'm like "those look like pointe shoes" …and I'm more jazz trained

[@ceciliastarsnatch8718]

@@NicoleRudolph I think it'd be a great video idea to talk about pointe shoes. It's so interesting that you say they're fossilized in time!

[@katlover4442]

I’m a ballet mom and I have to say that they look like soft ballet shoes that I have seen in history of ballet books and videos, although they do seem to lack the pleats at the toes and the soles seem bigger than the soles on ballet shoes.

[@TheGFeather]

I'm always blown away at how things that look so similar can have such particular differences. A casual glance at the 3 would have me saying, 'that's the same shoe' but there are so many things that make each unique. I do love the idea that they were worn by three sisters or friends who got them on a grand shopping trip together. Plus ca change...

[@grimnirnacht]

The theory of the sisters owning the shoes makes me think of that fairytale of the dancing sisters. They'd dance through their shoes in one night and the king was utterly perplexed

[@missvioletnightchild2515]

This was such an interesting deep dive! Seeing all the comments, I bet you regret not mentioning the history of ballet shoes now though 🤣 I wonder if the occasion they were purchased could've been a wedding instead, it would explain why they're all the same colour? But that said I've no idea if people had bridesmaids at that time

[@YasuTaniina]

Brides maids aren't new, but color coordinated outfits are relatively very new. As is the idea of a dress meant only to be worn for a single occasion. The bride would get new clothing that often was meant to be worn again and again. It wasn't even white, even for the upper class, until after the period these shoes were made. Typically everyone else just wore their nicest church clothes that they already had

[@misspeach3755]

The other day I saw a picture from around 1900 depicting two sisters (different age, no twins). They both wore dresses of the same fabric, similar hairdo. Since having a painting done of your children was expensive, I doubt that the sisters had to wear the same fabric for reasons of frugality.

[@angryhistoryguy5657]

It's actually more likely that siblings were dressed alike as a power signal rather than for thrift. Fabric was expensive. Dressing the whole family in the same stuff was a way to show off how much fabric you could afford to buy all at once whether you needed it or not. Buying just enough for individual garments as they became necessary would have been far cheaper, but the fabric was much less likely to match.

[@joanderson6880]

Can we talk about how adorable it is that, in the hypothetical scenario, a trio of sisters had matching shoes? Cuz that's so cute. It's like the besties-in-matching-dresses photograph she showed in her "dating family photos" video. These were people who had inside jokes and matching outfits! It blows my mind sometimes

[@Emma17456]

The research process you went through in this video, and the analysis of the shoes, is basically what we do in archaeology. I love the effort you put into your videos!

[@julicorn2289]

I used to do baroom dancing. the shoes had suede soles but over time they get shiny from dirt and stuff, so we also had metal brushes to scrape off that shiny layer. Its fascinating how Dancers across the time and space has similar expiriences. Or just people in general.

[@theresaohalloranjohnson84]

Oh my gosh, I loved this. I loved your hypothesis, especially. Now I want to write a historical fiction based on the three pink silk shoes.

[@adedow1333]

Do it! I'll read it!

[@dariaorme1282]

These three odd shoes ended up being surprisingly sweet! I definitely loved this video.

[@911nmg]

My sister and I used to get the same shoes as little girls so I spent the whole video going "sister’s shoes, for sure". My mum has also kept a pair of shoes from when we were babies so, shoes as momentos makes perfect sense

[@deanyaschempp]

Great video. When I first saw them, I thought they looked like fitting shoes, that would have been used to take orders. They could have been worn by a shoemaker's daughter, etc., when the new styles came out. She might have been forced to wear a couple of diff sizes and use the left for both feet.

[@megwilcox2878]

What a great find! Without including the unicorn - provenance - with the collection, the people who preserved these shoes left us to make up the story. I think you've done a good job of that. It was so much more common in the 19th c. for sisters to wear the same fabric, even the same style of dress, it would make sense that they'd need matching shoes. Likewise, the idea of the set being broken into two, one for each side makes sense. I was trying to understand why single-lasted shoes would be marked left or right, but it must be for future reference, when the shoes take on the shape of one foot or another in wear.

[@roxiepoe9586]

I was enticed by the shoes and enchanted by the story. Thank you for teaching me so much more.

[@robintheparttimesewer6798]

I do enjoy getting a chance to look through antiques collections. I would love to have the time knowledge and room to collect for myself but this really works out so much better! I like your idea of how the left shoes ended up together. It's as good an explanation as anything else. Any time you want to explain well anything I'm here for it. Your videos are like a mini history class! The kind we didn't know was out there or interesting when we were in school!

[@lauralake7430]

I wonder if the three shoes might have been kept as a set as a memento of three sisters or three friends all going to a dance or important party together? It would be something my girlfriends and i would do! The smallest might have been a young girl who never wore them again, the largest might have been someone who wore them out to the lawn, or wore them to another party…i have a rich inner life! Just a romantic idea of how three left shoes might have been cherished and saved. Thanks for the interesting video. Btw, when i was young, we used to carry pink ballet shoes in our purse to wear for when our heels hurt our feet too much! The heels would get left stashed to the side, and the girls (teens, early twenties) would dance in our pink ballet flats!

[@VanK782]

I would LOVE a video on how these shoes are made, their simplicity seems like it would make it easier to fully understand and if someone wants to get into shoe making this seems like a simple enough early project!

[@marcellarensi131]

I like your family memento theory. It reminds me of what my cousin and I did with our great grandmother's sets of covered roasting pans and cast iron frying pans. There's absolutely nothing special about them except that they were hers. We split them up between us. He got the biggest and smallest cast iron frying pans and the middle-sized roasting pan. I got the big and the small roasting pan, and the mid-size frying pan. I think about her every time I use them.

[@dianeluke1746]

These are what I always imagined Edwardian dancing slippers to look like. I know they are older than that but now I want to know if dancing slippers (like ball dancing) stayed the same despite changes in shoe and clothes fashion.

[@Bexinmo]

I was thinking they were test fitters. All the same shoes with slight differences to find what you wanted. You put it on, how does it fit, does it feel ok around the toes, do you like where the top hits, do you prefer elastic or ribbon, etc. Even the sueded bottom could have been an option to choose from. That is why there are multiple for the same foot se the shoemaker only had to carry half as many shoes when he fit someone.

[@CherryGryffon]

I had three possibilities as I watched; One, same as you, that a trio of sisters saved their matching shoes. Two, that a woman was pregnant and had to wear multiple sizes/shapes to accommodate for her changing feet and ankles (Hence the elastic vs ribbon being easier to attach and less burdensome). Three, that someone was practicing to make shoes and wore them while improving on them along the way.

[@sarahwatts7152]

I love the idea that these do come from sisters (I can't imagine them going to different households, plus it's not really common to see people collecting current shoes like this...well, unless they have a very particular affinity); I'm imagining one of the sisters as more of a Lydia type, on her feet all night, and the other two less inclined to dance

[@cmhvalex5400]

I love your story about the sisters. The part of me that loves fairy tale endings pictures one of the sisters getting married and moving off far away, so they gave one set to the sister moving away and the other two kept the other set to share, as they stayed with/near each other. I mean, it could also be something tragic, like one of the sisters passed away, so the two remaining sisters split the pairs, but I like the first story better.

[@kellybraun7048]

Yeah, a tragedy was my first thought, like it was the last event they went to together. I like the “moving far away” hypothesis better.

[@grinnellian2001]

Have you read Mrs Hurst Dancing? It's a series of watercolors showing daily life of a family in Delaware (I think) from around 1820. There is a great drawing showing the girls going to a party wearing boots and carrying their dance slippers over their shoulder. I'd be happy to send you a photo if you don't have the book.

[@evewagand3374]

Regarding tiny stitches: I went to a turnshoe making class, and they said a boar bristle was used instead of a needle. The thread would go into the interior of the hollow bristle, secured with wax. This way the hole did not have to be thicker than the thread.

[@originalismisacrock166]

LOL. Further proof that the pink ballet flat just *_never_* goes out of style.

[@anieth]

I really appreciate the consistency of your videos. The filming is excellent, the research is the die for, and the way you structure the information is also clear and just amazing. Please keep up the good work.

[@lynndragon2536]

you can see in these the history of what becomes modern ballet shoes, in the shape and construction which is kind of fun when you think about it

[@tessbaur9156]

I teared up a little when you showed a close-up of the footprint on the largest shoe

[@n3onstars]

I'm in the middle of reading The House of Salt and Sorrow (a horror/murder mystery based on the 12 Dancing Princesses) and these remind me so much of the fairy shoes (although those are leather) in color and design. ♥ What a lovely find!

[@vadalia3860]

I love your hypothesis, so sweet and human. People have always just been people.

[@violetsprings470]

The antique shoes look better than I would have thought for the 1840's. Thanks for sharing!

[@arwengrune]

I would LOVE to see you make a replica of these!

[@traceej4685]

I love seeing the shoes you have and up until joining your channel I never gave a second thought to the shoes of the past. Thank you for sharing your collections and your knowledge with us!

[@Ella-iv1fk]

somewhere I have one tiny leather glove from the olden days, this gives me hope that maybe someone out there might value it for the story it tells them

[@MsSteelphoenix]

Fascinating, and also I think your hypothesis for how they're together is very likely. I'd add that the reason the difference in wear seen is perhaps that they were bought a year apart for each pair - perhaps for coming-out balls or similar, so the eldest sister wore hers most and the youngest the least. I'm eldest of three siblings and this happened with our ballet shoes. Relatedly, these remind me an awful lot of my ballet slippers - the linen inner/silk outer and the thin leather sole, very clear to see where they developed from!

[@KatherineYoung]

Those are so pretty! I now have antique shoes in my home and 100% was inspired by you to rescue them and display them.

[@gangoolie68]

As an ex ballet dancer- these definitely look like ballet flats to me. Maria Taglioni started wearing pointe shoes in 1830s. History talks about her specially made shoes. I suspect the 2nd number could be a customer number - or if made for a company - might be the number for each dancer. I know this goes against the second number - while mass produced, but the second number quickly shows which dancer prefers which. Alternatively the Second number is for the vamp style. Could also be the same dancer growing up into the longer worn pair with the smaller shoes worn less. If sisters, the. The eldest daughter danced the most.

[@fikanera838]

These are so adorable! Such a beautiful colour, & I love the idea of three sisters buying them together. Maybe one suster kept the right shoes & another the left ones, out of sentimentality for the memory of a season.

[@anezkajandova76]

I have different idea about their story. They were purchased teather or dance company. They are made to look the same but fit different feet. I can see the girl dividing the loot when they get bought new shoes, trying them on and getting the best possible fit. Some sew in ribbon, some sew in elastic. Then trunk with like 20 pairs got forgotten and unused. Someone found it later enough, that they were curiosity and not usable shoes, so they took out just few of them to keep or show someone else.

[@aliceputt3133]

Totally dance shoes. Originally used during balls, but also used in ballet, often reinforced with ribbons sewn across the toes to stabilise the toe section. They were only ment to use once or twice before being discarded.

[@bohemiansusan2897]

Narrow shoes are something I rarely see these days. Growing up, I could buy them easily. By the mid 80s it was just one width😢. Being narrow got me excited.

[@sahpem4425]

They remind me of Anne’s (Anne of Green Gables) kid slippers or the many dancing scenes (although Georgian era) in Austen novels. It’s so nice to have an image for these scenes. I’ve imagined it many times. ❤

[@maryinsky]

BTW, thanks, Nicole-lots of great clues you pointed out and historical detail. Your hypothesis makes sense. I have a similar pair in white satin, deaccessioned by a museum, probably 1830s, no size, so probably custom for a wedding? I use them to teach ballet history.

[@VetsrisAuguste]

From the thumbnail I can tell you these are dancing slippers from the 19th century. They appear like ballet slippers, but are more likely the type worn by guests at a ball. I’m about to watch now to hear what you say about them.

[@kaybernard6768]

A test of the dye would help date the silk. Synthetic purple dye was not invented until 1856. French purple was not easy to make or mass produce before then.

[@peacenueve11]

I’d like to see some antique ballet pointe shoes see how things have changed over time.

[@shereesmazik5030]

Agreed . When I saw Anna Pavlovna ‘s pointe shoes , I was shocked . The history of pointe shoes is fascinating.

[@3frenchhens818]

Now I finally understand what all that wrap-around ribbon was for!

[@katlover4442]

Josephine of The Pointe Shop Interviews a Professor of ballet studies on an episode of her channel “The Pointe Shop” and the professor goes into detail how these types of slippers were adapted for ballerinas and a couple of the vintage ballet shoes look very similar to the shoes in your video.

[@DipityS]

Well, that was fascinating . The whole video was so interesting, but when you boiled things down to how you think the shoes were purchased and worn and interacted with I was completely riveted.

[@farangarris2598]

I ĺove the simple style of these shoes. Thank you for this new lesson , Nichole

[@rcamels3042]

absolutely fascinating find. Love how much we can learn through the analysis of such an item. well done, and good find.

[@elizabethmonsees3643]

Cool On first glance they remind me of ballet point shoes these may have been worn by someone who wasn’t on points or full points but made to look like them they look like slippers also but the soles are more reinforced with leather or suede than that of nighttime slippers. Thanks for sharing 💕😊

[@ruggaboo35]

I loved this video, so much little niche information that I never would have thought about. Thank you so much for sharing and I look for ward to the next one you end up doing about your collection!!!

[@momof2momof2]

This was very interesting ! Thanks for sharing 🥰💐🪷🌼🌞💗✝💖🇺🇲

[@lydiarobb5174]

This was so interesting! Would love to see you talk through how you dated other shoes in your collection.

[@kanashiiookami6537]

Oooh! Now you've got this idea stuck in my head, that the sisters all bought shoes for a coming out, the most worn shoe belonged to the sister asked to dance the most, and she was the one who found a suitor. She got married, died in childbirth, and her sisters broke up their pairs of shoes to both remember her and that shared time in their life.

[@nelliebly6616]

Perhaps the other/right shoes were put in the coffin?

[@aboriginesedeschapparrilli6789]

Usually old shoes look tiny, but these look huge! They’re just so long! I would never have guessed that they were US 7s.

[@janethagy8871]

Thank you, Nicole! I love history and I love fashion so I look forward to your well-compiled and informative videos.

[@j.b.6709]

Fascinating analysis and if you do more shoe vids in the future, I will definitely be watching! Thanks so much for sharing your knowledge with all of us! :)

[@macdaiddavidson8051]

That was fascinating! Thank you it was very interesting to learn so much about them.

[@5minuterevolutionary493]

The use of implicit and explicit social history in your videos is really well done, and a needed process in the world generally, seeing the material culture through the lens of human exchange and meaning, rather than in purely utilitarian terms. Great great stuff, subscribed.

[@evelyn_r]

Love it when you do videos about shoes, but I also wanted to mention that I love your hair and the way the light hits it ❤

[@tiasara5967]

Pretty sure they were ball dance slippers for formal settings. Soles were not made larger than the foot as they are mostly today (except for fancy driving shoe styles). The fabric of the shoe would wrap around and under to hold foot on to sole.

[@dr.gwendolyncarter5048]

The second number may be the shoemaker ID number. Ballet pointe shoes have a stamp on them to denote who made the shoe.

[@dshe8637]

The sanding could have been to restore some slight grip to the sole, which rubs smooth and slippy with wear

[@pandora881]

Samples for salesmen to carry and demonstrate to customers (stores, etc). The numbers on the sole are likely style #s, they’re each just slightly different.

[@pippaseaspirit4415]

This was fascinating; thanks for sharing this with us.

[@mmoretti]

They are either bedroom slippers or the kind of delicate shoe worn to dances. The elastic straps are intended to keep them on the foot. Perhaps they are samples to try on

[@tinygypsyladycreations7265]

Fascinating! Thanks for sharing and yes please keep sharing!

[@jessimckenna2904]

I'm not an expert on historical dance shoes, but as a dancer, I can't help thinking these are ballet slippers. They are nearly the exact same construction we see now.

[@TheKoolbraider]

In the PBS version of "Cold Comfort Farm", which takes place in the 1920's of30's, the grandmother calls for her elastic sided boots. These must be close to what she meant (granny was quite old).

[@caribeads9772]

Yes please, more shoes and their stories!

[@RobynCoburn]

Please keep doing shoe videos. Fascinating.

[@CaliKiwi-]

Fabric was almost always repurposed in older times.. I would say the fabric and ribbons were from an old gown and perhaps made for children of that family for a special event, wedding or such..

[@kathrynmccarthy]

At first glance I totally thought they were ballerina point shoes. So cool how the construction of non-point dance shoes has stayed relatively the same through history. Really enjoyed how you went through the details and history of these shoes!

[@hayleybowen6106]

The biggest is most worn and the smallest is less worn because they'd have grown out of them and the biggest handed down consecutively , so worn twice as long, and 3 times as long , for the biggest size. Why only one of each survives is a mystery, but maybe much later on, someone, maybe a couple of shoe designers or makers decided to split them up to have an example of each style for reference, each. Maybe they split the cost of buying them from an antique shop. Who knows! Hope someone who has the other 3 sees this. Shame if they were thrown away. They are lovely!

[@abigaildowell7157]

Lol I just came across this video and I’m fairly certain though I’m unsure if you mentioned in the video or not (as I haven’t finished watching yet) that you got these from eBay. I believe that I also came across these a few months ago and was outbid in the last 10 seconds. If that was you then that’d be funny and i just wanted to let you know I cried over losing these shoes!

[@friedasorber1653]

Very nice analysis. Is it possible that these shoes were sold white and then painted to the desired color? That would have been easily pissible in the 1840's. As for the damage, weighting with metal salts happened at that time. White silks often degrade more than most died because white was bleached with sulphour fumes. Last. It is mildly aggravating to see every object with french texts attributed to France. Other countries in Europe had french as one of the official languages. Switzerland and Belgium immediately come to mind. Plus even in non French speaking countries French inscriptions would associate the product with French elegance and be a selling point. Families kept dressing children and adolscents in identical clothing. I heard several older people say that showing of your children in identical clothing meant that you could afford to buy new for all children at the same time.

[@kymberlys]

This is the type of shoe I most want to learn how to make! This was very informative, thanks for the video!

[@debidarling24]

They look like dance shoes. For high society. So beautiful. They look like they're a predecessor of a point shoe somehow... What a gorgeous colour. ❤

[@jakecavendish3470]

They are dancing slippers from the 1840s (missing the ribbon for securing them). There are an identical pair in the collection of the Science Museum in London (belonging to Queen Victoria). I imagine the they are left over stock from a shop or a dancing school. It wasn't uncommon to have lots of pairs of these as they wore out fast but no idea why three left ones would survive if they belonged to one person. However from friends who do ballroom dancing I do know that you may take two pairs with you, one half a size up, as feet tend to swell after a night of dancing

[@HumanCatfoodDispenser]

a thought on only having the lefts. I can't speak to everyone, but I definitely wear my shoes out unevenly based on my dominant side.

[@angryhistoryguy5657]

I love the amount of information you've gleaned from these! Speculation: maybe one of the sisters died young and the other two split the set between them to remember her?

[@margarethall1625]

Thanks for sharing. I enjoy the history lesson while learning about the shoes.