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Weathervane Newsletter Summer 2001
Book Review: Stepping Out
Women's Shoes in America, 1795-1930. by Nancy E. Rexford. (Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press, 2000. xi, 393 pp. $60.00, ISBN 0-87338-656-6.)
Nancy Rexford's history of women's footwear is more than a book about shoes. Rexford shows how changing attitudes about women and their "place" in society are directly reflected in the footwear that both was validated as fashionable and claimed as necessary for the changing demands in their lives.
European visitors to America in the early 19th century, for example, were shocked by the flimsy slippers that passed for outdoor footwear in all seasons for stylish American women. It was not until after the Civil War that heels and durable soles allowed women greater freedom of movement and independence outdoors. The defining feature of these shoes, however, was that they were securely fastened. For a loose shoe suggested a "loose" woman. In popular ballads, tying her shoe, or "shoeing her foot" were terms fraught with meaning. As late as the early 20th century women who wore pumps outdoors were slandered as those women who would drag a "boudoir suggestiveness" through the streets.
Women's Shoes in America is well illustrated with Rexford's elegant drawings and color photographs of vintage shoes, many of which are from Historic Northampton's extensive collection. Rexford is the guest curator for Historic Northampton's current exhibit: Her Best Foot Forward.
Contents Historic Northampton.