The desire for luxury and the determination to cut a fine figure caused courtiers to spend very considerable amounts of money on their shoe roses, as they did on all other aspects of their dress for important occasions. John Taylor put it into perspective when he wrote that men were now willing to 'wear a farm in
 shoe strings edged with gold, and spangled garteres worth a copy-hold'. Up to the seventeenth century, footwear had been virtually identical for both sexes although because women wore long skirts, which hid their feet, their shoes were less extravagantly decorated than men's. Except for riding, women only rarely wore boots. Indeed, it seems that even as riding equipment they were relatively uncommon. In June 1666 Pepys notes his surprise at meeting in Whitehall ladies 'dressed in their riding garb with boots and doublets, just for all the world like mine'. For seventeenth-century men, however, boots were the glamour footwear and they remained so for more than two hundred years. Although they changed shape, were sometimes higher and sometimes wider, their message did not alter.
Men's
Dress Boots |
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Be the envy of all in this stunning knee high stiletto boot with corset detailing. Croc print leather upper. Leather lining. Combination leather and slip-resistant island
sole, During the eighteenth century, Women's Dress
Boots, Men's Dress Boots became refined and slimmed down; they had turned-down tops, lined in brown, contrasting with the black leather of the rest of the boot, and were based on the Dress boots fashionable. Although men wore boots and shoes that were becoming increasingly practical tools for living the active life, they did not entirely turn their backs on pattern and colour. Black and brown were the favourite colours but tan and pale shades were by no means uncommon among the gentry. At home they wore slippers and mules of embroidered silk and brocade. The man of fashion, a recognized historical type, took infinite care over his appearance, and dress boots and shoes were high on the list of things which had to be absolutely correct.
Women's
Dress Boots |
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In the early nineteenth century boots became increasingly divorced from the specialist gear of riding and
 took their place as normal daytime footwear for all smart and fashionable men-about-town. Hessians, wellingtons, top boots and dress boots were all made if the finest leathers. Some of the most important advances in shoe design, however, have been stimulated not by shoemen but by couturiers and dress boot designers who have treated shoes as part of an overall fashion look.
Woman Dress Boots |
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