The Metropolitan Museum of Art Evening Oxford Shoe Ornament

The Met shoe ornaments. This golden shoe ornament is inspired by an extraordinary pair of metallic leather oxfords in the collection of The Met's Costume Institute. The originals, dated to 1889-93, were sold by A. J. Cammeyer, one of the biggest shoe retailers in New York whose emporium still stands at 650 Sixth Avenue. Remarkably, it wasn't until the 1920s that metallic leathers became common for women's evening shoes, and even more unusual is a laced shoe-traditionally reserved for daywear-in this material. Objects such as this challenge our conventional view of history, and the occasion on which such extraordinary shoes would have been worn remains unknown.