The Boot and Shoe Trades in London and Paris in the Long Eighteenth Century

By the mid-eighteenth century red heels became increasingly common in Britain
(illustration 3.5). Charles Fox popularised the use of red heels accompanied by
blue hair-powder when he came back from one of his Parisian trips in the
1770s.'°° Heels were fashionable since James I's reign but it was during the
reign of George H that they reached disproportionate measures. 101 Frederick,
Prince of Wales, had shoes with heels of two and a half inches.' 02 In the 1780s
heels were still so high that ladies had to use walking sticks. The Comte de
Vaublanc wrote in his Memoirs (1786) that "without this effort of shifting the
weight of her body backward, the doll would have fallen on her feet".'°3
3.4 Product innovation
We have already introduced some elements of discussion about product
innovation. As John Styles has recently observed "product innovation in early
modem London was not simply a matter of bringing new and unfamiliar
products to market, but involved the formulation and reformulation of product
definitions and identities in such a way that new products were rendered
comprehensible and attractive to
'°° Magazine (October 1806) and Dictionary of National Biography (CdRom),
'Charles James Fox' (1749-1806).
101 Most mid-eighteenth century shoes examined at the Textiles Department of the Royal
Ontario Museum have heels more than 2,5 inches (6 cm) high.
102 Brooke, Footwear, cit., p. 76.
103 Cit. in International Shoe Museum of Romans, cit., p. 34. High heels are portrayed in one of
the Restif de la Bretonne's Parisian nocturnal scenes. One night, going back from his usual tour
around the town, he was the witness of a banal but socially significant scene: "En m 'en
retournant, je me trouvai dans Ia rue Saint'Louis. La gelee renadait le pave sec et prope. Je vis
une femme charnante sortir d'une grande maison. - Je marcherai, dit-elle a 1 'homme qui lui
dommait Ia main. Et la carrosse les suivit. - Comment pouvez-vous marcher, liii dit l'homme,
avec des talons aussi élevés? - Je m 'appuie, ou je marche seule, comme ii convient a une femme
de marcher, sans precipitation. Je croirais être chaussée en homme si j'avais des talons bas.
Depuis que j 'ai vu, ou Palais-Royal, une très jolie personne n 'avoir plus I 'air que d 'une Tatillon
en se chaussant presque a plat, j 'ai pris en horreur les talons bas." N.A.E. Restif de la Bretonne,
Les nuits de Paris, ou le Spectateur-nocturne (Paris, 1788-94), p. 93
'°4 J. Styles, 'Product innovation in early modem London', cit., pp. 164.
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