Shoes from Pinet to the Present

For those unfamiliar with the shoe world, Pinet (1817-1897) was a contemporary of Worth, the great Parisian couturier. So I look at the glamour shoes and the world of haute couture, and indeed the development of the named designer. That is a concept we are all familiar with now. So it is not easy to comprehend the lack of names for the exquisite work before 1850. Straightway I have to say that the number of noted shoe designers is far fewer than famous dress designers, but I will introduce you to some of them, against the background of contemporary shoe fashions. Franc;ois Pinet was born in the provinces (probably Touraine) in 1817, two years after the end of the Napoleonic Wars. His father, an ex-soldier, settled to shoemaking, a comparatively clean and quiet trade. It had a tradition of literacy, interest in politics, and was known as the gentle craft, which attracted intelligent people. We should presume father would be helped by the family. It was usual for a child to begin by the age of 5-6, tying knots, sweeping up, running errands and gradually learning the job. His mother died 1827, and father 1830 when he was 13, and at the time when exports of French shoes were flooding world markets. He went to live with a master shoemaker, was not well treated, and three years later set out on the tour-de- France. He worked with masters in Tours and Nantes, where he was received as Compagnon Cordonnier Bottier du Devoir as Tourangeau-Ia rose dAmour (a name to prove most appropriate). He went on to Bordeaux, where at 19 he became president of the local branch. In 1841 he went to Paris, and in 1848, revolution year, as delegate for his corporation, he managed to persuade them not to go on strike. By now the shoemakers either ran or worked for huge warehouses, and boots had replaced shoes as the main fashion. In 1855 Pinet at the age of 38 set up his own factory, as the first machines (for sewing just the uppers) were appearing. In 1863 he moved to new ateliers and shop at Rue ParadisPoissoniere 44, employing 120 people on the premises and 700 outworkers. The English Womans Domestic Magazine in 1867 records changes in the boots: the soles are now wider, so that it is no longer necessary to walk on the uppers. There is interest in eastern Europe, the Polonaise boots with rosette of cord and tassels and Bottines Hongroises withtwo rows of buttons, much ornamented. It comments on short dresses, and recommends that the chaussure should correspond to the rest of the toilet. This could already be seen in Pinets boots: tassels and superb flower embroidery on the higher bootleg, which he showed in the Paris Exposition that year. I think his more slender and elegant Pinet heel was also patented then or 1868. I found little evidence for colour-matching: an English fashion plate of 1860 shows emerald green boots with a violetcoloured dress.