Victorian themes: fashion and dressing ettiquette

[Ionic]

no Victorian thread yet and didn't want to deviate the medieval topic that far so we'll start afresh with a new one:

here is the relevant clipped out section on footwear on an interesting web page from Victorian London - Publications - Etiquette and Advice Manuals - The Lady's Dressing Room, by Baroness Staffe, trans. Lady Colin Campbell, 1893

THE FOOT.

Conditions of Beauty.

WHEN a foot is well made, the boots and shoes wear well, and the walk is generally harmonious and graceful.

But the most charming foot may be disfigured by a boot that is too short or too [-215-] narrow. And an ugly foot will become still worse if the owner tries to diminish its proportions by compressing them.

We must keep the foot Nature has bestowed upon us; we shall only subject ourselves to useless tortures by trying to wear boots and shoes that were not made for it, and, far from remedying its defects, we shall only add others that it has not got.

The foot in ancient sculpture is perfectly beautiful, because it had never been subject to constraint in the sandal or slipper without heels. In our era it is only in the East, especially in Japan, that the human foot can be seen in all its beauty and grace. In the Empire of the Rising Sun the extremities have never known any bonds. The covering of the feet was there made for the comfort of the foot, and followed its outlines exactly. But now the European costume is being adopted in the country of the Mikado, and we are about to impose upon [-216-]them our abominable modern boots and shoes, which deform the feet, because they are not suited either to the structure of the feet or to the- movements they make in walking.

The very pointed boots and shoes have given birth to a great deal of suffering, and to many infirmities which have spoiled the foot and the walk.

Here are some counsels of healthy coquetry; but will they be listened to?

You must not try to make your foot smaller; you will only thicken it. Besides, a very small foot is not well made. The foot should be in just and harmonious proportion to the body. A rather long foot is the most elegant, as it appears narrow. It is absurd to compress a wide foot; you only make it more ugly, subject it to excruciating pain, and lose the ease and grace of your walk.

It is said that English and German women have such large feet because they [-217-] drink a great deal of beer. The Americans, who have also adopted that drink, are beginning to lose the beauty of their feet. In wine countries-France, Spain, Italy, etc.-where the women are indeed very temperate, their feet are very delicate and refined.

How to choose Boots and Shoes.

If the foot is narrow and a little too long, the boot or shoe should be short in the toe, and laced or buttoned down the front. An ornament on the top . of the shoe diminishes the length of the foot in appearance.

A short fat foot demands a long boot, buttoned or laced at the side.

A very flat foot requires rather high heels. If, on the contrary, your foot has that high arched instep which is seen in greatest perfection among the Arabs, and is considered a mark of blue blood by the Spaniards, it is not necessary to exaggerate [-218-] the curve by high heels, which shortens disadvantageously the foot that has no need of shortening, and throws it out of its necessary equilibrium.

The Molière shoe, which makes the ankle appear thick, and cuts in two the arch of which we have just been speaking, should be abandoned in the name of aestheticism. The low-cut shoe is, on the contrary, very graceful and becoming.

The Wellington boot is altogether unacceptable. The brodequin and kid boot should reach higher than the ankle. No other boot is fit for winter wear, as the ankles must be protected from the cold. A black boot is the only really pretty one; but if made of stuff, it will add to the size of the foot much more than in leather or kid.

A white shoe should only be worn on a faultless foot. And, indeed, it is best to wear shoes a shade darker than the dress. A white shoe enlargens and widens the foot.

[-219-] An open shoe may be worn in various colours which are forbidden in a boot. All the same, it is well to choose a colour that matches the dress, but is a little darker. Black shoes and black stockings diminish both the length and breadth of the foot.

Women with thick ankles should wear stockings with embroidery high up on the sides in the length, not across the width: it will make the ankles appear smaller. When strong boots are worn with a light and elegant toilette, it is a sign of the very worst taste. If you cannot have nice boots and shoes, you should wear quiet and simple dresses.

Trying on Boots and Shoes.

I advise all those to whom it is possible to have their boots and shoes made for them. But if you do buy them ready-made, try them on in the evening. The feet are then spread out to their full size, and are at their highest degree of sensitiveness. The [-220-] activity and exercise they have bad during the day will have given them their fullest dimensions. The muscles will be tender from use, and the flow of blood in the arteries will be increased. The weight of the body affects the circulation in the feet to such a degree that people who are obliged to stand for a long time find that their feet enlarge very much. It is to the weight of the body when standing for a length of time that varicose veins are due, and people whose fibres are easily relaxed are specially subject to them. In good health the feet recover their normal size when one has been in bed for a few minutes, because they have then no longer to bear the weight of the body.

Try on your boots and shoes in the evening, there fore, when your feet are tired, and with comparatively thick stockings on. You will then find that you have plenty of room in your boots when your feet are fresh and you have put on very fine stockings.

[-221-] Never take long walks with quite new boots on. Wear them in the house first for a few days, and then when you go out for a short time.

If you take these precautions, you will procure as much comfort for your feet in new boots as in old ones; and boots, shoes, and slippers will all wear much longer.

A well-cut pair of shoes may be known by the following sign :-When the shoes are placed beside each other, they should only touch each other at the toes and heels. The soles should follow the line of the foot, so that it can rest its whole width on it comfortably.

How to take care of the Feet.

The feet should be washed every day, and by rubbing with pumice-stone, all thickening of the skin on the heel, sole, and toes should be made to disappear. I have said the feet should be washed every day: this must not be taken to mean the foot-bath.

[-222-] The daily repetition of a foot-bath does not suit everybody. A foot-bath in which you keep your feet for ten or fifteen minutes is frequently injurious; above all, if it is taken very hot, or even warm. It has the bad effect of making the feet too tender, besides having a deplorable effect on the brain and sight if you are weak or delicate.

After washing your feet, and while they are still wet, rub the sole with dry salt, and then wipe them vigorously. This will strengthen them, and preserve them from the cold.

Warm your feet by walking. Foot- warmers of all kinds are bad both for beauty and health. They make you likely to have varicose veins in the legs. When you travel in very cold weather, wear over your shoes long stockings in the train or carriage, to prevent chilblains on your feet. Snow-boots are even better, but they are more difficult to carry about when you take them off on leaving the carriage. Light sabots are [-223-] indispensable in the country for going into the garden in damp weather. Goloshes and india-rubbers are equally good for keeping the feet dry. All these-socks, snow-boots, sabots, etc.-must, of course, be taken off the moment you go into the house.

A bath of lime-tree flowers is very soothing to tired feet.

If the feet are tired from long standing, a bath of salt and water is excellent for them. Put a handful of common salt in four quarts of water, as hot as can be borne without pain. Place your feet into this, and with your hand splash the water over your legs up to the knees. As soon as the water cools, rub hard with a rough towel. (This treatment, applied morning and evening, will cure neuralgia in the feet.)

It is also advisable, when the feet are swollen from a long walk or much standing, to bathe them in water in which charcoal has been boiled. The water should be strained through a cloth before putting the [-224-] feet into it. Swelling and fatigue will both disappear rapidly. Alcoholic friction is also very good.

If the feet perspire, here is a good way of getting rid of this inconvenience:- Wash with boric acid in the water, and then powder the feet with dust of lycopodium. You may also try the following:- Salicylic acid three parts, talc seven, starch nine. These three substances should be well pounded and mixed, and the feet should be well powdered with the mixture. In some cases it will suffice to sprinkle the inside sole of the shoe with boric acid. In all cases I advise medical consultation before using any remedy. I believe my recipes to be inoffensive, but I know that it is sometimes dangerous to stop this perspiration. One thing may be done without fear of any kind - namely, to change the shoes and stockings two or three times a day.

[-225-] In-growing Nails.

This is a very painful infirmity. If the nails of the great toes - and, indeed, all the nails - are cut quite square and not almond shape, you will not have to undergo suffering of this kind. However, once the evil is there, the question is how to cure it. Make a soft paste of mutton suet, Marseilles soap, and powdered white sugar, in equal parts. Apply this till the flesh recedes from the nail.

Or wet the whole foot, and after drying it well, apply a solution of gutta-percha and chloroform on the part affected. This operation should be repeated several times on the first day-say, about four times. The following day the number of applications may be diminished.

Here is the formula for the solution:-

Chloroform ... 80 parts

Gutta-percha ... 10 parts

[-226-] Another remedy is as follows :-Loosen the flesh round the nail, and cut the latter; paint the suffering part with a small paintbrush dipped in perchloride of iron. The flesh is thus made hard and less sensitive. This is an infallible remedy.

Corns.

What an infliction! Happily, they are not without a remedy, whatever the cause by which they are produced.

A shoe that is too wide is almost as destructive as one that is too narrow. If the foot is not properly supported by the shoe, it rubs continually against the leather in moving, and this friction predisposes to corns, almost as certainly as compression of the foot.

If a corn has only recently grown, you can get rid of it by rubbing it with pumice-stone.

At first, while the corn is still somewhat tender, it can be got the better of by [-227-] applying wool dipped in castor-oil or leaves of red geranium steeped in oil.

A poultice of the crumb of bread which has been steeped in vinegar for thirty minutes will cure a new corn in one night.

Good results are also to be obtained by dissolving a false pearl in vinegar; the creamy substance thus obtained is applied to the corn (pace Cleopatra!). A soft rag should be steeped in the cream, and carefully wrapped round the corn for the night.

Orpine, a patent remedy, is applied on hard corns, which it softens, and thus facilitates their extraction. A raw onion bruised has the same virtue, as well as ivy-leaves steeped in vinegar. The leaf further serves to protect the surface of the corn. A little plaster-of-Paris damped (in paste) will answer the same purpose; so will a little circle (pierced in the centre) of agaric or touchwood (from the oak or touchwood-tree) put over the corn, which will thus be kept from the pressure of the shoe. But here [-228-] are more scientific prescriptions for ointments which will destroy hard corns. They are more or less like each other, but the slight variations among them may just make them suitable for divers kinds of corns:-

(1) Salicylic acid ... 1 drachm.

Atronine ... 1½ grains

Flexible collodion ... 1 ounce

(2) Salicylic acid ... 5 drachms

Extract of cannabis indica ... ½ drachm

Collodion ... 4 ounces

(3) Salicylic acid ·.. ... 15 grains.

Extract of cannabis indica ... 8 grains

Alcohol at 90º ... ... 15 minims.

Ether at 62º - ... ... 40 minims

Elastic collodion ... ... 80 minims

(Prescription of P. Vigier.)

Whichever of these three prescriptions you choose, mix the divers ingredients, and keep them in a well-corked bottle. The remedy should be applied by means of a camel's-hair brush dipped in the mixture, and should be passed over the corn at least [-229-] twice. The applications should be made daily during not less than a fortnight. At the end of this time (during which you will be reduced to washing your feet with a damp sponge, which must not touch even the toes on which the corns are) the little tumours will be easily removed with your fingers after keeping the foot in warm water for an hour.

Bunions, which particularly affect the big and little toes, and sometimes the instep (in which case high heels should be at once renounced), can be cured in several ways:-

(1) If it is inflamed, cover it with a poultice and wear easy slippers. Then anoint the suffering part with an ointment composed of 7 parts of iodine mixed with 30 of lard.

(2) Cover the bunion with a piece of oiled silk over a layer of axunge.

(3) Take a piece of wash-leather, and make a hole in it large enough for the [-230-] bunion, put it on the bad place, and cover it with oiled silk. Over this silk rub the bunion twice a day with the ointment of iodine and axunge.

(4) A piece of diachylon plaster has a very good effect. You can also cut the corn and cauterise it with sulphate of copper, which is sold in sticks, like nitrate of silver.

Cramp in the Foot.

The cramp is a most disagreeable infirmity.

If the toes are not perfectly free in the boot or shoe, the constraint gives rise to the most horrible cramp.

The cramp which so many people are subject to at night is prevented by raising the pillow. You place under the feet at the head end of the bed a block about the thickness of two bricks. Relief is immediate, certain, and lasting.

It is said - and I know it by painful [-231-] experience - that prescriptions of which arsenic forms even the smallest part cause terrible cramp in the calf of the leg.

Some useful Precautions.

When you come in with your leather boots wet, take them off at once, and have them filled with very dry hay. This absorbs the damp rapidly, stretches and fills out the boots, and so prevents them from stiffening and losing their shape. Above all, avoid putting them near the fire. The next day the hay is taken out, and may he dried for another occasion or thrown away. By stuffing the boots with paper you will obtain exactly the same result.

Paraffin softens boots that have stiffened from a wetting, and restores all their suppleness. Strong shooting-boots can be softened by exposure to broom-smoke, and by rubbing with olive-oil and lard. They will thus be much more comfortable, last twice [-232-] as long, and will protect the feet better from the cold and damp.

If you want to make the soles of your boots more durable and impervious to water, warm them slightly, cover them with a coat of varnish, and dry it. Warm them again, varnish, and dry; repeat a third time under the same conditions.

A mixture of cream and ink is excellent for keeping kid boots in good order.

A harness varnish may also be used for the same purpose. Take a very little on the end of a rag, and rub the boot well all over. Polish it with a bit of cloth. In countries where oranges are cheap, they are used for blacking the boots. The orange is cut in two, the juicy side rubbed on a black saucepan, and then on the boot. It is then brushed with a soft brush, and a brilliant polish obtained.

To prevent boots from creaking or cracking, the soles should be well saturated with linseed, oil. Place the boots on a dish [-233-] full of oil; the sole will absorb the oil, which will also make it impervious to snow or water.

How to put on Laced or Buttoned Boots.

The feet of stockings should be longer than the feet they cover. They should be well pulled out at the toe, so that the heel can get into its place properly. (They will wear all the better for this precaution.) The bit that is beyond the toes in length should be turned back on them, to stretch the stocking, and all will arrange itself admirably as soon as you walk a little. (When evening comes, the foot of the stocking is no more too long.)

Very few persons know how to lace their boots and shoes; at least, they do not lace them the right way. Generally, people pull the lace as hard as they can, without noticing that they are making their foot very uncomfortable. You should place your [-234-] heel well down in the shoe, then move your toes about in a satisfactory manner. After these preliminaries, put your heel on a chair opposite to the one you are sitting on, and then lace your boot. On the instep, lace the boot as tightly as possible, but tighten it gently and by degrees, so as to keep the foot well in the boot, in which your toes are quite at their ease. At the ankle, lace your boot so as to give every possible ease and comfort to that part of the foot.

Proceed in the same way with buttoned boots; do not button the two buttons near the toes first. Button from the instep up to the ankle, to begin with, and before buttoning up the ankle itself, come back and do the first two buttons; then finish by imprisoning, but as loosely as is possible, the lower part of the leg, the over- compression of which is so very bad for the health.

source: http://www.victorianlondon.org/publications/ladys-2-2.htm

for those that want corsets and stockings!!

[Dawn HH]

Now, that was some interesting and informative reading. It is amazing the concoctions and mixes used back then. There were a few suggestions still in practice even today and some of them have shown up here on the Forum from time to time. Very interesting. Cheers--- Dawn HH

[Shafted]

Some information is just timeless.