19th century shoes/footwear

[OC Richard]

The Highlanders of Scotland reveals a Highland Dress which was far more diverse than ours is today.

There are numerous shoe styles seen there, many of which no longer exist. These are shown in such painstaking detail that one would probably be able to use the paintings as a guide to reproduce them.

I need to mention that the dress in general, and the footwear in particular, does not show the clear day/evening dichotomy that is seen in the Highland Dress of the first half of the 20th century.

The shoe break down as follows:

25 "Mary Jane" style, showing tremendous variety:
15 buckles above and below opening
6 buckle above opening only
2 buckle above, laced below
1 laced above, buckle below
1 no buckles, laced all the way up over the opening

11 "Ghillie" style, most tan leather, a few brown, one grey. The only black pair have buckles near the toes

10 ordinary shoes (what I would call "Oxfords")

3 ankle boots

1 spats covering shoes

1 unique shoe, an interesting blend between ghillies and Mary Janes

This last was still being made in the early 20th century, as they appear in my Lawrie catalogue from 1930, seen on the lower right:



In this Anderson catalogue from the 1930s we see Ghillies transformed into an Evening style complete with buckles. Only one of eleven ghillies seen in the Highlanders of Scotland is like this.



Here are some of the interesting shoes to be seen in The Highlanders of Scotland:

(left) slip-on loafer style shoes with nonfunctional buckles (right) typcial tan suede ghilles


(left) extremely interesting shoes, very similar to the ones offered by Lawrie in the 1930s, sort of like Mary Janes with two pairs of tabs such as are seen on ghillies (right) interesting brown Mary Janes with buckles above the opening, but laced below the opening


(right) tan suede ghillies with only two pairs of tabs, as opposed to four pairs of tabs as seen on modern ghillies


(left) ankle boots (right) unique shoes, like Mary Janes but with a much smaller opening, having buckles above and lacing below


(left) slip-on loafer style shoes with nonfunctional buckles (right) ordinary shoes


yet more tan suede ghillies, the ones on the left having three pairs of tabs, the ones on the right only two pairs of tabs (as compared to four on modern ghillies)