I started thinking, “it would be tricky to wear those with most shoes because the vamp would cover the snake’s tongue and head.” Which of course led me to start searching for pictures of women’s shoes and feet from 1900. Looks like most came up over the ankle. I had to add “brothel” to the search, and even then most of their shoes wouldn’t have worked. So I guess one reason these are in such good repair is that they weren’t worn often, and probably for purposes that didn’t involve a lot of walking.
I started thinking, “it would be tricky to wear those with most shoes because the vamp would cover the snake’s tongue and head.” Which of course led me to start searching for pictures of women’s shoes and feet from 1900. Looks like most came up over the ankle. I had to add “brothel” to the search, and even then most of their shoes wouldn’t have worked. So I guess one reason these are in such good repair is that they weren’t worn often, and probably for purposes that didn’t involve a lot of walking.