d'Orsay shoe

Footwear

Sexy because of the visible foot arch
The term d'Orsay pump may not immediately ring a bell. Yet you have probably seen this shoe before. It is a pump, or flat shoe, where the side of the shoe is open from the heel to the vamp. Usually the inside of the shoe, sometimes both sides. The model is named after the nineteenth-century Count d'Orsay, whose full name was Alfred Guillaume Gabriel Grimod d'Orsay. This French dandy and trendsetter initially designed this model as a (military) men's shoe. In the late 1920s it became a popular women's model for dressy evening occasions. The visible foot arch, which made the shoe sexy, caused quite a stir! The d'Orsay model is still popular as an evening shoe or airy summer shoe that still leaves the toes covered.

Image: © J. Crew

 

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