‘Slippers were a bit of an upper-class thing’
Scrubbing the pavement was nothing less than a Dutch ritual, but taking your shoes off indoors? Not so much. Researcher Marieke Hendriksen from the Huygens Institute tells Wilma de Rek, culture reporter for De Volkskrant, that there is not much information available about the history of wearing shoes or slippers indoors in the Netherlands. However, some information is available.
From the article:
Hendriksen suspects that until the 19th century, buying slippers was ‘a bit of an upper-class thing’. ‘In the digitised Amsterdam notarial deeds, I saw that between 1600 and 1800, only one inventory mentions slippers, belonging to a minister. It stands to reason that poor people, if they took off their shoes at all, simply put on thick socks when they went inside somewhere. Only wealthier people had multiple pairs of shoes.’
Read the article here (behind a paywall, Dutch only). Or below.
Shoes and a mop by the door. Detail from Johannes Vermeer’s Love Letter, c. 1669-1670. Rijksmuseum collection.
