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# Leather shoes of Henry VIII's era in Holbein's portrait and in museum collections
- URL: https://theparnassian.com/en/na-portrete-golbeina-u-genrikha-viii-chumovye-lofery-iz-beloi-kozhi/
- Published: 2019-10-23T12:22:01.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-02T19:09:56.000Z
- Author: Alexandr Radayev
- Tags: Archaeology, Art, Monarchies, Museums, Mores, Humour

In Holbein's portrait, [Henry VIII](https://theparnassian.com/genrikh-viii/?ref=theparnassian.com) is wearing some seriously cool white leather loafers. This type of footwear was popular in Renaissance England, and such slippers became widespread in court circles precisely in the early sixteenth century, though they had to compete with another fashionable model, the heeled shoe. It is not the rarest of archaeological finds: every now and then archaeologists turn up leather footwear of those times in bogs and roadside ditches, which is why in many museums, the Victoria and Albert among them, one can examine those very loafers from the portrait. The shoe itself was a fairly plain leather affair with several slashes cut in it so that the leather would bend more easily, while the inside was lined with brightly coloured cloth, so that in reality these espadrilles were rather handsome as well. The simpler models looked like perfectly ordinary ballet flats without any adornment.

![](https://theparnassian.com/content/images/2026/09/photo_1945@23-10-2019_15-22-01.jpg)

![](https://theparnassian.com/content/images/2026/09/photo_1946@23-10-2019_15-22-01.jpg)

![](https://theparnassian.com/content/images/2026/09/photo_1947@23-10-2019_15-22-01.jpg)

![](https://theparnassian.com/content/images/2026/09/photo_1948@23-10-2019_15-22-01.jpg)