This pair of pointed blue beaded slippers with heels is decorated with a floral motif in the centre. The technique is needlepoint canvas worked with glass seed beads in petit-point stitch. The slipper faces were sewn with beads on a frame and then sent to Chinese shoemakers to be attach to the leather slipper base. The sole of the slippers are stamped with the shopmark of ‘Dah Hua Shoe Co.’ (大华) in both English and Chinese characters.Beaded slippers, also known as kasut manek, were popular with Peranakans in the early 20th century. The slipper faces were sewn with beads on a frame and then sent to Chinese shoemakers to be attach to the leather slipper base. It was a time when Western-style clothing and materials like Europe-imported glass beads were incorporated into Peranakan fashion as an expression of their “modernity”.
