Martha Washington, Dancing Queen — She wore 'the Manolo Blahniks of her time'

Above, the avant-garde deep purple silk high heels studded with silver sequins 27-year-old Martha Dandridge Custis wore on January 6, 1759, the day she married George Washington.

Said historian and author Patricia Brady (quoted in Brigid Schulte's revisionist February 2, 2009 Washington Post front page story about the first First Lady) regarding the shoes, "They were the Manolo Blahniks of her time."

Mount Vernon curator Emily Shapiro and executive director James Rees described the shoes as a little sassy and definitely "over the top" for the time.

For the first time in decades the delicate shoes, whose sparkly buckles are long gone and whose original bright purple has faded to lavender, are on display at Mount Vernon, through Monday, February 23, after which they'll be returned to dark storage until 2020 or thereabouts.