A Pair of Unique and Unusual Fairy Shoes
I am always on the lookout for interesting and unusual shoes to add to and fill out my Lady Violette Shoe Collection. The collection is always growing and expanding to include more and more interesting examples.
I recently came upon this unique pair (in a park near my house no less!) which must have been abandoned by a fairy who chose to kick up her heels barefoot while dancing in a fairy ring in summer grass scattered with tiny daisies. We were only able to get one picture and I want to post it before it mysteriously vanishes, which it well might, as I have taken others which somehow slipped away! This particular one was taken by a professional fairy photographer – a friend of mine who has traveled all over Scotland and Wales with a fairy expert searching out and shooting evidence of fairies in their natural habitats.
These slippers are made by Irregular Choice (signed inside in gold!) of a pale green suede decorated in what looks like an etched design of whimsical leaves, butterflies, abstract stripes and dew drops in metallic purple light. The toes turn up as they do on all elf and fairy shoes of my experience. A ruffled tuft topped with a string bow, made of the same suede material as the rest of the shoes, adorns the vamp. Inside the shoe is also heavily decorated. It is lined in turquoise leather which is painted with fairy court swirls and flourishes in purple, lavender and white. Well made, the inner heels are lined in lighter aqua suede so they will hug a fairy’s feet as she races through woods and over fields. The insole is cut out with special zig zag fairy scissors, then punched with tiny decorative holes to create additional pleasing design elements along it’s edges – all inside where only the owning fairy can see it before she puts on her magical shoes! Perhaps as a way to code these as the property of the specific fairy owner of this particular pair of ethereal dancing slippers?
The heels are low and quaint – all in all an odd design – not human – but perhaps borrowing elements of shoe design from humans? Or the other way around? Perhaps human’s have borrowed some elements of shoe design from fairies? Hard to say! I think the fairy expert will have to be consulted! But the heels are charming and remind me of the ones on French court shoes in the 1700s.
We will send this post off to our Fairy Expert contact immediately to find out what she thinks, then post her responding comments (and her credentials!) here for you to see.
The photographer who took this particular picture of this slippery pair of fairy slippers is Fredric Lehrman. (Thank you Fredric!)
When I first tried to photograph these shoes my camera crashed off my tripod and broke into a mass of shattered pieces! It became truly inoperable! A definite inconvenience as I have had to find another and learn to operate it, etc. It took Fredric several tries to get a picture of them too because they didn’t co-operate with him the first time around either! These little shoes have a mind of their own! Or perhaps there is a spell on them?
The bottoms are printed in a colorful floral design in pink, blue and red – kind of an Arts and Craft style floral pattern. They are stamped 38 on the bottom – the fairy size I presume. We will try to get a picture of that to show you later! ( If they allow it!) The soles are flexible – so good for dancing in – and the width is medium, not terribly narrow. Fairies like their shoes to be comfortable. They like them to feel like bare feet.
Fairies only wear shoes for decorative purposes to enhance their costumes for special festivities and occasions as you probably know. They normally go bare foot and hate wearing shoes because they inhibit their movement. This may explain why this pair, though very pretty, were kicked off and carelessly abandoned. The owner probably got carried away with her mood and fairy music, found them inhibiting, and took off to other realms where she could move more freely without them. Fairies don’t normally touch down on concrete so don’t need the protection we humans do when walking on it.
It turns out that Irregular Choice is a shoe and accessories design company located in the UK. They make lovely whimsical shoes out of leather and fabrics and all manner of imaginative designs and decorations. The shoes are very well made. I have not been able to find out when this pair was produced or what they called it but have written to the company with the photo to try to find out. Their shoes retail for between about $145 and $200 at this time.
Tags: Designer Shoes, Fashion, The Lady Violette Shoe Collection, Vintage, Vintage Shoes
