As I explained in my previous post Christian Dior commissioned a perfume named Dioressence to accompany his 1969/70 Fall Winter Collection which featured furs. He wanted this new fragrance to live up to the tagline “Le Perfume Barbare” – the barbaric perfume – and serve as an accessory to the fur fashions he had created for this season. The perfume was inspired by the barbaric fashions he had designed. And, once again, you were supposed to see it as an accessory to the furs and wear it with the furs. all furs used in this collection were real fur.
This description, of course, peaked my curiosity. I had to see what kinds of furs would actually inspire a new perfume and a name which made me envision a caveman throwing his woman over his shoulder and carrying her into a cave to ravish her …
As we know fashion houses always have to strive to create something new and attention getting, something that will position them at the front of the pack and insure that they get attention from the press and attract clients who will buy and wear the clothes they have created. In my mind Dior has always epitomized femininity and elegant good taste so, this name seemed like a departure from the usual and got my attention if nothing else!
Here is a collection of images showing the furs photographed on the street outside of the Dior store in Paris and inside the Dior Salon in London when the models were rehearsing the choreography for the actual runway show. Please note all the furs used in this collection were real fur.
The caption accompanying the photos read: “Christian Dior today showed in London a collection of furs for the Winter 69-70 from Paris. The girls who showed the furs, came from Paris. They are pop ballet dancers, and accompanying them was Dior’s first ever male model, 24 year old Aigle Hasper who has just joined Dior. The dancing girl in the lead position is Lubia Rosche a professional ballet dancer. The other models are also trained ballet dancers who are members of her troupe. “
The photographer is Mirrorpix
Rare and beautiful historic clothing and accessories and vintage fragrances are for sale in my online shops. If you see something on this blog that you are interested in buying, but do not find it for sale in my shops message me on Etsy or Ebay and I will get back to you about availability. I check messages daily and can always prepare a special listing for you if you do not find it already listed in the shops. Some perfumes and vintage furs and fur trimmed items are currently listed for sale in my shops and others will be listed as they are ready to sell. Items are always in process of being readied for listing so all inventory is not already listed and photographed. Feel free to message me on Ebay or Etsy if you are seeking something in particular as I may have it or be able to find it for you. There are contact seller buttons on all listings in the stores which allow you to write me messages.
In 1969 French couture designer Christian Dior commissioned perfumer Guy Robert to create a perfume to be worn with his furs. He had done a series of luxe fur coats, evening furs and day designs with fur trims for his Fall/Winter 1969 Collection and wanted a special scent to accent them. He considered this perfume to be a fragrant accessory to wear with his furs.
Dior requested a scent in his own words that would be “intensely animalic, sensual and brutal!” He wanted it to run counter to the luminous blends that had made Dior perfumes famous up to that point. They came up with Dioressence, a deliciously rich chypre, very powerful and tenacious, and quite different than anything the house of Dior had previously issued. It caused a sensation when it came out and has become famous as one of the greatest perfumes of all time. Women liked its balance of earthy depth and elegance. It combined the fleshy ripeness of animalic notes with the autumnal warmth of patchouli and moss. Wrapped in jasmine and rose it had a glamorous and exotic aura, but remained surprisingly pleasing and easy to wear. It became very popular.
The original formula of Dioressence issued in 1969 was available from Dior and in high end stores like Saks Fifth Avenue for 10 years.
Here is one of the early ads for Dioressence.
I also noticed that this vintage Dior ad seems to be inspired by the painting “Repose” by John White Alexander (1895). Just a bit of art trivia for you.
In 1979 the Dior company decided to update the original formula of Dioressence for a relaunch. This new fragrance was created by Max Gavarry, and it followed the same general outlines as the original Dioressence but it was made plusher and sweeter. The rich glitter of warm spices was enriched, and the dense pungency of ambergris in the ’69 version was substantially reduced. Most vintage Dioressence on the market today is from this 1979 relaunch.
Vintage Chinchilla Stole – a timeless vintage fur that will always be the epitome of elegance.
In the original 1969 launch Dioressence By Dior was marketed as the height of luxury, the ultimate in sensuality and sophistication meant to enhance the experience of wearing a beautiful fur and being a beautiful woman. But times were changing ….. and there was no reason you could not wear Dioressence when not wearing a fur. And, hopefully, they would sell a lot more of this exotic scent if it could be worn anytime with anything.
Vintage Mink Stole – and Vintage Christian Dior Jewelry – exquisite vintage elegance is always in style!
Thus the Dior company issued this description of their 1979 version:
“Bring an aura of mystery and magic to your days and nights with Dioressence by Christian Dior. This women’s fragrance is undeniably feminine and enchanting, making it the perfect choice for evening use. It blends notes of bergamot and orange with fruity notes, patchouli and green notes for a distinctive result. Choose this breathtaking fragrance when you want to captivate a crowd without lifting a finger. Its memorable essence turns heads wherever you go.”
It is interesting to note that the original purpose of the 1969 version as a fragrance accessory to wear with furs was no longer used in the 1979 and later promotions and advertising campaigns! This is partly because wearing fur had now become a questionable practice due to the efforts of animal rights activists, thus Dior had to de-emphasize the original purpose of the scent and come up with a new ones in order to keep selling the perfume. It was fine to emphasize wearing this perfume any time you wanted to wear it because there was no reason it could only be worn with furs! They go on to say, “This spicy beauty with a green rose top note is delightful. It teases with its spicy warmth, before enveloping its wearer in a cool veil of moss and vetiver. ”
The 1979 version came in the above spray flacon and remained and remains to this day a lovely choice to wear with furs or anything else! In the 1980s I was very aware of the existence of this perfume but not the fact that it had originally been created to wear with furs!
I have been wearing this 1979 version for a week as my daily perfume while I have worked on this post. I absolutely love it! It makes me feel as if I am in my own magic world – a place removed from the stresses and pressures of modern life – mysterious and special. It smells lovely – not at all heavy, but very long lasting. On me it even lasts through showers and becomes deeper and more special over a couple of days. It makes me feel relaxed and peaceful similar to how I feel visiting a garden in a summer evening after the heat of the day has passed.
Fast forward to the current times – I am writing this post in August of 2024.
In the late 1980s the Dior company began experiencing financial difficulties. Incidentally, I worked for the company during that time and through the 1990s. I attended Dior’s perfume training school but the fact that Dioressence was originally designed in 1969 to wear with furs was never mentioned! The company seems to have forgotten this most interesting history. Again, in the late 80s many of the perfumes from Dior were reformulated using cheaper ingredients for economy or replacing banned ingredients because they were required to do so by law. Alas, due to decisions by the accountants at Dior, Dioressence was again reformulated. Thus we got the 3rd version that is available today on the commercial retail perfume market.
Dioressence has been through multiple reformulations:
The first and the original Barbaric version was created in 1969 by Guy Robert
The second spicier version was created in 1979 by Max Gavarry
The third currently available version which is on the market today 2024 and is not attributed to anyone in particular but seems to have gradually morphed into being little by little as Dior executives cut costs. This is the one that bears little relationship to either Robert’s or Gavarry’s creations.
The fourth version is coming soon as Francoise Demachy, Dior’s current in house perfumer is currently working on a new version of Dioressence.
This brings me to consider the name of this perfume – Dioressence. Doesn’t this seem to say this perfume is the essence of Christian Dior and to dig deeper – the essence of society at the time it was created? Perhaps all these different versions are defining the essence of Dior and the society at the times they came out. It is the job of fashion houses to both make trends and follow them. For example the 1969 version was a barbaric perfume for the 1970s – the age of sex drugs and Rock ‘n Roll. Liberalism before it got bogged down and restrictive. If you were going to be cool and hip and a woman that is the vibe you wanted for better or for worse. It was the time of danger – the time when women were forced to embrace danger. Woodstock happened in 1968 and the world was alive with the sound of music. I feel that 1969 was a year in which they could see ahead and predict what would be happening in the 70s.
The 1979 version calmed down on the barbaric level but became spicier – thus a spicy oriental – a big perfume for the opulent 1980s – with its extreme more is more fashions with their their over-the-top silhouettes, big shoulders, teased hair, saturated colors, puffed sleeves, flashy skirts, spandex, velour, shiny satin, voluminous parachute pants and power suits. The 80s was a bold excess decade, peak Japan, leveraged buyouts, the movie Wall Street, Gordon Gecco, “Greed is Good”, corporate buyouts, cocaine, yuppies, the focus was less on free love, but more decadent in a way. A woman needed to smell good if she was going to stand out amidst all that!
The supermodel phenomenon started in the late 80s and exploded in the 90s co-inciding with a growing media landscape and increasing pop culture interest in fashion.
Mid 80s – the 90s was the Aids Scare, in the late 80s and early 90s Dior was experiencing financial constraints, in the 90s the US was in an economic slump, the UK was in a recession as well. Subdued style suddenly made sense so the revival of minimalism came forward as luxury style. The opulence of the 1980s was taken over in the 90s by a revival of luxury. John Galliano was hired as Creative Director by Dior to revive luxury and bring people back to Dior – get them interested in Luxury again. That was in 1995. And this he achieved from 1996 – 2011.
In popular culture fashion in the 90s engaged in a wide variety of styles, that cycled in and out very quickly. There was always something new, always something a bit controversial, something for everyone. There was reinvention and restlessness in the fashion of the 90s – minimalism, revival of luxury, retro-revivals, grunge, deconstruction and the avant-garde, environmentalism and the global wardrobe. There was hip-hop, rave culture and sports-inspired style. This is the period from which the third generation of Dioressence, the one still available is stores, evolved.
Fashion is and always has always been a signifier of social status and self-expression and a sign of the times – so it will be interesting to see what the upcoming fourth version of Dioressence becomes.
Back to the history of Dioressence:
Guy Robert, was the legendary nose responsible for creating the original barbaric Dioressence in 1969. In The Emperor of Scent, Chandler Burr recounts Luca Turin telling the story of how Dior executives asked Robert to create a fragrance that was “animalic”, would live up to the slogan le parfum barbare, and would be called Dioressence (p. 146, paperback edition). The rest was up to Robert. He didn’t have a firm direction for the fragrance until kismet intervened and Robert washed his ambergris-coated hands with soap impregnated with the scent of a Miss Dior knock-off. Voila! Animal and elegance with a clear tie to Dior.
Burr goes on to record Turin’s response to the current, reformulated version of Dioressence – the third and currently sold version, “t’s now a lie, a total lie to the original, to what it was.” Later, Turin wrote in his now defunct blog, “The last time the word barbare was used in earnest in perfumery was in the 1969 slogan of Dioressence, and that was the genuine article with a weird, scary, overripe, almost garbage-like note.” I read all of this before I ever smelled Dioressence, but I was still eager to smell it, no matter what the version. A “weird, scary” note? Who could resist that? What, on earth, did that description mean?
Burr continues, saying, ” I arranged for a sample of vintage 1969 version of Dioressence through a swap, and eagerly sprayed it on my arm. It kicked off with an intriguing mix of soap and rot. The rot was not musky like body odor, but decomposed, like the vague dead squirrel smell I catch here and there in Guerlain Jicky and Shalimar. The rot smell faded to the background, and a gorgeous floral bouquet, languorous and spicy, nudged in, supremely blended and supremely French in feel. For all its richness, Dioressence wasn’t heavy, and even though the sample was only of the Eau de Toilette, it lasted for hours. I had to have a bottle of it.”
So, he acquired a bottle of the version number three , the one currently available today, and he said, “Yes, my new bottle of the reformulated Dioressence was a bitter disappointment. I felt robbed. The sample I’d first tried and fell in love with must have been vintage. Instead of a compelling, odd, but beautiful scent, I had a bottle of pleasant, rosy, spicy, soapy fragrance that lasted on the skin two hours, tops. I should have been warned when I saw that Dior had moved away from its original barbare description of Dioressence toward the innocuous “mysterious Orient” theme.”
Dior’s website currently, in August 2024, describes Dioressence as a “spicy oriental” and lists its top notes as aldehydes, greens and fruit; its heart as jasmine, geranium, cinnamon, carnation, orris, ylang ylang and tuberose; and its base as patchouli, oak moss, vetiver, vanilla and musk.
All I can say is: Dior, shame on you. I see that recently Dior decided to make the classic fragrances (Miss Dior, Diorella, Diorissimo, and Dioressence) more exclusive in the United States by selling them only at Saks Fifth Avenue. Dior also recently released three expensive, limited edition fragrances (La Collection Particuliere). None of these moves toward repositioning Dior perfume as truly top shelf will succeed as long as the juice is a cheap imitation of its original glory. I’d rather pay twice as much for a vintage bottle of Dioressence (which will last me twice as long having twice the persistence, by the way) than buy a new bottle any day. Poor Guy Robert.
Dioressence : Today
Unfortunately, as Dior suffered financial hardships in the late 1980s, the quality of the formula began to decline, and the version you can find in stores today is a legacy of that period. Little by little the barbaric perfume has morphed into a sheer green infusion of moss and soapy rose. It’s pleasant, but bland. Even the current Christian Dior in-house perfumer Francois Demachy admitted in an interview that he also dislikes the current Dioressence, ( that is the on e being sold now in 2024) which bears little relationship to either Robert’s 1969 or Gavarry’s 1979 creations. This interview is from a Russian issue of GQ and frankly addresses and explains the problems perfumers and consumers are having with current releases of the famous old perfumes. It is very worth reading.
Some people blame the changing fashions, others point to the severity of current fragrance regulations. Guy Robert only shrugged his shoulders and said, “The fashion now is to be afraid, we used these so-called dangerous ingredients for hundreds of years, and nothing happened.”
Apparently, Francois Demachy is currently working on a new version of Dioressence, and I hope that one day we might find this fragrance made, again, with quality ingredients and with at least a hint of a tantalizing barbaric streak! When is is launched it will be version four.
Coming next: Images of the Brutal Furs from Dior’s 1969 Fall/Winter Collection!
Meanwhile: I advise you to hunt down, collect, wear and enjoy your favorite vintage perfumes.
Rare and beautiful historic clothing and accessories and vintage fragrances are for sale in my online shops. I also offer a collection of vintage Christian Dior jewelry and vintage furs. If you see something on this blog that you are interested in buying, but do not find it for sale in my shops message me on Etsy or Ebay and I will get back to you about availability. I check messages daily and can always prepare a special listing for you if you do not find it already listed in the shops. Some perfumes and vintage furs and fur trimmed items are currently listed for sale in my shops and others will be listed as they are ready to sell. Items are always in process of being readied for listing so all inventory is not already listed and photographed. Feel free to message me on Ebay or Etsy if you are seeking something in particular as I may have it or be able to find it for you. There are contact seller buttons on all listings in the stores which allow you to write me messages.
Today I came across this wonderful article discussing the wearing of Vintage Fur : I recommend reading it as it clears up a lot of issues surrounding real fur, recycled vintage furs, fake fur, newly produced furs and the fur industry in general.
I also recommend digging further into the many surrounding issues discussed and reading the other links in the article.
Everyone will come to their own conclusions! I, for one, will continue to wear and promote the wearing and enjoyment of vintage furs!
Many thanks to Barbara Koich “The FUR Lady” for sending me this article!
Barb also carries vintage and recycled furs in her Etsy shop.
Rare and beautiful historic clothing and accessories including furs and fur trimmed items, are for sale in my online shops. If you see something on this blog that you are interested in buying, but do not find it for sale in my shops message me on Etsy or Ebay and I will get back to you about availability. I check messages daily and can always prepare a special listing for you if you do not find it already listed in the shops.
Today I was working on restoring this beautiful 1940s era coat trimmed in real vintage fur. Of course I wanted to preserve it. It is truly a thing of beauty! It needed a lot of work as the thread holding it together was deteriorating. I had to remove the fur pieces so I could have the cloth portion dry cleaned, then hand sew all the seams and reinforce the hand sewn bound buttonholes. In the process I discovered many wonderful details involved in its construction. There was much to appreciate!
The mauve boucle wool coat is originally from the 1940s and features a removable Kolinsky fur scarf collar and wide cuffs that were dyed to look like mink. This coat was made in England. They used to use Kolinsky instead of mink because it was less expensive. It the pelts were not the desired color or perfectly matched they would bleach and dye them to be the desired base color of dark brown or caramel then paint a darker stripe down the center to emulate mink. FYI Kolinsky are a type of weasel and they are not endangered. More about Kolinsky fur at the end of this post.
This fur was professionally identified as Kolinsky by Rene Vogel who is a professional Swiss Furrier who formerly ran the fur salons of Nordstrom flagship store and I. Magnin and Co. in Seattle, WA.
I especially love the crossover fur scarf at the neck and the wool loop with two rhinestone set fittings holding it in place. It is a beautiful and unusual design detail – as are the large still plush and shiny wide and luxurious fur cuffs! When you insert your arms into the sleeves you find a real treat in the form of the surprise details hidden underneath inside the sleeves.
When you turn back the fur cuff you find an inner wrist cuff that buttons snugly around the wrist to keep out the cold air! How thoughtful!
The fabric is a mauve colored wool boucle with a loopy highly textured surface, underneath is is layer of wool interfacing to provide an extra layer of warmth between the main fabric and the lining which is a taffeta-like slippery fabric chosen to slide over the clothes you wear under your coat.
The lining is a pretty sort of lavender grey color printed with spools of thread and sewing needles – charming harbingers of the tailors art – when you look underneath you see all the fine sewing techniques. Look at the elegant stitching. Every seam is finished with care. There are no raw edges of fabric, no strangling untied off or un-trimmed threads, no irregular seams.
When this coat was made and sold in the 1940s women went shopping and inspected the seams and linings and insides of clothes before finally buying them to be sure they were well constructed and beautifully made. They were going to be sure that a garment not only looked fashionable and attractive, but would also hold up over time. They looked for high quality fabrics and furs, excellent tailoring technique, and perfect stitching. Mothers would explain all these characteristics to their daughters to teach them to shop carefully. In the next photo you can see the hand sewn bound buttonholes and custom made self-fabric covered buttons.
You would look for pockets, then put your hand inside to check how deep it was, and whether is was lined. Was the lining, hopefully, soft, warm flannel ( it would hold up better than a satin lined pocket as well as be warmer should you need to put your hands into your pockets on a cold evening walk to keep them warm. ) You also needed to determine whether the pockets were deep enough to hold a pair of gloves. It was important because you would not want to lose an expensive pair of gloves should they fall out of a pocket that was not large enough to hold them deep inside.
This one would do on both accounts! A testament to the fact is that I actually found a pair of brown kidskin gloves still deep inside the pockets of the coat when I acquired it! What an unexpected thrill!
It was important to look carefully at the coat from all angles to be sure it hung correctly on your body, fit well across the shoulders and allowed you to move feely when wearing it. Of course is should look elegant and fit well too! In the olden days they had three-way full length mirrors situated at regular intervals throughout stores. Why? So customers could see how the clothes looked on them. And because it was a great selling tool. If you could easily determine that a garment fit you and looked good you were far more likely to decide to buy it and to make that decision quickly. In the dressing rooms there were even better mirrors and they often had shoes you could try on with clothes to achieve the proper effect – again, an effort on the part of the store to provide the shopper with the necessary tools with which to make a decision to purchase the garment. Stores also had alterations people and tailors on hand to guarantee a proper fit. Consulting with a professional tailor on staff was a free service provided by most stores. Trousers would be hemmed at the proper length, sleeve length adjusted to the best length for the customer, etc. This was most often a service included in the purchase of the garment. Only really extensive alterations were charged extra. Did this work as a sales technique? Yes! people came back to the same store and the same sales person over and over again. I am always annoyed in contemporary stores by the lack of mirrors on the sales floors.
Upon inspection of the shaping this coat has beautiful shaping through the shoulders. Note the sloped seaming and the way the raglan sleeves are constructed. The fur scarf can be removed so this can be fully seen. And, the scarf can be worn by itself on other garments! A silk scarf can be used at the neckline on the coat also to change the look and presentation of the coat! You can wrap the scarf in a similar manner as the fur crossing one side over the other and slipping one end under the fabric loop to hold it in place! I do not have a silk scarf on hand at this moment to demonstrate this but will come back and do so again later. You can visualize how it will look by substituting a silk scarf for the fur scarf.
This coat is beautiful and well made and I am quite proud of myself for restoring it and bringing it back into circulation as a useful, wearable and admirable piece of vintage clothing. It is a prime example of why we should save vintage clothing from the junk heap, rescue it from those who want to throw it out and reuse and re-appreciate it. In my personal opinion the design of this coat is exceptionally nice!
Just as I was finishing writing this post I received a link to an article in an email from a friend who also loves vintage furs. The link was to an article she found about vintage furs coming back into style and issues surrounding the controversy of the subject. Please read it. It will be my next post!
Wearing Vintage Furs and the Controversies Surrounding Them.
Rare and beautiful historic clothing and accessories, including coats and furs, are for sale in my online shops. If you see something on this blog that you are interested in buying, but do not find it for sale in my shops message me on Etsy or Ebay and I will get back to you about availability. I check messages daily and can always prepare a special listing for you if you do not find it already listed in the shops.
You can reach professional Swiss furrier Rene Vogel via email Rene’ Vogel <rdcvogel@msn.com> or by phone at (425)322-9638 to schedule appointments for all your fur related needs.
I want to make it clear to my readers that I chose to write about Rene Vogel to share information I have learned from him about furs and to provide them access to him as a reliable professional furrier should they wish to find one. Rene is not paying me to write about him
Posted in Manton de Manila | Comments Off on Buying & Renovating Vintage Coats, Vintage Fur Coats and Wool Coats with Fur Trim
Women love beautiful shoes and shoe shopping used to be a lot different than it is now! Back in the day a lady would visit a specialty shoe shop, be shown the latest styles by a professional fitter, and leave with a pair of two of handmade shoes that were actually works of art. This elegant lady was seeking a pair of black pumps. Let’s look at some of the beautiful examples this quirky salesman might have offered her!
We have the advantage of decades of shoes to choose from!
This is a pair of black suede handmade pumps trimmed with a tasteful crescent of tiny rhinestones from Arthur Schulein, featuring a round toe and a very stable 4″ heels in size 8 and a half AAA. Leather lined with leather soles of course. Beautifully shaped, beautifully detailed and incredibly comfortable. c1940.
This pair of shoes was purchased by someone in the 40s and she wore them quite a bit. I acquired them about 10 years ago and I, too have worn them quite a bit. They have held up really well from 1944 – 2024 and are still going strong after 80 years of use! This illustrates the fact that It pays to buy well made shoes and take good care of them! Quality footwear holds up well.
These ladies are shopping for rubber galoshes that fit over shoes such as the pumps shown above and were worn over your nice leather shoes when you went outside in inclement weather in order to protect your expensive footwear from mud and rain. Note the heal to accommodate high heeled shoes. The actual definition of the word galoshes is a type of rubber boot worn over shoes. These were such a great idea – I wonder why they stopped making them? They used to be made in a huge selection of colors and styles. They used real fur on the ones that have fur trim as well. And they were lined in wool. They really kept your feet warm and dry and protected your fine leather shoes.
I’ve never owned a pair of these old style galoshes but they are on my wish list. I’ve only ever seen them available in very small sizes. Size like 3.5, 4, 5, 5.5 and 6! If you ever see them in your size grab them! I think they may have stopped making them because rubber was needed during WWII and allocated for the war effort. Many products became unavailable when the materials needed to produce them were limited due to their use in the war effort. Rubber was definitely one of these.
This is how high heeled shoes were stored in the back room of a c1930s shoe store in New York City! It looks like a great way to store many shoes so they can also be seen. I could use this type of shoe storage in my home! I don’t have this many but I would love to have my shoes accessible and neatly displayed! The same concept was employed in the display wall of shoes in this store in the 1960s.
Note how well dressed everyone is: the customers are all done up to go shoe shopping and the shoe sales men are wearing suits and ties in all these photos. You did not got out in those days unless you were properly put together! The ladies in the Naturalizer ad above were shopping in the late 1950s.
This glamorous woman was shopping in the early 1960s. She might have come home with something like this beautiful handmade black suede pump by D’Antonio. The suede is so dense and soft that if feels like velvet! The vamp is decorated with a stylized modern swath of double satin ribbon. The look is long and thin and marketed as sophisticated and European. It is elegant, therefore, highly desirable.
By now the sculpted heels and rounded toes of the 1940s and early 50s had given way to the extreme lines of the skinny elongated super pointed toes and stiletto heels of the 60s. The well made shoes of the past two decades did not wear out, but fashion dictated a change in shoe shapes so the designers and manufacturers could sell new styles.
This new look was extreme adding up to 2″ in length to the extremely pointed toes of a shoe while compressing the toes to fit into the new ultra-narrow style The woman’s weight was shifted further forward onto the balls of her feet while her toes were squeezed together to force them into this newly fashionable shoe shape that teetered on a tiny heel so thin and precarious it could easily get stuck between two tiles on a floor or a crack in a sidewalk. This truly was a version of foot binding. If you wore the shoes for too long a period your feet would ache and your bunion joints would hurt even after taking the shoes off. It was not healthy. But, it was fashionable. So the shoes sold and women forced themselves to wear them, because, after all, it was the latest fashion.
Talented Italian shoemakers like D’Antonio did their best to make these styles comfortable, creating innovations like the patent pending Caressa padded insoles and building thin tight snugly fitted heels so the shoes would stay on and hopefully prevent women from tuning their ankles, falling and incurring serious injuries. Making these super skinny shoes longer increased what I call the inner shoe real estate ( space inside the shoe) thus allowing the reshaped foot to shift into the available space. Since women insisted on wearing the latest fashion their feet accommodated to the new demands and reshaped themselves accordingly. Thus many women who lived and worked in these shoes developed painful bunions later in life. I witnessed this in my mother and my aunts. It is best practice to only wear these shoes for brief periods – like an evening out – not day in and day out.
If you only wore such shoes occasionally you would usually experience pain briefly ( for 2 days or so) afterward. But, if you wore them for prolonged periods like to work in an office, or on a retail job where you had to be on your feet all day you were asking for trouble. Slowly, but surely, your would develop bunions because the shoes shifted too much pressure and weight onto your big toe bunion joints. This was not good! Styles had to change again.
On popular television shows such as Leave it to Beaver, The Donna Reed Show, The Loretta Young Show and I Love Lucy the stars are regularly shown wearing heels like ( and a string of pearls) this while at home keeping house and doing chores like vacuuming and cooking dinner. Can you imagine cleaning house, caring for babies and doing the dishes while wearing shoes like this? I actually remember my mother frying bacon in high heels like this while holding a baby on one arm and wearing a flammable nylon negligee – why? Because my father liked it. I remember him telling her he loved seeing her in those shoes and that negligee while making breakfast. Did he offer to take the baby? No! Most definitely not! But this is a subject for a different post. My mother was must-tasking to the max!
In the late 60s and early 70s styles became much more modified – they evolved into offering more options – such as lower heels, wider heels, open toes, evening sandals, wedged heels, ballet flats, round and square toes, softer fabrics: You could still buy and wear pointed toe shoes for occasional use but you did not have to wear them all the time if you wanted to be dressed in the height of fashion. There were lots of shapes to choose from so you could find something you liked that was more comfortable and a healthier option. It was good for your feet to change shapes of shoes and heel heights. Feet reacted to this as if they were getting to do exercises in lots of different positions rather than being forced into one unnatural shape. They started to get wider because they were not being crushed into submission! Feet were healthier and happier this way. There were still pretty options. And more shoes sold because you could actually have more kinds. So you needed many more pairs. It all worked out.
About this time an Italian company called Garolini came along. They made beautiful shoes like the ones shown on a much more comfortable last that was both elegant and soft. The materials used were softer leathers and fabrics that would easily mold to the natural shape of the human foot. And the shapes of the shoes were also softer, a little rounder, more feminine actually, than the forced ultra narrow stiletto shoes of the 1960s. These shoes were a lot more comfortable to wear. And they were really lovely. They made dressy styles and casual styles, heels and flats, sandals and closed toe pumps.
They had beautiful modern lines and were more comfortable than the shoes of the 60s. Other companies followed their lead – the benefits of Garolini were flexible soles that bent with your feet when you walked, soft fabric or leather uppers that eased into shape around your feet rather than forcing your feet into their shape, wider soles at the balls of the feet – thus, instead of forcing your feet to conform to a too thin shape they allowed it to spread open a little bit as your metatarsal bones actually do when you stand barefoot.
This beautiful pair of size 8 B black silk satin evening pumps from Garolini is trimmed in thin strips of silver leather and sparkling Swarovski rhinestones – they have leather soles and a graceful 3″ heel. They are beautiful and comfortable.
All the shoes I have shown you in this post are in my personal collection. I can wear all of them and do so. I have actually conducted my research in person! I do this with everything I write about.
I love vintage shoes and sometimes modern ones if they are well made. I love beautiful shoes in general!
I actually carry a large variety of them in my vintage clothing shops in a large variety of styles and sizes. Of course the supply is always changing and is unpredictable because I never know what I am going to be able to find. I look for beautifully designed and well made shoes still in good condition. In general vintage shoes are well made and available at better prices than many newly made shoes. When I recently visited Nordstrom flagship store in Seattle, WA, and their Bellevue, WA store I had to look at what was available in the Shoe Salon. Modern shoes of comparable quality to those presented in this post were very expensive. They ran between $1200 and $3,000 per pair. This is not an exaggeration at all. I saw a pair I liked on sale for $1500 at 50% off. I did not buy them! I’m much happier with my vintage pieces which I have acquired at more affordable prices.
If you need a pair of distinctive shoes to wear with a particular outfit I urge you to look for a lovely and unusual pair of vintage beauties. I will be posting more shoes regularly. I also encourage you to ask me if you do not see what you are looking for posted yet as I have a lot of items in process of being listed. I may have what you need – just may not have it listed yet. I can always look through my stock to see if I can meet your needs. When it comes to shoes Desire and need are often the same thing!
Also – do not be discouraged by sizing: For example – I measure 7.5B. but the 3 pairs of shoes shown in this post actually fit me and are all sized labeled differently: The 1940s Arthur Schulein pair is 8.5AAA, the 1960s D’Antonio pair is 7.5B, and the 1970s Garolini pair is 8M. They all fit quite comfortably. You can usually go up a half or full size higher than your modern shoes in vintage sizes and get an acceptable fit.
If a pair is a tad loose you can often add an insole to acquire a snugger fit. If it is too wide in the heel and heel gripping pad will ofter correct that issue. Such items are usually available at Nordstrom or reputable shoe repair shops. I do not recommend wearing any shoes that are too tight unless it be for a few minutes in a period fashion photograph.
All shoe makers used different lasts and they were often sized a bit differently. This is still true today. Also, it is not true that everyone has much smaller feet in the old days. What is fact is that many of the old shoes that have survived were small sample sizes used for displays and fashion photographs of salesmen samples. They were selling tools. These got tucked away by the shoe stores and held onto or stored in style archives. Most of the shoes in “normal sizes” were sold to customers and worn until they wore out. Or passed down to daughters and granddaughters and eventually worn out. I went “shopping” through my relatives closets and reclaimed many articles of clothing and pretty shoes as a teenager and young adult. It made sense, the clothes were free and fit me as I had inherited the same sizes as my mother and aunts. I am still wearing some of them today. I am sad if they wear out due to being old or used too much. I love the old things and what they have lived through. Just last month I found that an old handbag I really liked had finally dried out too much and was on its last legs. It had died and I was sad! I mourned a bit. It had finally, actually, bitten the dust. If had to be retired. Alas… Stuff does not last forever, so you should get it out and enjoy it while you can! I encourage that!
I will now add a few pictures of shoes from my vintage store to further inspire and tantalize you. I am not posting the sizes available. You will have to visit my shops to see them and find options in your size.
This pair is by Stephane Kelian of Paris currently available. Made in the 90s but inspired by the 1940s.
This pair is from Rebel in the 1980s beautifully emulating the 1940s and is currently available.
This darling pair of Petite Debs from the 1960s is currently available.
This classic pair of red suede pumps is by Charles Jourdan in the 1980s and is available.
This pair of Oomphies sparkly brocade house slippers from the 1960s is currently available.
This gorgeous pair of Xavier Danaud 1970s NOS Spectator Pumps is available.
And finally, I found this old ad, not for shoes – for whiskey! But I thought it was quite appropriate as a finale to a hard day of shoe shopping and shoe selling and waiting on a certain type of demanding customers! Most of the time dealing with customers is pleasant and fun, but sometimes ………..
Many more styles and sizes are available in my stores – please visit my online shops to check out what is currently in stock. You will probably also enjoy reading my historic descriptions on items I am selling.
Rare and beautiful historic clothing, shoes and accessories are for sale in my online shops. If you see something on this blog that you are interested in buying, but do not find it for sale in my shops message me on Etsy or Ebay and I will get back to you about availability. I check messages daily and can always prepare a special listing for you if you do not find it already listed in the shops.
