Red Silk Satin Vintage Slipper
I promised to show a vintage shoe each week. – This one is an elegant red satin slipper with scalloped sides and 3 inch high heels that was that was dyed to match something from which it was separated years ago.
Currently I am designing and making a costume for my friend, Princess WOW!, to wear while performing in an upcoming concert in NYC. (More about that in an upcoming future post.)
I am determined that I will see that this new dress is properly shod and presented with the correct jewelry at it’s debut. I always deliver a costume fully accessorized.
I am showing the shoe against the colorful giant paisley fabric I am using in the skirt of the gown. The fabric is a 1960’s vintage crispy silk which I have beaded and sequined. The red satin shoes will be worn with glistening magenta stockings and will peek out below the bright paisley fabric of the skirt. Colorful? Yes! And, did you know that paisley, as a design motif, was originally inspired by a flower petal? Perhaps that is one reason why the flower children of the 1960’s liked using paisley fabrics!
Because Princess WOW! – the client for whom this dress is being made – specializes in wearing beautiful clothes that get people’s attention, make them smile, and remind them of the late 1960’s. The challenge for me was to design a stage costume reminiscent of the flower children of 1968. I have had this beautiful giant paisley printed silk fabric for years! It’s time has finally come!
Shortly after beginning the design process I found these beautiful red silk satin shoes, in her exact size, while thrifting! They had been worn only once and were essentially brand new. What luck! And I paid only $6! I think this particular pair is one of those dyeable white satin shoes from the 1980’s that was specially colored to match an outfit worn just one time. Then it was probably stored in a box at the back of a closet for 20 years.
I think this particular pair of red shoes is lucky that it got to come out now – after 20 plus years of living in oblivion – and will have an exciting new life performing on the stage in New York City and on live television! At the moment I am enjoying having them in my studio for inspiration while I am designing the concert dresses. (There are now two in the works. ) I am fully enjoying the experience of having so much pretty color around me in the dead of winter!
A Lady Violette interior design tip: Shoes are beautiful sculptural objects and I often put a pair out as an art object to enjoy. Sometimes I display one pair on a coffee table, or I put several colorful or whimsical pairs out, one on each stair step, leading from my little living room up the stairway to the second floor level of the house. It is a great way to enjoy my shoe collection and people find it very entertaining. It is a good thing to do for a party. People will sit on the stairs, talking and admiring the shoes. Shoes have many uses beyond wearing them on your feet! They are objets d’art! Another fine example of the Feminine Arts!
