Sunday, December 20, 2009

1920s shoes to die for



I wonder who originally owned these exquisite vintage shoes from the 20s (recently sold) on the amazing site vintagetextile.com. Oh to be able to have shoes like these.
The following is the description from the site about them: n 1909 AndrĂ© Perugia opened a Paris shop, where he sold ultra-stylish, handmade shoes. His career was launched after WWI, when he designed shoes for famed couturier Paul Poiret. Gazing at these brilliant shoes, I keep thinking they were made for a princess. Such glorious golden shoes are fit for royalty—the Perugia effect!

The two-tone shoes are fashioned from bronze velvet and metallic gold leather. They are totally lined with tan kid leather and have leather soles. The T-strap style closes with charming bronze rosebud buttons—see detail picture below. In the early 1920s, Perugia designed a pair of metallic silver shoes for Paul Poiret with the same rosebud buttons. See page 29 of Heavenly Soles by Mary Trasko.

Perugia was an eccentric genius—he talked to his shoes—who produced custom designs for many of the glamorous actresses of the jazz decade, including Josephine Baker and Gloria Swanson. He said "a pair of shoes must be perfect, like an equation and adjusted to the millimeter like a motor piece." He continued to design collections for major couturiers and ready-to-wear houses through the 1960s.

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