Hello everybody! I have been a longtime lurker of this forum and found it so useful to date some of the stuff I come across everyday for work. My name is Giuseppe and I work in a vintage shop in Italy. I was doing some research about shoes and was wondering about the tags "made in italy" and "vero cuoio". Do you know for sure when were they used first? I' ve found that " made in italy" starts in the 1980s but nothing about vero cuoio except for the fact that there was a law which passed in 1966 about certification of leather. Can you help me? Thank you!
From the shoes I have handled 'Vero Cuoio' shows up in about 1978. I don't know what legislation is associated with that, but from my observations, that is about the time it begins. Made in Italy however, shows up earlier, shoes are stamped Made in Italy from the 1950s (as soon as Italian shoe imports begin really.)
'Real Leather' and translated variations of, tend to appear around the time man made materials were not just imitating but regularly replacing real leather in mainstream footwear. Late 1960's I'd say. Around the same time you start to see 'man made materials' appear as well. I have some early to mid 1950's Ferragamo's that say 'hand made in italy' on the arch of the sole. I have a pair from the 1940's but the soles are too worn to see if the stamp was there. I've just ordered the SF book which I think specificied inscriptions from what I can recall from reading it previously.