View attachment 50239 I have researched high and low and cannot find anything about these shoes I recently purchased at a garage sale. Does anyone have any insight/knowledge. They are clearly vintage, and slightly worn, but overall in excellent condition. Any suggestions?
Hi Sia and welcome to the forums: what sort of information are you after? I'm not sure that I'd call them vintage per se, but then opinions vary about what that means. They are influenced by '60s styles but the combination of features suggest they're more modern. I tried to search for the company, you probably discovered how futile that is. Can you show a photograph of the underside please? Does it have a country of origin any where? Thank you.
Hmm it is a tricky one, I couldn't find a trademark for Van Gogh shoes (though it is amazing to see what it is used for; real estate, alcohol, cheese, cigars?!) Two things jump out at me: the material content description is similar to that I have had on mid 1960's shoes. I haven't seen the word balance used on modern footwear, so I do think they are vintage. The plastic heel you see in that shape in the 60s and again in the 80s-90's. I'd expect it to be chunkier and blockier in the 90's so I think they are either 60s or 80s does 60s. The brand label style would work for either, both era's were fond of giant scriptive fonts. It is more typical for it to be solid rather than outlined like this one, and printed on both shoes rather than just one in the 80s. The absent space on earlier footwear would usually have a retail store's brand label on. The final thing to determine it I think is the sock lining material - if it is the papery type (called cellulose) I would say they are definetly 1960s. If they are vinyl 80s. If however, you show a picture of the soles with material content diagrams (with the shoes/diamond and leather symbols on) that makes them at least 1990s, as this diagram was introduced c.1995.
I, too, tried to find information about the shoes for you, but it is pretty overwhelming because of the obvious other connection. After MUCH fruitless time searching, I noted that there seems to be no space between the Van and the Gogh on your shoes. Although Google still threw some "Van Gogh" hits in, the field narrowed considerably when I searched for: "VanGogh" shoes and among the hits I had was for a closed eBay auction for a much-newer pair of shoes "purchased from Perth shoe designer VanGogh." Perhaps, then you could try that search instead. Also, as inevitably happens when I do this, I wind up going off on tangents when I click on some hits....and I was fascinated by THESE artistic creations (click on his other links, too, such as This Just Done).
Lynne they aren't related to the modern Vangoh shoe company, as the spelling is different (no second g). I couldn't find the ebay listing you mention, but perhaps the seller mispelt the brand there?
You may be correct about that. There is (apparently) a Spring Step VanGogh shoe manufacturer, but their shoes look much more modern than the OP's shoes.
That one, and the others I saw, are all different companies (that brand being Spring Step) using Van Gogh as the shoe style name, not using it for the shoe company brand name.
I haven't done any cleaning or anything of the bottoms of the soles, so they are as they were when I bought them. The lining is definitely papery type (Cellulose
It is probably the name for a line of shoes, made by a shoe manufacturer for a specific department store or chain store. They are American made, and this shows up fairly often on department or chain store brands. I have examples in the collection like 'Canadian Girl', 'Spring Step', 'Evening in Paris', which aren't the name of the company - only the line of shoes that may have been in production for a season, or a decade.
I thought the combination of very rounded toes and perspex heels looked more modern but I'm happy to be corrected if the consensus is '60s. It will add to my knowledge although I still see more modern shoes here.
