Dating vintage shoes - are these from the 50s?

K

Kimberlaina

Registered Guest
shoes1.jpg shoes2.jpg

Are these shoes from the 1950s?

I just started collecting vintage shoes, and my target era is the 1950s into the early 1960s. I know that these have a silhouette that was fashionable at the time, but other features like the fabric label inside and the lack of metal tabs underneath the toes are throwing me off. Did all shoes during this era have metal tabs on the bottoms, and what can I expect from a 1950s label? Were they all embossed into the leather of the insole? Thanks!
 
These styles were revived in the early '80s and your label looks more modern so I would be inclined to date them from there.

Do you have a photo of the soles, the underside of the heels too? '50-60s stilettos tend to have metal heel tips. Sometimes the '80s revivals do but they're more often rubber.
 
Yes, for me too, there was something about these that says "80s does 50s." I've attached a photo of the bottom.
 

Attachments

  • shoes3.jpg
    shoes3.jpg
    26.3 KB · Views: 324
The fact that they have material content marked on them (Vero Cuio - real leather) and the leather hide symbol suggest they no earlier than late 1960s to me (I see these labels begin to appear shortly before various laws worldwide came into force in 1970 requiring material content to be marked on items for sale) but besides this the cut and inserted fabric label, and the font used inside the shoe both say 1980s to me. They do look like a higher quality brand, with nice leather soles and a true 1950s retro style.

No not all 1950s shoes had metal heel tips - most I find had leather, but with the introduction of stilettos it was found that the tips wore down quickly. Some metal stiletto tip styles I have only seen on 1950's shoes (flared circular steel, and a drum shape with ridged sides like a coin)- I guess this was experimentation until they found what worked best. The biggest difference is they used to attach small heel tips with small screws, even the metal ones, later decades use a tubular invention which the bang on replacement sort available today.
Of course it's worth remembering heel tips can't be used for dating unless you are pretty sure they are original, as they could have been changed at any point in their history, and a good cobbler can make it hard to tell they were replaced, using similar methods & materials.
 
Last edited:
What about the metal tabs sometimes seen on the sole of the shoe under the tips of the toes? What were they for, and when did they stop appearing on shoes?
 
Blakeys (as they are known in the UK, I believe it was a brand of them) have been around for much longer - I've got some original ones on cards from the 1920s - same purpose to add to your shoes to prolong wear by placing them on the pressure spots most prone to wear. You can still buy them from the cobbler's today, though they are less commonly used - as they have prongs for leather soled shoes, while most soles are made of cheaper materials today.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top