Need Help to find information on vintage shoe company So Bel Creations

Hi VFG members, I'd love to know where to look for information on the vintage shoe company So Bel Creations. I looked here but was surprised that I didn't find any information on them. I recently sold a gorgeous pair of two tone hand tooled leather heels by So Bel from the 1940s to a customer who would like to do an article on the company. I promised her use of a friends old adverts on So Bel, my friend is a vintage costumer and is over seas right now working, leaving me no access to them. I really want to help her with her article. Any insight on where I could even begin to look would be more than fantastic.

 

It looks like So Bel was a trademarked name for shoes manufactured/sold by the Fern Shoe Co. of Los Angeles (see attached images). The earliest references I found to So Bel shoes were in the late 1940s, at which time it was always spelled "So-Bel" with a hyphen. Later references, from the 1950s, always attributed them to "Fern," as many shoe labels from that period are stamped "So Bel (no hyphen) Creations by Fern." The latest reference I found, in a quick look, was from 1969 (see attached image) and attributed So Bel shoes to the Kimel Shoe Co. I found no connection between Fern and Kimel, other than that they were both Los Angeles shoe manufacturers. The shoes may have been sold earlier and later than what I found, but their heyday seems to have been the late 1950's.

 

I knew the name was ringing a bell. Here is a pair of So Bel Creations shoes I had:

 

Here is the 1955 trademark information for So Bel. You can see from the logo the likely reason for the hyphen in some iterations of the name, but the government trademark info clearly says "So Bel." You can also see that it notes that "So Bel" was in use "since at least as early as 1944" and the trademark belonged to the Fern Shoe company of Los Angeles.

 

Thanks so much! Thanks to you I was able to do further research and found out that brothers Oscar and Jules Fern first had a shoe company in 1921 in Boston, Fern Shoe Co. then in what looks like the late 1930s early 1940s they partnered with Howard Sobel out in L.A. who had a shoe company that was already making shoes for Hollywood films. I even found patents with all three of their names on them and pictures and diagrams of shoes they designed. It seems Oscar was some kind of shoe genius. This is why I love vintage fashion, the history. I couldn't have found any of this out without your help. Thanks a million. I feel so encouraged that I'm considering officially joining now.

 

Wonderful!

 

Hi Group,

I am a close friend of the Fern family. They are still in the Los Angeles area. It was during the WWII era that was their peak with 500 workers. They closed up shop after a while after that.

If your friend doing the story was interested, please message me. I am sure it would be an honor to breath new life into So Bel for the family.