Please help identify shoes - cantilever??

thevintagebungalow

thevintagebungalow

VFG Member
Hi All!
This is my first time posting...I'm excited to have a place to get help when I'm stumped! I picked up this pair of shoes recently. The lady that owned them said she wore them in the 50's and they were the most comfortable pair of shoes she ever owned. They are marked a size 7 1/2 M (does the M sizing put the pair into the 60's??). I've been trying to identify the style of heel on these. The best I could come up with was "cantilever". I appreciate any info anyone has. I plan on listing them in the next few days.
Thanks bunches! Carrie (ebay id: iluvbungalows)
 
:hiya: Hello!
What a fantastic pair of shoes.. and stripy too :love008:

I would think cantilever was the correct term mechanically speaking, but shoe description wise I know what you mean, there may well be a more 'recognised' term. I'm sure someone will be along shortly who can tell you better than I, but just wanted to say they were lovely! :)
 
Hi! Thanks for the complements on these shoes....they are awesome, aren't they?? I agree with you, Harriet, "cantilever" might not be the best keyword to get people to my auction to bid, hopefully someone will know more. I thing you're right, cboppre- mule or slides might be a good description, but those heels are a thing to behold...yes, they are made of wood.
 
These cantilevered heels appear in closed shoe and mule styles. The earliest shoe styles I have seen in catalogues date from 1939. The earliest ones, like yours, are made of carved wood. They also revived the carved wood heels in the 1970s. In 1957 a steel reinforced sole resulted in an even more cantilevered style that was popular in the late 1950s and very early 1960s. I think your pair are mid 1950s. So, to answer your question, the heel is cantilevered, but the style of shoe overall is a mule because of the open toe and back of the upper. So it is a mule with a canilevered heel.
 
The carved wood ones don't go as high as the steel ones because the steel ones are more dramatic. Yours are a little dirty which will keep their value down. If they were bright and clean and they were mine I would want to get at least $75.00 for them but I would probably put them up for more in my store and come down over time. As is, I think you are looking at half that value at best. I wonder if they could be dry cleaned?
 
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