Shoes - dating trouble

scillas

scillas

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I have 2 pairs of shoes that I'm really having trouble dating - I'd be gratefull for any help.
the white ones first : are they vintage at all?
The style looks late sixties to my humble knowledge, but perhaps the're really quite new? The clasp is plastic, the heels too, the interior looks nylon-ish, but the underside/soles themselves seems to be leather , and the straps are lined at the inside with suede.
Label. "Style-aires - made in England". Tried to google that, but didn't really come up with anything.

Black Bally's: Those are fabric on the outside, leather inside, leather soles, nice little glass ornament - that all + the lettering looks kind off 60es to me (except perhaps the fabric?), but I really can't place the style ...also 60es? newer??.
More pics:
http://www.silles.dk/test/ting/sko.html
Thanks so much! (And I hope you can bear with my lacking english shoe-vocabulary ;))
 
I can see why you're having trouble dating them - classic styles can be hard. I think you're right about the first being modern and the second being older, although I'm wondering when "D" fittings came in.

From the heel shapes I'd probably put them both as '90s but I'm still not sure about the black ones - the white ones might be dancing shoes.

Nicole
 
The black ones look fairly modern to me, but I'm "consternated" on the white ones.... Mostly because of your description of the lining as nylon and the little peek of it I can see in the photo. Is it a tricot? (stretchy nylon with a visible weave, sometimes with an inner lining or padding) If it's tricot, they are older. It might help to see the maker's logo in the shoe.
 
Can't say anything about the white shoes, but the black ones are vintage. Bally is a Swiss company (and they're still around) that's been around since 1851. Sadly though the company has been sold, re-sold a few times in the last 20 years or so, and was a few times near to disappearing I think. Nowadays they do a sort of "luxury brand" thing with it and there's also clothes, but originally they were a solid, good, somewhat upmarket shoe company. I had Bally sandals as a kid, which was nothing special. Just good quality shoes. The logo is not the one that they use since I can remember as a kid (I'm 30), so it must be older. I have a pair of unworn vintage Bally pumps in my closet that already has the still current logo, and I would say they are late 70's. From what else I could find, the logo changed at least in the 70s, maybe even in the late 60s, so your shoes would be older. My first thought at looking at them was late 60s.

Karin
 
They are both about the same period just opposite ends of the scale. The black Bally's were expensive and the white Style-Aires were cheap. Without handling the white Style-Aires its hard to be specific, but I would guess late 1960s and the black Bally's about the same - maybe up to 1970ish.
 
Thank you so much. Much wiser now.
If it wasn't for the lettering in logo of the Bally's , I wouldn't have thought they were vintage.
( I work with graphic design in my daily life, so I feel more at home dating typography than shoe-styles ).

I looked through a lot of vintage Bally's yesterday on the net, and as Midge writes, could only find ones with the "normal" bally-logo. Except the first pair on this site, which looks like they are somewhat older than mine, I think:
http://www.vintagedesignerclothing.com/bally.html
This logo looks a bit like the one in mine. Looking at the typography, I think that the new(er) Bally-logo could very well be from the beginning of the 70's.

And Anne, you're right about the tricot as lining in the Style-Aires -

The difference in quality is indeed very appearent when handling them – the Ballys have been used, as you can tell from the soles, but except from that, they look absolutely great, almost new. I think that made me doubt about their age too.
Without being and expert I can tell that the leather lining and the sewing are surely of good quality.
The white ones, on the other hand, haven't been used that much, but they are in a fairly poor condition with cracking and discolouration.

I have one additional question: The leather soles on the Bally's heels are brown or brown-ish, as you perhaps can tell from the photo's – and it looks quite dry: Do you think it was this colour originally, or has the (black?) colour worn off? (I thinks it looks like that). And so should I give the leather soles at little black shoeshine to restore the colour and a bit off TL leathercare to prevent further drying out or would you leave them as they are ?
Okay, that was two questions, really – and I'm happy with your answers already, but thanks even more if someone can help with this one too. :)

Sille
 
I'd definitely NOT use any black touch-up on the Bally's. The wearing of color on the sole is normal and people who buy or wear vintage shoes would not be put off by this. And the black is apt to cause marking on flooring--not good.... When I have leather soles that are a bit dry or have some cracking, I first clean them with good saddle soap first, then treat them with a good leather conditioner--a cream conditioner if they're not too bad, or neatsfoot oil (not too much of it, though) if they are worse than typical.
 
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