Those Fabulously Swell Vintage 1939 Shoes!

The shoes from the ’30s were incredibly stylish!  These ads, from May, 1939 feature the outrageously beautiful shoes that the average American ’30s woman had to chose from.  This Red Cross Shoes ad displays their “brilliantly designed” and “superbly tailored” shoes made for dress, sports and walking.  The artistic detailing of each shoe is amazing.  They had great names too; The Barletta, The Cupid Pump, World’s Fair Shoe, The Adelphia, The Fern, and (my favorite) The Harmony.  And the best thing of all was that they were made in the U.S.A. by the United States Shoe Corporation, in Cincinnati, Ohio.  Goodness, Manolo Blahnik and Christian Louboutin have nothing on these good old Midwestern American shoe designers!

Even the sportier shoes had heels and splendid styling.  These Kedettes shoes, made by the United States Rubber Company, are simply amazing.  With styles such as the Spectator Oxford, the Open-toe Pump, the Colonial Pump, the Moccasin Oxford, the Tyrolean Oxford and the Peasant Oxford,  they were sure to add zest to even casual wear.  Sure puts today’s flip flops and sneakers to shame!

The 1930s era was fabulously chic, despite the overshadowing of The Great Depression.   And it tends to get somewhat forgotten between the Jazz Age, Flapper 1920s, and WWII, Swing Era 1940s styles.  But I love the Art Deco era – so modern, so forthright, so fresh.

~Marilyn