All posts tagged: shoes

Scraps and snippets

What’s up in the textile and costume world? Well, first of all, just in case you have been locked in your closet admiring your pretty dresses and ignoring all the buzz, pre-orders are open for American Duchess’ dyeable leather 18th Devonshire shoes.  Order yours now and save $20 (and guarantee that you get a pair in your size!).  Pre-orders close 10th August. On a more local note, Wellington Auction house Dunbar Sloane is having a ‘Vintage Costume & Boudoir Auction‘ on the 10th of August.  Based on previous costume-y auctions at Dunbar Sloanes, things will either go for really good prices, or absolutely ridiculous ones.  I might go along to see if it will be the former.  And if you really have to have something in the catalogue – well, they do do phone bidding! Later in the month, on Aug 28, is the annual Auckland Vintage Textile Fair.  Lots of friends of mine will be there selling their wares.  It would be a great excuse for me to go visit friends in Auckland.  If …

Greek key shoes – swoon

As we all know, I’m really into Greek keys. My current Greek key  obsession is these evening boots: *Swoon* I lurve them.  Everything about them.  The red heels.  The invisible side lacing.  The curlicues between the Greek key borders.  The way the Greek keys turn on the toes.  The stripe up the front.  Happiness. There is a stripe up the back too.  Happiness. It’s more of a platonic lurve from afar though.  Like the way you drool over a hot celebrity, but actually don’t want to meet them in person and would just blush and freak out and disappear yourself if they showed up in person and approached you. I like the idea of the shoes, but really, I couldn’t handle them in person.  It’s just too much shoe for me.  

Tutorial: how to dye fabric shoes

Having shoes that perfectly match the dress was the ultimate touch of luxury for the fashionable Victorian (and Edwardian, and quite a few other eras!), so of course I needed a pair of Emily pink shoes to go with Emily’s pink dress. This is how you dye fabric shoes. Start with your plain, undyed dyeable fabric shoes:  (yes, they really do need to be undyed, and uncoloured – shoes that are already coloured/dyed have almost certainly been treated with a surface finish which will make it very hard for them to absorb a new dye, plus the colour that they already are will affect the colour you want to achieve.) I’m using a pair of 90s bridal shoes that I paid a whopping $8 for. Try to determine if your shoes are silk, or synthetic (or, less likely, cotton or linen).  If your shoes are a natural fibre like silk, linen, or cotton, use a natural fibre dye.  If your shoes are a synthetic like polyester, you will need a synthetic dye.  Remember that satin …