Women's casual footwear styles from the summer of 1959

 

✯ Day 158 of Vintage 365 ✯

 

There is much to be said in favour of a stunning pair of heels, chicer than the day is long, exquisitely tailored and, as is so often the case with gorgeous footwear, lip-bitingly painful to wear after about thirty seconds.

Like many a vintage fashionista, I've paid my dues when it comes to logging scores of days in such shoes, however there's no rule (despite what shows like Sex in the City might have you believe) that says footwear needs to be painful to lovely or functional.

While it's jolly fun to imagine yesteryear women sashaying around town in Dior heels all the live long day, reality is that most women (perhaps even more so in the 40s and 50s then now) had a shoe wardrobe that included a good mix of practical styles, as well as shoe-stopping pairs.

In the former category, back during the summer of 1959, one could easily have found numerous pairs to love - and adorn their feet with - amongst the styles up for offer in this cheerful page from that season's Montgomery Ward catalog.

 

These styles - each of which could easily have been plucked from a modern day shoe store - are a testament to the fact that summertime footwear can definitely be both easy on the soles and wonderfully fashionable at the same time.

From a darling floral print kitten heel (if you don't already own a pair, I highly suggest investing in some kitten heels, they're often very easy to wear and walk in for hours on end) to chambray blue t-strap flats, fiery lipstick red slip-on deck style shoes to zigzag print wedges, all of the styles on this page would have been highly versatile choices for the fashionable woman of the late 1950s.

And nothing has changed in that regard over the last six decades. Each of these looks is still a smart buy, cheery style, and delightful way to get a lot of mileage out of your summertime shoes.

Turn to images like this great old school catalog page (which hails from Flickr user CapricornOneVintage) the next time you head out to do some vintage shoe shopping and you're bound to come home with the kind of winning styles that will look every bit as lovely today as they did in 1959.

These gorgeous cherry print heels stir up happy childhood memories

✯ Day 132 of Vintage 365 ✯

 

The sun whipped across our necks in long lashes, the dry dessert air smelled of sizzling concrete and honeysuckle, and the breeze felt as electric as every fan that was running at the moment in the whole town.

This is how I remember those toasty, endlessly long, wildly beautiful late afternoons and early dusks as my brother and I peddled our bikes (mine red, his blue) around the neighbourhood, gathering about-fall-at-any-moment cherries from the branches of neighbours (who knowing the fruit would go to waste otherwise, had given my family permission to help ourselves to it).

With buckets and plastic shopping bags dangling from our handlebars - much like plump burgundy spheres of fruit threating to tumble from the trees themselves - we'd pull to the side of the dusty alleyways, apricot light dancing around our sun-bleached hair - and grab as many cherries as our little fingers could.

I grew up in a land of orchards and history, old houses interspersed with small small backyard gardens that produced more fruit than a clan of bears could get through in a season. Much of this produce was picked and savoured, turned into pies, jams, eaten fresh, and put up for the winter in glistening rows of boiled-fresh Mason jars.

Though I can never quite decide which fruit holds the dearest memory in my mind, peaches and cherries - both of which I picked in great abundance - are two very close contenders.

It is because of these early memories of gathering cherries in the shade of Edwardian era homes, aging neighbours smiling at us from their porches, the feeling of fruit juice running down my wrists as I plunked another handful into my crimson stained bucket, that I am drawn - almost inherently - to items featuring images of cherries.

Thankfully, this love of one of the world's tastiest fruits meshes well with my adoration of vintage fashion, for now - as in decades gone by - cherries remain an endearingly popular motif for all manner of clothing and accessories.

These splendidly pretty shoes, which feature cherries in a much more understated and easy-to-pull off manner than many pin-up girl and vintage inspired fruit adorned pieces, are the footwear equivalent of my early cherry picking memories: playful, hardworking, and absolutely lovely.

Featuring a lofty (but still manageable) 4 inch heel, a sweet little cherry pattern set against a blushing cream background, ankle straps and flirty peep toes, these vintage inspired shoes are as timeless as they are beautifully elegant.

Presently on sale for $37.99 (down from $103.99) from online seller Retro Cuties, these deliciously pretty shoes (which are available in ladies sizes 5 to 12)  are the sort of classic pair that will see you through season after sun-kissed season, calling to mind your own beloved summertime cherry themed recollections.