1967 | VACCARI | BOLOGNA |

1967 | Vaccari
Bologna

1967 | Vaccari

Bologna

1967 | Vaccari

Bologna

1967 | Vaccari

Bologna

History Of The
SHOE FACTORY VACCARI
BOLOGNA

VACCARI
Index

THE VACCARI SHOE FACTORY | BOLOGNA

1969 | Vaccari Shoes

Source: Moda In Pelle

A partire dagli anni ’50 il polo Bolognese divenne uno dei principali in Italia per la produzione di calzature di lusso, rappresentato da esponenti come il calzaturificio Romagnoli, il calzaturificio Pancaldi e Bruno Magli.  Fra i più importanti imprenditori calzaturieri ci fu anche Franco Vaccari, che fino agli anni ’70 riuscì ad esportare in tutto il mondo calzature femminili di elevato livello artigianale e buon gusto, che gli valsero l' Oscar per la Calzatura nel 1965 e nel 1971.

In the 50's Bologna and vicinities became one of the main area in Italy specialized in luxury shoes with names like Romagnoli, Bruno Magli and Pancaldi. Among them, a major figure was Franco Vaccari who exported women's high-end shoes all over the world until the 70s. Its quality combined with an elegant design awarded his shoe factory the Footwear Oscar in 1965 and 1971. 

1965 | Vaccari shoes awarded with the Footwear Oscar

Source: Calzature Italiane di Lusso

“La società Calzaturificio Vaccari era stata costituita nel 1952 a Bologna, con capitale sociale di £ 600.000, fondandosi sull’esperienza e l’attività di uno dei più noti artigiani calzaturieri Bolognesi, Franco Vaccari. Franco Vaccari aveva in precedenza operato in società con altri due maestri artigiani calzaturieri bolognesi come Cleto Treggia, originario di Mezzolara e Adelmo Brazzi di Medicina. Nel 1958 la società gestiva, oltre alla sede in via Trachini a Bologna, uno stabilimento a Villanova, dove negli anni successivi furono trasferite la sede e le lavorazioni. Essa esportava in tutto il mondo calzature e pellami ed era specializzata in calzature di lusso per signora e sandali”.

Alla fine degli anni ’50 aveva anche creato una linea da uomo, distribuita a marchio LORD, a metà anni '50 la linea da donna DEFILE', mentre dal 1975 cercò di differenziare la produzione, con la creazione di una società operante nello stesso sito del calzaturificio, ma attiva nella produzione e vendita di articoli di pelletteria. All’inizio degli anni ’60 Franco Vaccari era subentrato anche come socio di maggioranza, insieme con Giuseppe Saguatti, nel Calzaturificio Saguatti, che cessò le sue attività nel 1966. 

“The company Calzaturificio Vaccari was founded in 1952 in Bologna, with a capital of £ 600,000, and it was based on the experience of Franco Vaccari, one of the most famous shoe craftsmen from Bologna.  Previously he had been operating in association with the two master shoemakers Cleto Treggia, from Mezzolara, and Adelmo Brazzi from Medicina (Bologna). In 1958, in addition to the headquarter in Bologna the company owned a plant in nearby Villanova, where the head office and the production were moved some years later. Vaccari exported footwear and leather worldwide and it was specialized in luxury shoes for women and sandals” 

At the end of the 50s Vaccari created also a line for men, distributed under the brand name LORD; in the Sixties he added the brand name DEFILE' for women footwear; starting from 1975 he tried to differentiate the production with another company manufacturing and selling leather goods from the same production site. In the early 60's Franco Vaccari, together with Giuseppe Saguatti, took over as majority shareholder of "Calzaturificio Saguatti”, a shoe factory which folded in 1966.

1971 | Turin | Footwear Oscar Award
Franco Vaccari awarded by Minister of Labour & Welfare Carlo Donat-Cattin

1971 | Mr. Vaccari (left) at the MICAM | Milan

W/Mr. & Mrs. Giani (center) and Mr. Julian Mingoellena (Gilioli, Mexico - right)

SOURCES:

Calzature Italiane Di Lusso magazine | 1965

Foto Shoe magazine | 1967

Roberto Ferretti, Cinzia Venturoli, Paola Zappaterra - DALLA GUERRA AL "BOOM" (III Volume) Industrializzazione e società Economia, demografia e stili di vita | Ed. Aspasia 2006

Archivio brevetti e marchi | Archivio Centrale dello Stato


VACCARI
BOLOGNA
I N D E X

1888 | PAUL GAUGUIN IS THE CLOG-MAKER

1888 | Paul Gauguin | The Clog-Maker
Private Collection
Source: Wikipaintings

“I find there the savage, the primitive. When my clogs resound on the granite soil, I hear the muffled, dull powerful tone that I’m after in painting…”

Paul Gauguin [1848 - 1903] about Brittany 

Source: TATE

Paul Gauguin | Wooden Clogs
Sold to an American collector for $ 338,500
Source: Telegraph

1889/1890 | Paul Gauguin [carved and worn by]

Pair Of Wooden Shoes (Sabots) | Chester Dale Collection

Source: National Gallery Of Arts | Washington DC

Paul Gauguin | Wooden Shoes

Unknown book | Source: Vintage Printable

Another brand of sabots HERE

SHOES & ART

From 1876 to 2009

1958 | ALMA | MAGENTA, MILAN |

1958 | ALMA by Antonio Almini
Magenta, Milan

1971 | TINO FERRARIO | PARABIAGO, MILAN |

1975 | Calzaturificio Airone by Tino Ferrario

Parabiago | Milan

VINCENT VAN GOGH | 1881 - 1885 | OF CABBAGES AND CLOGS [AND POTTERY]|

The students admitted being impressed by his painting of a pair of worn workman's boots against a drab background. Vincent said he didn't need to paint figures to express the sadness he saw in the world.

Jan Greenberg and Sandra Jordan

Vincent Van Gogh. Portrait Of An Artist (Random House, 2001)

1881 | Vincent Van Gogh | Still Life With Cabbage And Clogs

Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam

Source: Van Gogh Gallery

1881 | Vincent Van Gogh | Sculpture And Still Life With Cabbage and Clogs

Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam

Source: Wikipaintings

1884 | Vincent Van Gogh | Still Life With Clogs And Pots

Centraal Museum (On loan from the van Baaren Museum Foundation, Utrecht)

Source: Van Gogh Gallery

1885 | Still Life With Earthenware, Bottle and Clogs

Rijksmuseum Kröller-Müller, Otterlo, Netherlands 

Source: Van Gogh Gallery

1881 | Vincent Van Gogh

Boy with Cap and Clogs

Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam

Source: Van Gogh Gallery

VINCENT VAN GOGH 1885 - 1889
Shoes, boots & clogs

SHOES & ART
From 1876 to 2011

1958 | TARCIR | PARABIAGO, MILAN |

1958 | TARCIR by Fratelli Sciocco |
Parabiago, Milan

PARABIAGO'S 
FOOTWEAR EXHIBITION [1954 - 1960]
PART 1 | PART 2

1876 | FRANCOIS BONVIN | LES SOULIERS D'UN RESERVISTE |

1876 | FRANCOIS BONVIN | 

Les souliers d'un réserviste

Source: Musée International de la Chaussure | Romans

1876 | FRANCOIS BONVIN |  detail

Les souliers d'un réserviste

Source: Musée International de la Chaussure | Romans

SHOES & ART

From 1876 to 2009

SERENDIPITY | VICTOR V/S ERMANNO SCERVINO |

CA. 1940 | VICTOR | The Undercut Heel | 
Source: Metropolitan Museum, NY

2012 | Ermanno Scervino |  SS 2013 |
The sculpture heel

COSA DICONO I CRONISTI DI MODA | WHAT FASHION JOURNALISTS SAY

Finalmente le scarpe scultura di Ermanno Scervino!

At last, Ermanno Scervino's sculpture schoes!

[Grazia.it]

In passerella si sono visti modelli che sfidano le leggi della gravità e della geometria e che entrano di diritto nella categoria arte astratta.

On the runway we saw shoes that defies the law of gravity with shapes that goes directly in the abstract art category.

[La Repubblica D]

IL MAESTRO DI VIGEVANO (THE TEACHER FROM VIGEVANO) | BY LUCIO MASTRONARDI | 50TH ANNIVERSARY [1962 - 2012] | PART 1/3

Lucio Mastronardi | by Cesare Giardini

Source: Cesare Giardini

All’inizio degli anni ’60, il maestro elementare Mombelli, un uomo di mezz’età, vorrebbe solo crogiolarsi nelle proprie abitudini e nel proprio “catrame”, come lui stesso chiama il decoro tutto esteriore e la vanagloria della classe piccolo-borghese. Ma a casa deve fare i conti con la miseria che la professione gli procura e con una moglie ambiziosa e smaniosa di benessere. A scuola è alle prese con colleghi ossessionati dai punteggi e dalle gerarchie e con un preside sadico, a sua volta continuamente impegnato ad affermare la propria superiorità di grado. 

Il maestro si lascia convincere dalla moglie a dimettersi e investire la liquidazione in una fabbrichetta di calzature, ma l’avventura si rivelerà un insuccesso che trascinerà con sé i membri della famiglia. 

Lucio Mastronardì realizzò con Il Maestro Di Vigevano una vivissima descrizione degli anni del miracolo economico Italiano, della trasformazione industriale e del clima di Vigevano, in quegli anni la capitale italiana della calzatura. La piazza della città diventa il perfetto scenario dove si incontrano le categorie sociali più coinvolte dal fenomeno. Mastronardi è spietato verso tutti. Il mondo della scuola - che Mastronardi conosceva dall’interno in quanto aveva insegnato proprio a Vigevano - appare perso in sistemi didattici ridicoli, sia quando si fondano su una vuota erudizione, che quando sperimentano farse educative come la “didattica attiva”. E poi c’è il mondo della calzatura: gli industriali calzaturieri, con le loro macchine sportive e le mogli appesantite da chili d’oro ed esibite in piazza. E gli artigiani ambiziosi che tentano il salto sociale a forza di straordinari, lavoro in nero e truffe alla “Tributaria”. 

“Il Maestro Di Vigevano” di Lucio Mastronardi merita senza dubbio una lettura, specialmente quest’anno, in cui ricorre il 50 anniversario dalla pubblicazione. 

In the early 60s, a primary school-teacher called Mombelli, a middle-aged man, would just bask in his habits and his "tar", or the false and exterior dignity of the petty bourgeoisie. But at home he has to deal with the poverty that comes from his profession and with an ambitious wife. At school he faces the colleagues obsessed with hierarchies and a sadistic headmaster, who constantly asserts his rank over him. 

The teacher is driven by his wife to resign and invest all his severance pay in a small footwear factory, but the adventure would be proven to be a failure dragging the family members down. 

Lucio Mastronardi with "The Teacher From Vigevano"created a vivid description of the social transformation during the Italian "economic miracle" through the climate in Vigevano, then the Italian footwear capital. The wonderful piazza Ducale is the perfect scenario where the different social groups meet and interact. 

Mastronardi is merciless towards everybody. School (Mastronardi had really been a teacher in Vigevano) is lost with ridiculous educational systems, based on empty erudition and educational farces such as the "active learning". And then there is the footwear production system: the owners of footwear factories, with their sport cars and their throphy wives exhibited in the piazza wearing kilos of gold; and the ambitious craftsmen trying to climb up the social ladder through hours' overtime, undeclared work and frauds to the fiscal authorities. 

The Teacher From Vigevano by Lucio Mastronardi is a novel worth reading. Especially this year, as it celebrates its 50th anniversary from the publication.

THE SCHOOL TEACHER FROM VIGEVANO
The Book | 50TH Anniversary | PART 1

THE TEACHER FROM VIGEVANO
The Movie | PART 2

THE TEACHER FROM VIGEVANO
The Movie | PART 3

1879 | OLD SHOE WITH MICE | WILLIAM AIKEN WALKER |

1879 | William Aiken Walker
Old Shoe With Mice | Oil On Board | Louisiana State Museum
Source: The Athenaeum

SHOES & ART

From 1879 to 2009

CAT.NO.006 | SITTING ON THE DOCK OF eBay | I. MILLER 1952 - 1955 | ENTER GENESCO

1952 | I. Miller |
America's Most Beautiful
Source: Vintage Chic

1952 | I.Miller

Strip Toes

Source: your name here ________

1953 | I.Miller

The Vanishing Back

Source: your name here ________

1953 | I.MILLER SOLD TO GENESCO (Formerly known as GEneral Shoe COmpany)

From My point of view, I was bitterly opposed to the Genesco-I.Miller deal…with the sale of the company its "soul" was gone. Genesco closed down the Long Island factory; they ruined the brand names - Mademoiselle (I.Miller sub-division) non longer exists; nothing any longer exists. They completely obliterated the whole thing - it was all stupidity. They didn't belong in the high-grade business; they didn't understand it. To be high-grade, you have to act high-grade. 

The (Miller) family came out pretty well financially: I think each brother, or each bloc, got two and one-half million dollars. They got five-year contracts as consultants - all the b.s. My father, for example, was a consultant whom nobody wanted to consult with. My father went to his office every day for five years and they never asked him one goddamned question.

Jerry (Jerrold) Miller
[From "The Wandering Shoe", My Goodfriends Inc, 1984]

1954 | I. Miller is brighter than ever!

Calcutta Lizards by Fleming-Joffe

Source: your name here ________

1954 | I.Miller in Liverpool
Source: your name here ________

1954 | I.Miller
Is a ladies' man
Source: your name here ________ 

1955 | I.Miller
Is a ladies' man
Source: your name here ________ 

1955 | I.Miller

The ladies' man about town

Source: Devocanada

1955 | I. Miller is a ladies' man

Ad by Andy Warhol

Who is Israel Miller?

STEPPIN IN HER I. MILLER SHOES

A LOST AMERICAN CLASSIC | ISRAEL MILLER | DeLuxe Shoes |

I. MILLER IS THE TREND

1956 | ANDRE PERUGIA FOR I. MILLER

THE PATENTED CHANGEABLE HEEL |

I.MILLER
I N D E X
DeLuxe Shoes

AT THE MOVIES | 1938 | HOTEL DU NORD BY MARCEL CARNE' | FEATURING ANDRE' PERUGIA

Il ruolo più celebrato di Arletty fu quello della prostituta Raymonde nel film Albergo Nord [Hotel du Nord] diretto da Marcel Carné nel 1938. La scena più famosa del film è quella in cui Raymonde litiga col suo protettore Edmonde (l’attore Louis Jouvet ) sul ponte del canale Saint-Martin, scena che in realtà fu interamente girata in studio, come il resto del film. La scena è visibile QUI.

The most celebrated role played by Arletty was Raymonde, the prostitute in the film "Hotel du Nord", directed by Marcel Carné in 1938. It is usually quoted the scene of the film where Raymonde quarrels with her procurer Edmonde (the actor Louis Jouvet) on the bridge over the Saint-Martin canal, a scene that was actually shot entirely on a set, like the rest of the film [Here to watch the scene].

1938 | Arletty and Louis Jouvet in Hotel du Nord by Marcel Carné

"Atmosphere" scene

Shoes by André Perugia

Il dialogo con Edmond, che vuole andare a La Varenne a pescare da solo, divenne un tormentone per gli sproloqui involontariamente comici della povera Raymonde. Prima dà del fatalitario (anziché fatalista) ad Edmond. Poi gli risponde così:

Edmond: “Ho bisogno di cambiare atmosfera e la mia atmosfera sei tu”

Raymonde: “É la prima volta che mi si dà dell’atmosfera! Atmosfera … Atmosfera!!! Ho forse la faccia da atmosfera? Se è così, vacci da solo a La Varenne. Buona pesca e buona atmosfera!”

Edmond wants to go fishing to La Varenne on his own, but Edmonde would like to join him. Part of the dialogue became very popular for unintentionally comical rants of poor Raymonde. Before she describes Edmond as “fatalitaire” rather than fatalistic. Then she answer this way:

Edmonde: “I need a change of atmosphere, and you are my atmosphere!”

Raymonde: “This is the first time I’ve ever been called atmosphere. ... Atmosphere ! Is that so? Allright then: go by yourself at La Varenne. Have a good fishing and good atmosphere!”

1938 | Arletty and Louis Jouvet in Hotel du Nord by Marcel Carné

"Atmosphere" scene

Shoes by André Perugia

Per una fortunata coincidenza, proprio in quella scena Arletty indossa un paio di scarpe del suo bottier preferito, cioè André Perugia. Un originale modello con tacco alto, tallone scoperto e un ampio cinturino alla caviglia. Elemento chiave della scena il dialogo. Ma, come ricordò la stessa Arletty in un'intervista “intorno al dialogo in quella scena c’era il resto, il ponte sul canale Saint-Martin, Jouvet, la borsa di Schiaparelli, le scarpe di Perugia. Quelle da sole valevano 80 appuntamenti di Raymonde…” . [1]

By a happy coincidence, in that scene Arletty wears a pair of shoes designed by her favourite bottier, André Perugia. An original slingback model with a high heel and a wide ankle strap. Dialogue is the key element of the scene, “but – Arletty said - in that scene there was the rest around the dialogue, the bridge over the Saint-Martin canal, Jouvet, Schiaparelli's bag, Perugia’s shoes. The latter alone were worth about 80 of Raymonde dates...” [1]

1937 André Perugia

Filed April 12, 1937 - Granted May 11, 1937

Source:Google Patents

As it often happens a Perugia shoe lives a second life. Back in 2015, a creation by Pierre Hardy paid homage to Arletty. 

Now, it’s a bold move in these times to name a shoe model after a 1930s French diva. It's way cool and we applaud it. However, while it’s not a knock off, it is clearly inspired by the André Perugia slingback used by Arletty, so it could have been way cooler if Perugia’s name were highlighted somewhere in the press kit, don’t you think Mr. Hardy?

2015 | Pierre Hardy makes a Perugia

The model "Arletty"

SEE ALSO:
ARLETTY [A.K.A. ARLETTE] & ANDRE PERUGIA

[1] «Appelez-moi Arletty" - interview with Arletty by René Bernard - Express, nr. 2051 (Nov 1, 1990)

1938 | Arletty in "Hotel du Nord"

Source: CineTom

ALL STAR CHUCK TAYLORS & GUESTS | ALL TOGETHER NOW | TBAMFW # 8.2 |

Wax

1992 - What Else Can We Do (Caroline)

Debut album for this underrated melodic hardcore band from LA. Singer Joe Sib went to form 22 Jacks with Steve Soto from the Adolescents. No info on the cover shot.

Cannons And Tanks
 2010 - Demo (Self Released)

Good demo debut from Birmingham's Cannon And Tanks, the English Pegboy.

The Revelers
1990 - Warning Sign / Set Myself Up 7" (St. Valentine)

First 7" for The Revelers, inspired Power-pop/garage-rock band from Cleveland.

Jesse James
2001 - Shoes CD EP (Deck Cheese)

Ska-influenced pop-punk from London.

The Unlovables
2003 - The Punk Rock Club EP (Knock Knock Records)

Generic pop-punk from NY.

SHOES AND MUSIC
ALL THE GALLERIES

M.S.I. (More Stpid Initials)

An Amazing Feat 7"EP (Bucko-5)

Second and final EP from this very good straight edge band from Toronto. No Chucks on sight but still worth the inclusion. Photos and layout by Rob Ben.