TheHistorialist: 1952 | CAGE AND BIRDCAGE HEELS

1952 | Salvatore Cangemi | The Birdcage Heel

Filed September 26, 1952 | Granted July 26, 1955

No actual Cangemi shoes are known in existence with such a heel. However the Canadian sandals below might have been created using the Cangemi patent, or so it seems judging by the pictures.

1952-1956 | Simpson's St. Regis (Canada)

Black suede sandals with brass wire-cage heels

Source: The Seductive Shoe by Jonathan Walford (Stewart Tabori & Chang, 2007)

1956 | Salvatore Ferragamo

Source: A.C.S. (Archivio Centrale dello Stato)

1956 | Salvatore Ferragamo Patent

Source: A.C.S. (Archivio Centrale dello Stato)

We didn't want to spoil the Salvatore Cangemi V/S Salvatore Ferragamo angle, but Ferragamo is only the third in line after a Dutch brand called JAC. BERGMANS (from Waalwijk) as you can see from the following picture.

1953 | Jac. Bergmans | Waalwijk, Nederland

Courtesy of Inge Specht-den Boer | DL&SMuseum curator

The shoe is kept at the Dutch Leather & Shoe Museum and, as always, the info was brought to our attention by our dear friend Inge Specht-den Boer, curator of the very same institution. She ascertained the date (1953) thanks to this youtube video, a slideshow compiled by the Historical Society of Waalwijk of the shoe trade fair called S.L.E.M. (Schoen Leder en Mode, Dutch for Shoe Leather and Fashion).

1953 | Jac. Bergmans shoes at S.L.E.M. | Waalwijk, Nederland

Courtesy of Inge Specht-den Boer | DL&SMuseum curator

And then the rest. Starting from Italy's Creazioni-Mariorty Anacapa. The original caption reads: Pair of white mules with "Birdcage" stiletto heel and birds, c. 1955-60, … worn by a lady in the mid-1950's. She brought them as a novelty one summer and wore them "quite a bit until her friends had seen them."

1957 | Creazioni-Mariorty Anacapa

From the collection of the Bata Shoe Museum, Toronto

Source: Shoes by Riello & McNeil, Berg 2006

1957 | Creazioni-Mariorty Anacapa | Detail

From the collection of the Bata Shoe Museum, Toronto

In order to better identify the date a little help comes from a clip found on the British Pathé website (thank you Irenebrination). The audio says: "… from Italy comes this beach mule in leather with wooden sole …" while the related description reports: "Close up of a heel of a white mule designed to look like a cage and contains a plastic model of a monkey inside!"