1908 | PIETRO YANTORNY AND THE FEATHERED SHOES

1908 | Pietro Yantorny
The Feathered Shoe
Source: The Art Of The Shoe (Sirrocco, 2007)

The masterpiece I want to submit to the public view is the feathered shoe made with Japanese bird feathers each measuring about one and a half millimeters. It took six months to complete a pair. I have not done it for selling it, only as an artistic object and to show how far I could push the boundaries of shoemaking. 
Pietro Yantorny

"Le chef d’oeuvre que j’ai voulu soumettre aux yeux du public c’est le soulier de plumes d’oiseau venant du Japon mesurant chacune à peu près 1 millimètre et demi. Il a fallu 6 mois pour pouvoir en achiever une paire. Je n’ai pas fait cela pour une speculation de vente mais seulement pou un objet artistique et faire voir jusqu’où je pouvais pousser le degré de la cordonnerie." 
Pietro Yantorny

The application for the invention of the feathered shoe was filed in 1908 (Brevet d’Invention 396.408). Its aim was to find a solution to four common problems of the time with luxury shoes: 

- the delicate fabrics easily got stained and couldn’t be cleaned;

- they weren’t waterproof;

- they couldn’t easily match the most delicate fabrics of the women’s dresses or their different shades;

- and finally, if the upper got scratched, it couldn’t be repaired.



Page from Yantorny's diary where he described the production of the 
feathered shoes.
Not being able to read or write, Yantorny dictated his memoirs to his wife.

"Our man proudly shows his visiting ladies a pair of shoes of his manufacture that costs 10,000 francs. Their value is explained by that fact alone that they are completely, except the sole, covered with rare birds feathers: paradise, hummingbird, etc. These are both the most curious and most expensive shoes in the world ... Let's hope that the fashion of shoes costing ten thousand francs will not take!"
 Flossie - Femina magazine, 1914

"Notre homme montre avec orgueil à ses visiteuses une paire de souliers de sa fabrication qui vaut 10.000 francs. Leur valeur s’explique par ce seul fait qu’ils sont entièrement, sauf la semelle, confectionnés en plumes d’oiseaux rares: paradis, colibri, etc. C’est à la fois les souliers les plus curieux et les plus chers du monde… Esperons que la mode des souliers de dix mille francs ne va pas prendre!"
Flossie - Femina magazine, 1914 


1914 | A page from the magazine Femina about the Pietro Yantorny's production
Sourse: Shoe-Icons

1914 | Pietro Yantorny | The feathered shoe | detail
From the magazine Femina
Sourse: Shoe-Icons


PIERRE YANTORNY | BOOT MAKER IN PARIS
A.K.A. YANTURNY - A.K.A. YANTOURNY



1908 | Pietro Yantorny
The Feathered Shoe
Source: The Art Of The Shoe (Sirrocco, 2007)


 

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