THE STRAP WEDGE SHOES
Italian designer Salvatore Ferragamo created the classic wedge shoe in the 1930s. The first wedges did not have a distinct heel and used cellophane straps to keep the foot secure. Due to a rubber and leather shortage during World War II, wood and cork were used to create the heel.
The platform shoe is one of first major footwear trends of the 1970s.The most popular style of that decade used wood or cork base with a simple quarter-strap sandal. It incorporated tan leather straps on a beige suede-wrapped cork platform sole.
FASHION DESIGNED BY AN IMMIGRANT
These summer strap wedge sandals are made of beige-dyed straw and wood and designed by Diane von Fürstenberg .
Often associated with the wrap-dress, von Fürstenberg was born after the war in Belgium. She studied economics before working as an assistant to Albert Koski, a fashion photographer. She left Paris for Italy to apprentice to the textile manufacturer Angelo Ferretti. In his factory she learned about color, fabric and cut. It was there that she designed and produced her first dresses.
Diane von Fürstenberg’s mother Lilian Nahmia was a Holocaust survivor in Auschwitz. Nahmia, who was born in Thessaloniki, acted as a member of the Resistance during World War II and was captured in Belgium by the Nazis at the age of 22. During the war, her father, Leon Halfin, was a refugee fleeing Nazi persecution. Fürstenberg has spoken broadly about her mother’s influence in her life.
In addition to being a successful businesswoman, she is meaningfully engaging in social and political matters, such as women leadership, community building and human rights, including refugee and migrant rights.
In the wake of the then President Donald J. Trump’s executive order restricting immigration, including refugee resettlement, from seven predominantly Muslim countries (2017), Diane von Fürstenberg joined 80 fashion people in the US in a powerful video, “I am an immigrant”, in collaboration with W Magazine.