A Vintage Mystery- Red Leather Pointe Shoes From Argentina

Happy New Year, Dear Reader. There is nothing more interesting than starting off the new year with old shoes. Very mysterious old pointe shoes made of red leather and being sold in Argentina. When I find something like this , I know my curiosity will be large, but my data bank for writing a post about them will be quite small. As I looked over an enlarged version of these photos with a hopeful heart, I was disappointed that they didn’t give up their secrets.

A Fascinating Collectible For Any Vintage Pointe Shoe Fan

How I wish I knew something more about these old leather pointe shoes. They look so different from anything else out there, don’t they? Because these shoes are so old and unusual, they would make an absolutely magnificent addition to a collection. Just to be able to peek inside and check for an insole marking or makers stamp would be wonderful.

This Writer Would Love To Know:

• Who danced in these precious shoes, and is the dancer still alive?
• Were they made in Argentina, or in some other part of the world?
• How old are these pointe shoes?
• Do they have a brand name, or were they made specifically for the dancers of the Teatro Colón?
• Are the drawstrings original or replacements?

What do you think? Are you as fascinated as I am with these old leather pointe shoes? Feel free to leave a comment.

Allegro Pointe Shoes From The Netherlands

What happens when a few dancers from the Netherlands get together to create their own pointe shoe brand? A fascinating, yet very mysterious product for ballet aficionados in other parts of the world. Namely, my neck of the woods in The United States.

These pretty shoes have taken me on a very, very long research journey. Because  they are distributed as wholesale items, I can only guess about their original source.

With little luck trying to find any information about the innovative dancers who created them, I decided to share what I do know.

How They Are Sold And Distributed

What is most intriguing about these lovely shoes is that they  are part of the international wholesale market for dance supplies.

From whatever factory they come from , they end up at the DJazz Trading Company in Holland for distribution.

It was quite underwhelming to only find a warehouse door to see, but such is the life of those who try to solve international pointe shoe puzzles. Sometimes you strike it rich, sometimes you end up with a photo of a door.

Pointe Shoe Specifications

According to the description on Ballet Wholesale, these shoes come with the following details:

• Described as a ready-to-dance shoe for beginners through advanced dancers.
• Created with supportive pre-arched shanks.
• Pre-attached ribbons and fishnet elastics.
• Leather sole and platform cover.
• Poron® 4000 cushioning for shock absorption.
• EU Sizes 34 – 42, Width C: normal to mid-wide feet.

What Makes This Brand A Mystery ?

Have you formed your list of questions yet?  I certainly have. There are a few reasons why this brand has hit the mystery list. I want to know:

1. Who are the dancers that got together to create this brand?
2. Are these shoes made in The Netherlands, or elsewhere?
3. Why are they only sold as bulk wholesale items and where do they end up? Schools? Theaters? Overseas?

One thing is certain, trying to cover such a wide topic as pointe shoe brands from  around the world will never get dull or boring. If anything, I am even more inspired to put on my hunting slippers and keep searching for more.

“ Searching is half the fun: life is much more manageable when thought of as a scavenger hunt as opposed to a surprise party.”

–  Jimmy Buffett

 

 

* DANCER DANCEWEAR is a brand of DJAZZ TRADING C.V.
Bart van Slobbestraat 25A
6471WV Eygelshoven, Holland
VAT: NL850681601B01
Chamber of Commerce: 52953378

 

L’Art Pirouette Pointe Shoe- Le Modèle Mystérieux

” The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible” – Oscar Wilde

How true is the above quote! Seeing how many pointe shoe models are on this  site as mystery brands makes the whole ballet shoe world even more interesting. As you spend time checking back on old mystery brands, poof, here comes another one fresh from the shoe galaxy out there.

Whether they are discontinued or still on the market, their appearance  offers the opportunity to at least give them a little attention and appreciation. These pretty shoes were tools of the trade for some lovely dancer somewhere. It would be wonderful  to know their source.

The Pirouette Model By L’Art

 

 

It is no exaggeration to say I searched and searched and searched for some information about this brand, but had no success.

How could a pointe shoe model with the lovely name of L’Art Pirouette be so unheard of and mystérieux? The name L’Art, as well as Pirouette are decidedly French, but the only reference to these shoes online come from Mexico, Argentina and Catalonia, Spain.

One pair looks new and the other well-worn. Are they still in production somewhere? Where? By Whom? And the most important question of all:

Could  they make a collector’s heart flutter? Yes!

Art Line Pointe Shoes From Indonesia

What comes in cute descriptive colors like baby purple  or red racy ones like merah ? Pointe shoes from the Bandung area of Indonesia called  Art Line. They are intriguing and colorful to look at, but at the same time, almost impossible to learn about.

Why?  The featuring website needs a little bit of tender loving care. Unfortunately, there are missing images, broken links, and out of focus models that make it difficult to see the crisp details of this brand.

Product specifications are missing, so there is no clue about fit, function, or sizes. The concept of  manufacturing a stock pointe shoe that comes in eleven colors is a wonderful idea.  Competing with big brands that offer custom shades like Grishko is not so wonderful.

Featured On Dballetshop.com, They Are Sold With More Well Known Models From Grishko And Bloch

The colorful satin points with matching toe tips are pretty to look at, but what really interests me is the unique liner logo. It’s a bit fuzzy here, but the liner logo shows a ballet dancer on pointe with the word Artline above her head.

If you visit the product page of their green model and hover over the image, it shows up better than the photos here.

on vacation

The Art Line brand is indeed baffling. The models ( or model) have no specifications; not even a price. The Facebook link is broken as well. Their Twitter link stills works, but it appears that it’s been quite a while since the last Tweet.  I think I will hold off adding this brand to the sidebar.

It’s hard to predict what will happen to a brand when their website is left to gather dust bunnies.  I will be the optimist here : if the domain name is still on the Internet, there is hope. What do you think?

 

Flickr.com, CreativeTools.se – Twitter bird standing on branch – Close-up, Cropped to fit, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

Edoardo Colacrai Pointe Shoes-Vintage Memorabilia

One of the most interesting types of pointe shoe brands are those created by principal dancers;  be they male or female. Sometimes we never learn about these dancers until we discover their brand on the market.

Such is the case with these fascinating Edoardo Colacrai pointes, or puntas. Edoardo Colacrai was a principal dancer for the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, Italy; one of the finest and oldest opera houses  in the world.

He had a long career as a ballerino ( as they say in Italy). It appears that Mr. Colacrai was at the height of his dance career from the 1970’s through the 1990’s. Porcelli, a top-quality Italian Manufacturer, has a lovely pointe shoe model named Colacrai.

The last mention of his name in connection with ballet dates back to the early 1990’s. His name was archived on World Catalog.org as the 1990 author of an article about the Teatro alla Scala.

Of course, as luck would have it, the most fascinating pointe shoe finds have the least information.

On an Italian ballet forum thread from 2008, dancers discuss the fit and performance of his brand of soft slippers. I couldn’t find any specific information about the production dates of his pointe shoes. I spent hours searching for the soft slippers as well.

At least we can get some satisfaction Google-translating what the words on the packaging might mean in English.

On the shoe bag, the large white sticker reads Cucite A Mano, or made by hand.

Approximately mid-center you can see a website address and contact email. The domain name puntashoes.com is an interesting mix of Italian and English, but returns a not-found error message online. I think it would be vain hope to try the email address at this time.

The Tag Appears To Be Break-In Instructions, Not Specifications

Exercise on pointe

Relevés in I, II, V position. Music tempo 4/4

They are performed with two hands at the bar and after eight lessons, in the center.

On the first quarter demi-plié. On the second quarter climb on the tips passing from the half-tip, on the third quarter to go down in demi-plié always passing by half-tip , on the fourth quarter stretch out your knees. Perform eight relevés in each position.

Edoardo Colacrai passed away in 2012. His Facebook page is still published, but  is very sparse.  A friend and former dance partner created a humble, but loving memorial video of him on You-tube.

It’s fascinating when male dancers create their own brand of pointe shoes during their dance career; like Mikhail Baryshnikov did. The Punta brand by Edoardo Colacrai is a beautiful collectors item.  It now lives as precious ballet shoe memorabilia that honors his memory.

Rest in peace, Mr. Colacrai.

 

 

 

 

 

Master Klass Pointe Shoes-Another Cold Case Mystery

Master Klass Comfort

Pointe shoe detectives, are you ready for another cold case mystery that needs to be solved?

Up for your examination is this gorgeous pair of Russian-made pointes with the beautiful aesthetics the country is known for.

As you will be able to see in the pictures below, they are made in Russia, but the product information tag uses English. The brand name is Master Klass, which can be translated as Master Class. The model name is Comfort.

 

The heel imprint says сделано в россии, made in Russia

I find this brand absolutely fascinating! Searching online and asking for information in social media dance communities baffled others as well.

It would be a shame if this mystery brand had to remain that way.

I am very, very curious to know more about the company who made or still makes this model.

What do you say detectives? Does anyone have any clues?

The Mysterious Mayol Of Argentina

It’s been a long, long time since a pointe shoe discovery has left me with barely enough information to make a post. This is one of those times. I have sleuthed and surfed and searched for information about the Mayol brand for months, but haven’t been successful.

The only clue obvious from these photos is the manufacturer’s mark on the sole that says Industria Argentina. This simply means it is a product of or produced in Argentina.

The toe box pleating is quite wide and the shoe appears to be tapered with a wide metatarsal area. The logo looks to be ink-stamped and not imprinted into the sole material.

Perhaps, this brand is a “contract shoe” for a particular dance theater or school in Argentina, I don’t know. For now,  the Mayol brand remains a complete mystery.

Roden Pointe Shoes From Israel

This post falls both under the category of mystery brands and the discovery of a new country that I so wanted to add to the list. Are you as fascinated as I am that there was a pointe shoe brand from Israel?

A pretty shoe with soft inner liners

A sturdy-looking model with wide platforms and wing blocks

What I Can Tell You About Roden Dance Wear

The name Roden is the brand name of the products created or imported by The Dance Style Company of Israel. Their main shop is located about 30 minutes from Tel Aviv in the Rishon Lezion Center. This is a fairly new company; founded in 2013.

The Trademark Mystery Of Roden Dancewear

If you look at the company logo trademark page, you will notice that it was filed in Riverside, California. I find it very interesting that this shoe brand is ( or was) only available in Israel.

I say was because the shoe is not featured on their website or in the photo albums of their products on Facebook. I tried contacting Dance Style directly through their website and through Facebook for information about the shoes, but I was ignored. Twice ignored.

תתבייש לך                    Shame on you in Hebrew

 

I used both English and Google-translated Hebrew to make contact with the company, but with no success.

Dance Style offers soft slippers with the Roden label, but the pointe shoes are nowhere to be found. Somehow, it appears that these pointe shoes were born and died all within a span of two years.

Another mystery; on their Facebook page, they spell Roden as Rodan.

Their official website, Dancestyle.co.il is in Hebrew, but if you enter the url into Google Translate, you can navigate through it much faster.

 

 

 

Sutorio De Maserejian-The End Of A Cobbler’s Legacy?

A while ago, I had discovered another pointe shoe brand based in Argentina. Because I post in random order, I took it for granted that the brand, its products and its website would still be up and running when I got around to writing about it.

The brand name of the company was called Sutorio De Maserejian. The word sutorio means belonging to or related to the art of making shoes. When I first discovered the brand, I had an interesting time learning about the company and its founder, Stephan Artin Maserejian.

Sadly, when I revisited the old company website, the domain was no longer viable. There were wonderful family photos and pictures of the workshop where the dance shoes were made by hand in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

After doing some online searching, I found the obituary of Stephan Maserejian. His legacy and life story are really inspiring. There is a memorial slide show that includes a photograph of a cobblers bench from his company workshop.

I have tried to contact his wife and son through their Facebook pages to find out what happened to the company brand name. I am hopeful that I will get a response although they don’t appear very active on the site.

Searching the company name brings up the old Argentina address and there are references online to a location in El Salvador, but it leads nowhere. I will have to put this brand under the mystery category.

Sutorio de Maserejian dance garments and shoes can still be found for sale on eBay-type sites in South America. Unless I can contact the Maserejian family and find out otherwise, this brand name may have sadly disappeared into the pages of pointe shoe history with the passing of its founder.

Deciphering The Brand Name Of These Estonian Pointe Shoes

As we leave summer behind and get ready for fall, I look forward to the cooler, frostier weather of my region. Cold air wakes me up and makes me feel energetic and alive.

Energy is a great thing to have when you are trying to solve numerous shoe puzzles and figure out mysterious pointe shoe brands like the one on this page.

The model is called Annette. The manufacturers stamp under the toe box says Made In Estonia Tallinn*. It’s clearly visible and easy to read because of the block lettering.

* If you want to know more about this part of the world, see : Tallinn, Estonia.

No clue about the brand name on the inner liner

They appear to be high-profile shoes with sturdy boxes

Asking For Fresh Eyes And Reader Opinions-What Does It Spell Out To You?

This imprint is the brand name needed to do further research on this manufacturer.

Although the imprint under the toe box is easy to make out, the writing under the heel portion has driven me to distraction. I zoomed and zoomed in, but I cannot make out the full name. Can you?

I see an O, a K and a possible A, but cannot decipher the rest. Does it appear to you that the first O shape is part of the swirly K? I could definitely use a set of fresh eyes ( and younger ones) to help make this out and get the puzzle solved.

I am looking forward to your thoughts and opinions!

Update: Thanks to some effective Facebook sharing, I learned that the brand is Kamilla of Estonia. It appears that the Annette might be discontinued because it isn’t featured on their website, Kamilla.ee.

I sent an inquiry to Kamilla about the Annette and hope to learn more. I am a bit disappointed that this brand cannot be added to the sidebar, but so happy to finally know what the brand is.