BBC 1977: A London bootmaker to the stars

[at9]

https://www.facebook.com/BBCArchive/videos/820856528779653/

[Chorlini]

The 70's truly was the decade that was a crime against fashion.

[Shyheels]

It was all right at the time. I liked the 70s

[Chorlini]

56 minutes ago, Shyheels said:

It was all right at the time. I liked the 70s

I was there too. It sucked. Only the music of that decade was good. And only by virtue of all the crap that, like today, made up most of the charts, now being forgotten.

[at9]

The 70s was my decade too. Leaving school, going to uni, getting a good degree, starting my first proper job.

The miners' strike, Yom Kippur War and oil price shock, 3 day week, winter of discontent. (I realise that some of this is from a UK perspective)

The soundtrack of my university years seemed to be Kate Bush and Abba. Punk arrived but passed me by.

I still have a pair of men's boots from the 1970s. Patent leather mid calf, with 2" heel, no platform. A bit fragile now but they stlll look good and I wear them occasionally. My first pair of heels.

[Shyheels]

1 hour ago, Chorlini said:

I was there too. It sucked. Only the music of that decade was good. And only by virtue of all the crap that, like today, made up most of the charts, now being forgotten.

Maybe in Holland it sucked but it was fine at my end of the swamp.

[Chorlini]

5 hours ago, Shyheels said:

Maybe in Holland it sucked but it was fine at my end of the swamp.

Wasn't the 70's the decade when the UK was the sick man of Europe?

[at9]

The Sterling crisis was in 1976. 3 years after the UK joined the EC (later EU). All that bad economic stuff was probably part of the end of glam rock/prog rock and the rise of punk rock.

[Shyheels]

43 minutes ago, Chorlini said:

Wasn't the 70's the decade when the UK was the sick man of Europe?

Wouldn't know. I was living in the US.

[5150PLB1]

Yes the 70's was a crappy decade in the US- Vietnam War, Richard Nixon, Watergate, Gerald Ford  and Jimmy Carter. Awful fashion that only started to change in 77. My junior high and high school years.  

[Shyheels]

I’m clearly older than you, have a different perspective on those years. As a junior high student in 77 did Watergate really bother you, tell me true

[5150PLB1]

Back in  74 my junior high school social studies teacher would have a TV in the class for the students to watch the Watergate hearings live. We also had to write papers on it also.  That was not a boring history/ social studies class- we were seeing history being made.  

[Shyheels]

I saw them too although not in junior high, but it hardly blighted the entire decade for me.

Think back - were you really walking around ar twelve with a long face and lugubrious manner at the sorry state of the world?

Edited March 19, 2021 by Shyheels

[at9]

Coming back to my original post, does anyone have any idea of who these bootmakers were?

[spikesmike]

at9 : It all depends on where the video was filmed . Many years ago England had two (2) Shoe and Boot maker company's. Fabulously Fetish  and  The Shoe Box . Fabulously Fetish featured some gorgeous high heels. However, the shoe maker was a rip-off artist . The Shoe Box just  disappeared . 

[at9]

"The Shoe Box" was The Little Shoe Box on the Holloway Road, near highbury and Islington Station. I think this is a successor company: https://www.iliaslittleshoebox.co.uk/

Another possibility is Terry De Havilland.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_de_Havilland

Edited March 19, 2021 by at9
Added link

[Bubba136]

Ah, the little shoe box!  I still have 2 pairs of their pumps.  One pair in Black calfskin and the other is Black patent.  Both pair have 7” heels.  The black patent pair look the same as those in the picture of spike heel going through the yellow pool ball.  In fact, they are my ideal of perfect high heel pumps.  Dream pairs. In fact, I believe I still have a copy of their catalog that I used to order them from, around here somewhere.  

 

Edited March 19, 2021 by Bubba136

[mlroseplant]

15 hours ago, Bubba136 said:

 The black patent pair look the same as those in the picture of spike heel going through the yellow pool ball.  In fact, they are my ideal of perfect high heel pumps.

 

So that's where that picture comes from. I have always associated it with a former member here, who wrote quite a number of stories.

[spikesmike]

Bubba136 : I had no idea where that picture came from. I wave that poster in a poster display down stairs . Have had it for decades . I also have a boxes full of order catalogs from those years . Mike 

[Bubba136]

13 hours ago, mlroseplant said:

So that's where that picture comes from. I have always associated it with a former member here, who wrote quite a number of stories.

I am sure you can find it online somewhere.  It’s a classic picture. Too good to ever be forgotten.

[Puffer]

On 3/17/2021 at 11:11 AM, at9 said:

The 70s was my decade too. Leaving school, going to uni, getting a good degree, starting my first proper job.

The miners' strike, Yom Kippur War and oil price shock, 3 day week, winter of discontent. (I realise that some of this is from a UK perspective)

The soundtrack of my university years seemed to be Kate Bush and Abba. Punk arrived but passed me by.

I still have a pair of men's boots from the 1970s. Patent leather mid calf, with 2" heel, no platform. A bit fragile now but they stlll look good and I wear them occasionally. My first pair of heels.

I hated the 70s, after the promise of the early 60s had all-but disappeared.   I was old enough and financially secure enough to do more or less what I wanted (bought my first house in 1973) but felt frustrated at almost every turn and embarrassed by the prevailing fashions and values.   Even my (first) marriage in 1976 did not fill the void and it took another 10 years for my idea of relative normality to arrive.