In the post-WWII frenzy, stylist Gabrielle Chanel decided to revolutionize women’s fashion. Throughout her long line of lovers, throughout her travels, her encounters, and her hobbies, Coco never ceased to observe, to analyze, and to visually dissect the aesthetics and components of the clothing she saw. The story of the two-tone shoe begins on the Duke of Westminster’s yacht. The visionary’s keen eye retained the shoes worn by the men there: natural fabric and black leather points. She also took away a bit of amusement from the thick-soled black-tipped sandals nonchalantly thrown over the shoulder of her friend, dancer and choreographer Serge Lifar. In those days sporting activities were performed in beige canvas shoes with a black leather tip, in order to better dissimulate potential stains. And this is where Chanel got the aesthetics for her next icon. 1957, loyal to her vision of an elegant, sleek, and distinguished gem what with its freedom of movement, Mademoiselle Chanel got the inspiration to concoct an open-toed shoe, beige with a black tip, edged with a thin elastic strap on the side. Bye bye buckles! For the very first time, an elastic strap supported the heel. And this is where one of the greatest technical innovations in the history of shoemaking resides. But Chanel was first and foremost an artist – a clothing virtuoso. By banking on two-tone, it was also a way to compose the silhouette in a different way. The slightly squared black tip shortens the foot, while the beige melts into the ensemble and elongates the leg.
Since « a well dressed woman is never ugly », with just this one pair, Gabrielle Chanel was sure to respond to the demands of the most elegant, at any hour, day or night. The couturière wanted her shoe to be comfortable and perfectly adapted to the new lifestyle of the modern woman. Raymond Massaro and his father, shoemakers that were drawn to the Chanel brand, therefore conceived an asymmetrical sandal where the flange only sustains the outer part of the foot to leave it maximum freedom. Running, dancing, jumping into the city with newly-found ease was now possible thanks to the elastic tension on the back of the heel, adapted to any and every movement. As Raymond Massaro maliciously recalls : « the worst thing that can happen is for a woman to be angry with her shoemaker during a night out. » The two-tone shoe was made to avoid embarrassment, composed around a graphic aesthetic that was full of common sense, the icon is a definitive label of « Massaro for Chanel ».
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