ANDRE' PERUGIA AT THE MUSEE D'HISTOIRE DE LA VIE QUOTIDIENNE | PART 1

Only recently we discovered the engaging Musée d’Histoire de la Vie Quotidienne (MHVQ) of Saint Martin en Campagne (Normandy, France), that hosts shoes made by André Perugia. We wrote to the Museum and the very kind curator, m.me Apolline Rouget, sent us a few useful information and a complete set of photographs. 

The shoes - said m.me Rouget - five pairs in total, are a recent acquisition and all had been property of an unnamed French actress who performed both on stage and screen; her career took place between the two World Wars. The donor, a person who had known the actress, gave the shoes to the museum with a request of keeping secret the lady's name.

So, we have a French museum, an actress that can't be named and a great bottier: almost a spy-story.

Let's begin with the shoes as the museum has been given misleading dates. All the models are from the Twenties, the period of the Faubourg Saint-Honoré shop in Paris, and all but one have an inscription on the outsole with the name "Perugia".

Ca 1924 | André Perugia © Service Musée - Saint Martin en Campagne - Petit Caux - A. Rouget

The gorgeous blue and white pair comes from the 1925 collection that we called «Orphic» because the vamp decoration is inspired by the artistic movement mainly represented by the Delauneys spouses.

The shoes are a virtuoso piece of work based on the contrast between blue and white, with small kidskin circles combining the same two colors.

1925 | André Perugia | The Orphic collection © Service Musée - Saint Martin en Campagne - Petit Caux - A. Rouget

Let's not forget the actress.

To wear shoes made by Perugia on a stage in Paris was a symbol of success and the list of celebrities who bought Perugias - or even sponsored by the bottier - is endless: it's like the proverbial needle in a haystack. The museum isn't allowed to help us, however we might take an educate guess ..

We're still processing additional information from the museum in order to provide even more accurate dates.

Just to recap, the "Orphic" models dates were already established and double checked, while others were assumed due to similarities of details and/or designs: they are not to be considered definitive. In addition, a very interesting clue will soon be revealed about the last two models shown above.