Is it true that the fashion designer Vera Aralova invented women's boots with lightning?

In Russian -speaking media and social networks, the opinion is popular that Western fashion brands have made millions at the invention of a Soviet designer. We figured out whether this is really so.

According to the history, which is presented in the media and social networks, in 1959 Vera Aralova, along with other employees of the Moscow All -Union House of Clothing Models (Domo), went to Paris for the first western show of Soviet fashion. There, she introduced her collection of fur products, and instead of shoes, she put high boots on the zipper on the fashion models, which were sewn in her order in the workshops of the Bolshoi Theater. This novelty allegedly produced a real splash, and many French manufacturers of shoes wanted to buy a patent for the production of such boots. However, Aralova did not have any patent, and the Soviet authorities did not want to engage in such an insignificant deeds as it seemed to them. Soon, Western shoe stamps were able to independently reproduce the idea of ​​Aralova and established the release of lightning boots, which immediately came into fashion around the world. The Soviet Union later had to purchase production lines for such boots in Austria. This was written by the application to the newspaper "Vedomosti" "How to spend", Publications The Blueprint And "RBC Life", magazines Marie Claire And The Symbol. The story of the boots fell into the script of the series "Red Queen»About the life of the fashion model Regina Zbarskaya. Posts about Aralova and the boots she invented can be seen in Facebook, "VKontakte" Blogs And on YouTube.

Vera Aralova is a famous Soviet artist and designer. Since 1948, she worked in Odmo, but in the 1960s she concentrated At work in the theater and cinema. Some publications say that Aralova was the first to bring women's boots as such - before her women allegedly wore only shoes and ankle boots. In honor of her, new fashionable women's shoes in the West began to be called "Russian boots". Initially, this information began to spread from the words of the artist herself. Her son James Paterson in an interview with the newspaper "Komsomolskaya Truth"In 2013, he said:“ By the way, it was my mother in the 60s invented the women's boots "Cossack". I remember Lyubov Petrovna (actress Lyubov Orlova. - Approx. Ed.) She asked her: "Verochka, why do men have boots, but women do not?" And my mother came up with women's boots to the knees. I made a collection for display in Paris. And the fashion for the boots "Cossack" went around the world. " Fashion historian Alexander Vasiliev, whose father was a classmate and many -year -old friend Aralova, also talked about this legend in the book "Family values":" As Vera Ippolitovna later assured me, it was she who brought high boots into fashion, which, of course, was invented. Perhaps in the USSR in 1955 high boots and became new, but in Paris they were worn since 1925, and Russian emigrants introduced them into fashion. ”

In fact, the term “Russian boots” appeared in the West back in the 1910s. It was then that women's boots for the first time came into fashion. How Writes The biographer of the famous French couturier Paul Poire Palmer White, this happened thanks to Diaghilev’s “Russian Seasons”, inspired by Poir to create a new model of women's shoes in an old Russian style. Muse Poire, Deniz, who attended social events in them, made popular boots. 

Subsequently, female boots came into fashion-for example, in the 1920s-they left it until they completely fixed in it.

In one of the publications about Vera Aralova Alexander Vasiliev Clarified: Although women's boots existed for a long time, "Aralova’s contribution was precisely in lightning - it is an absolute, revolutionary novelty." However, this is not entirely true. Lightning was invented in 1893, and already in 1922, the American brand of Bfgoodrich began To release shoes With this fastener. The initial model was called Mystik Boots, but later its design was slightly changed and renamed the Goodrich Zippers. It is thanks to this that, by the way, that the zipper is called in English.

Outwardly, Goodrich Zippers very much resembled Soviet boots, which people called "goodbye, youth" (by the way, their production It began Only in the 1960s). Later, other boots began to equip with lightning. In the 1920-1930s, lightning was placed in front, but later models appeared with a fastener in the rear seam and side. 

A real boom of female boots arose in the 1960s. In London, a designer Mary Kuant Invented mini-skirts, which, unlike the air dresses of the New Luk style, were perfectly combined with boots. In Paris, a designer Andre Kurrezh he also experimented with mini and geometric forms, combining them with Lightning boots Until the middle of the caviar - this gave his models a cosmic appearance. The appearance of new synthetic materials made it possible to release boots that fit the leg, Like a stocking, the most bold colors. 

Thus, it is safe to say that Vera Aralova was not the inventor of either the female boots at all, or the lightning boots in particular. However, there are other inaccuracies in the publications about her. In particular, they indicate that the show, on which she presented her boots to the Parisians, took place in 1959. It was then that the first show of French high fashion in the USSR was held - to Moscow The Dior house arrived. However, only Russian -speaking sources write about the reverse initiative in the same year. In French publications, “verified” could not find any information about the show of Soviet mods in Paris in 1959, although such an event (especially considering that Russian -speaking sources write about it as the first in history) should not pass by the press. Only July 13, 1960 in Le Monde Appears a message on the agreement signed by the USSR and France industrial exhibitions: Sovetskaya in France and French in the USSR. They had to Pass in 1961: French exhibition-from August 15 to September 15 in Sokolniki, and Sovetskaya-from August 25 to September 20 at the Port-de-Versal exhibition center. The program of such exhibitions included a demonstration of the achievements of light industry - in other words, a fashion show. And he really took place, and fashion models on it actually demonstrated some ensembles in boots. Most likely, it is this show that dates from the year in 1959 in Russian -speaking publications. And by the way, he was not the first Soviet show of fashion abroad. The fact is that at first the Soviet industrial exhibition I went to London (in July 1961). There was also a fashion show on it - however, summer outfits were demonstrated in the UK, so the British boots did not see the boots of Aralova.

And finally, a number of publications about the alleged invention of Aralova are accompanied by a photograph of the Soviet fashion model Tamara Vladimir in the red boots above the knee. Signatures for photographs say that these boots are the work of Vera Aralova.

In fact, this picture has nothing to do with Vera Aralova. This is part photo shoots, shot by the photographer of Life magazine Bill Ray In August 1968. Tamara Vladimirtseva is dressed in a coat and boots from the autumn-winter collection of the house Louis Feraud, presented July 17, 1968. 

Thus, although Vera Aralova really used high women's boots on lightning during the show of her collection in Paris in 1961 (and not in 1959, as many Russian-speaking media write), she cannot be called their inventor: women's boots (both on lightning and without) existed before that. The international surge in the popularity of female boots in the 1960-1970s was not associated with the display of Aralova models in Paris, but with fashion for mini-skirts and with the spread of new synthetic materials.

Photo on the cover: frame from the series "Red Queen"

Not true

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