Catherine Middleton - Duchess of Cambridge - 40's inspired hat

[rue]

I'm realy curious if Lizzie might have an answer to this. I would guess that shoe sizes might have been different.

And you're right sheeplady, models are required to be much skinnier now...... 5'4" and 118 lbs. would be too heavy.

 

[Puzzicato]

Okay. Color me confused. HOW did they have such small feet? Even as rail thin teenager, at 5'4 I wore a 6 1/2 , so I don't think it's a size/weight issue. And didn't everyone walk more back then? Wouldn't that make your foot a little bit bigger? I can understand some size difference, but that's just too much.

I once met a very rude Italian salesman in a shoe shop who informed me that the reason why Australians have such ENORMOUS (he said) feet is because we go around barefoot and don't wear proper shoes constantly from an early age. So maybe it was a form of footbinding?

Although I've seldom met a pair of vintage gloves I could get my hands into either, and the same argument can't really be made for hands!

 

[Drappa]

I think we tend to forget that humans generally are getting taller and bigger, apparently due to nutrition and hormones in modern food. Most of the 40's coats etc I have seen had really short sleeves, and I'm not even tall.
My grandma's feet were small as well, but I don't remember her as particularly petite even though she was shorter than I am. I think it must be some sort of memory trick whereby we associate ancestors we knew mostly with their personalities or how we remember them, not realising thay before they were old they were even smaller or thinner.
I went to visit a 18thC village museum, and even the housing and furniture was miniscule by today's standards.

 

[Bluebird Marsha]

I can understand some size differential. My grandmother was my height, and as a young woman in her 30's she was much slenderer than I at a comparable age. No surprise there- I ate like a linebacker , and her shoes always pinched a bit when I tried them on. Not that I did that much. She didn't go for cute shoes in her later years. So I could buy that she was wearing a 6 or even a 5 as a young woman. But down to a 3? I'm picturing a few of my elderly great-aunts, and maybe some of them wore tiny shoes, but I can't see "doll's shoes on them".

BUT, I can see a form of foot-binding going on here. I had to fight battle royals to attempt to get my grandmother to wear a properly sized shoe. I lost those battles. She was always wearing shoes that were at least a size too small. I could see where her big toe was about to poke a hole in the shoe. If we assume that our average woman of 1920-1960 should have been wearing a size 5/6 shoe, with Hollywood types wearing a 4, then many women were perfectly capable of squishing their poor tootsies into a size 3 shoe. And that's why so many of these ladies now have bunions. Girdles for the feet!

If going barefoot and not wearing proper shoes make my feet enormous, then I think I'll side with our our Australian cousins on this issue. I may squeeze my 21st century sized bum into a skirt that's too my tight, but there's no way my little toes are going into shoes that are too tight.

 

[sheeplady]

I don't know, my grandmother was always a stickler for proper foot wear at least when she was older. I don't think she would have run around in shoes that were too tight.

And about the big feet and walking around barefoot- my grandmother was a size 5 (I think) and she didn't own a pair of shoes until she was 12. So maybe it was a form of shoe binding or something would have made her feet smaller, but her feet were still pretty small.

I do think nutrition has something to do with it, particularly good nutrition in childhood and adolescence.

 

[Drappa]

Neither one of my grandparents ever wore shoes or clothes that were too tight as far as I know. In fact, my mother and grandmother always hammered into me the importance of well fitting shoes for your health. To this day I can't buy used or vintage shoes, just can't stand the thought. Also, which size 3 are we talking about here - UK, US, ...?
I guess it may be time to start a new thread on this though, as the lovely Kate by no means owns small feet.

 

[Kitty_Sheridan]

I dont think the hat is '40s' -50s maybe? But to be honest whilst I wish them well, Im sick of reading about her and her sister who it seems is only famous for her rear.

 

[Puzzicato]

If going barefoot and not wearing proper shoes make my feet enormous, then I think I'll side with our our Australian cousins on this issue. I may squeeze my 21st century sized bum into a skirt that's too my tight, but there's no way my little toes are going into shoes that are too tight.

:tea: Here's to comfy shoes and enormous feet!