This material has a wide rang of applications from furniture, jewelry, handbags, windshields and more. I love Lucite in shoe form, not the exotic dancer variety but those that saw widespread popularity in the 1950's.
Lucite was commercially available by 1937, and the material was soon being used in various designs. It's primary function during WWII was for military use but post war it was widely licensed to many products, including shoes.
Marilyn Monroe made the Lucite platform famous long before your neighborhood exotic dancer did. She took lounging to a whole other level.
With costume designer William Travillia on board she wore her Lucite heels in the film, "How To Marry A Millionaire" (1953)
In recent years high end fashion designers have resurrected the material in the form on heels and platforms. Prada, CHANEL, Stuart Weitzman in season past.
For 2015 DIOR, Christian Siriano, and Versace are a few of the names bringing back the look of Lucite. I sent someone a message last August saying how fabulous it would be to re-create the Marilyn shoe with a current twist. The 2015 runway's are a step in the right direction.
Siriano
Versace
Lucite & Latex at DIOR
Why Lucite?
To me they are feminine and reminiscent of Cinderella's "glass slipper", in this case plexi-glass. Many of the vintage Lucite heels are embellished with stones, engraved with feminine, whimsical designs and are like another piece of jewelry.
When Lucite is done right it can be magic!
I've always loved & been fascinated with MM lucite heels. We're they mass produced for the public or something the costume dept. came up with? To me they always looked slightly sci-fi, almost like bricks of ice strapped to her feet. Far from the cheap hooker heels you see today.
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DeleteShe had some shoes specially made by a London shoe maker who made shoes for th Beatles.IDK if they made the lucite ones or she had them custom made elsewhere. Im betting she saw a pin-up illustration, like ones she modeled for, and said, "Im having those made!"
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