“Bally Shoes Are Trend-Setting Fashion Creations” 1 Shoe Design in the Second World War

The transformation of the simple utility shoe into a stylish fashion accessory is clear from even a cursory glance of the Bally archives. Starting in the 1930s, there was a dramatic increase in both the quantity and variety of prototypes. Rather than coming to a halt, this diversity indeed continued during the period of the Second World War. There was an extraordinary range of designs: casual shoes, heeled sandals, mountaineer-ing boots, pumps, including of the stilettoed variety (whether for afternoon, summer, or early summer wear), “fantasy high heels”, semi-sports shoes, golf shoes, models with names like Lifties, Louis XV, Richelieus, and Ghillies, school shoes, running and cycling shoes, slippers, bottillons, and après-ski shoes. In total, the archives contain over 400 models for women’s shoes, another 160 for men, as well as children’s shoes, and a wide array of designs for work and sportswear. The models stand out for their meticulous craftsmanship and sophisticated design—less apparent, however, is that such good design was very often a response to political and economic events.

However, Bally preferred to advertise in newspapers during this period, believing that its audience would increase as more and more people sought to keep abreast of the latest war developments. 3 The satirical magazine Nebelspalter also accorded fashion a prominent place on its pages. In-house company publications, particularly the Arola Hauszeitung, represent a hitherto largely untapped historical source. Published by Arola Schuh AG (founded in 1926 as the sales division of the Bally holding company), the magazine appeared three times a year from 1931. Written for a trade rather than general readership, the magazine provides an insight into a part of the company notable for its almost unreservedly positive attitude towards fashion, even-indeed, particularly-during the Second World War. This pro-fashion outlook was accompanied by a note of ambiva lence. While the company was beholden to Switzerland's "spiritual national defence" (Geistige Landesverteidigung-a cultural movement that sought to protect Swiss values and customs), it still maintained an economic interest in open global markets and a commitment to a globally interconnected fashion culture.

Raw Materials and Ersatz Materials
Dependent on imports-a maximum of 400,000 hides were produced in Switzerland annually, whereas the company needed 2 million 4 -and threatened with rationing, Bally was anxious from the war's outset, not merely about the general state of business but, most of all, about the procurement of the raw material of leather. Just two months into the war, Arola's managing director, M.W. Wittstock, announced the company's highest ever sales figures. However, he also bemoaned the increasing difficulty in sourcing materials and forcefully appealed to employees to make economies: What conclusions are to be drawn from this? We, too, must put limits on our demands, simplify our collections, and always be prepared to learn lessons from every situation. Let us not forget that there is a war on, and that in wartime the impossible can become possible. Thrift must once again be the watchword at every stage of production. 5 The archives' collection of women's shoes is particularly illustrative of the crucial role played by design-or in-house "creation" as it was known-in putting this more economical approach to raw materials into practice, and the creativity involved in integrating new and unusual materials.
Numerous models of shoes have uppers made from woven textiles such as satin, linen (or hemp), and viscose. Alternative leathers were used to make shoes, such as crocodile, snake, and even fish leather (which required great delicacy of workmanship), often in combination with conventional leather and suede. Animal skins were also put to use, from conventional furs (such as foal, cow, and sea lion) through to more exotic varieties (leopard, ocelot, and cheetah).
A particularly successful model, and one of the few innovations to emerge from the slowed fashion cycle of the war years, was the "après-ski shoe". In December 1942, the Neue Zürcher Zeitung reported on the "onward victorious march of the aprèsski shoe". 6 The report noted that après-ski footwear, once "suitable only for the health spa", had been worn as street fashion since the second winter of the war. 7 These shoes were typically rubber-soled, although a number of the particularly unusual models came with thick soles made of cork [Fig. i].
[1] Après-ski shoes, 1940s (photo: Manuel Fabritz, © Bally) Often covered in fabric or leather, this light-weight material was also used to sole summer sandals and for wedge heels (the latter being a feature of the Lifty model).
From 1942, wood was another material used for making sandal soles-sole leather having been banned from the beginning of that year. 8 Heavy and inflexible-not to mention bearing the stigma of poverty-wooden shoes presented a challenge both in terms of design and production technology. As well as the Bam bino children's shoe, Bally launched two models whose wooden soles each boasted a distinct design: The Intermezzo (featuring a hinge joint), and the Pergola (with a three-section sole).
Despite the fact that Bally's sandals were relatively comfortable to wear, exempt from rationing restrictions, 9 and came in a wide choice of materials and dyed soles, they only started "flying off the shelves" once they had managed to convince the buying public that wood was fashionable: A fashion made necessary by the war, admittedly, and one that also does our country a tremendous service by helping save on (the now very limited) stocks of sole leather. 10 The highlight of the advertising campaign was a specially composed song, "Holz ist die grosse Mode" / "C'est la mode du bois" (Wood's the height of fashion).
[O]ne thing's for certain: The whole of Switzerland talked about it, not least in response to the various attacks on our slogan. Its resonance across Switzerland is clear from the various humorous articles featured in "Nebelspalter", "Sie und Er", and several other illustrated magazines, not to mention a good number of valuable articles penned by journalists and fashion writers. 11 In addition to wood, actual ersatz materials were also used in the manufacture of shoes. These include a product known in German as Werkstoff (a generic term meaning "material")essentially, an artificial leather made from ground off-cuts of tanned leather, then mixed with cellulose and a binding agent. 12 At Bally, it was used mainly in the manufacture of heels. 13 The creative approach to using valuable raw materials is immediately striking. Even the smallest leather off-cuts were used for decorative features in the form of colourful bobbles on laces, contrastingly coloured decorative seams, intricate appliqués, and playful loops and frills. Embroidery is another striking feature of the shoes. Sometimes delicate, sometimes more rustic in style, the decorations were embroidered in shiny yarn-although occasionally more "modest" materials like raffia and straw would be used [Fig. ii].
Overall, this was very far from a "simplified collection" and much more a display of ambitious industrial design. To date, the evolution, structure, and working practices of the company's design department have not been studied in any great detail. It is possible to get an impression of the department's work culture from an undated (and clearly staged) photo, which shows a number of employees (including the "head of creation", 14 Max Matter) comparing shoes for quality purposes. Strips of wood are visible on the workbench, alongside a number of magazines, such as Vogue.
[ii] Summer shoes, 1940s (photo: Manuel Fabritz, © Bally) "He anticipates the changes of the era and his creations maintain Bally products' excellent reputation as international fashion shoes." 15 The high esteem enjoyed by the company's créateurs was to a large extent down to the commercial success of their fashion shoes-between 1928 and 1939, Bally was able to increase annual production from 8 to 10 million pairs. 16 The pages of Switzerland's press, in both German-and French-speaking cantons, reveal the variety and range of products sold by Bally during the war. One advertisement from 1939 proclaimed: "Our extremely abundant collection of delightful, Bally-patented creations allows you to make the choice that suits you." 17 This was no idle boast. Bally advertised new products, usually available in a variety of colours, on a near-weekly basis. 18 At the same time, the attitude towards fashion-that "great, influential tyrant" 19 -was ambiguous. 20 The transition from utility good to consumer product manufacturing entailed "the momentous phenomenon of changing fashions". 21 The design team's evident delight in the sheer variety of fashion was shared by the staff of Arola AG-save for the occasional complaint about "customers' extravagant demands". 22 Fashion was viewed unequivocally as the major selling point: It is essential that every effort is made to undergird the fashionability of our products. Say, for example, our product line on display in every store were to consist merely of simple, ordinary shoes, then our female customers would soon start buying fewer pairs. The aim of fashion, then, is to whet the appetite to buy more. 23 "Heavy Heels and the Look of the Platform Sole Are the Flavour of the Day" 24 Shoes with platform soles or wedge heels stand out for their particularly striking form. Conspicuously thick-soled shoes have been a constant in European costume history. Whether sturdy peasant clogs, chapines (a richly ornamented hybrid of Spanish and Arab design), or calcagnini (the notoriously decadent luxury product worn by the Venetian elite)-all bear material witness to the richness of design, symbolism, and cultural meaning associated with this unusual style of footwear.
In the 1930s, platform shoes 25 made their first appearance as a fashionable, industrially mass-produced item, and went on to inspire the imaginations of designers and consumers alike. As Elizabeth Semmelhack has observed, platform shoes are "potent markers of up-to-the-minute stylishness, an intentionally striking display of the wearer's active participation in fashion". 26 In the following section, this avowedly fashionable object will be viewed in the context of contemporary fashion discourse, which-as will be demonstrated-became involved in the disputes on national identity and the meaning of gender.
The innate willingness of the fashion-conscious to be open to anything new made this unfamiliar shoe both a much soughtafter accessory and a target for scorn and criticism.
For the fashionable consumers of industrial mass products, the thick-soled shoes were de rigueur. So were they for numerous youth (sub)cultures, such as the swing boys and swing girls of Zürich, the French Zazous, 27 and the Otta kringer Schlurfs of Vienna, whose footwear became, "by means of additional old rubber soles, the coveted Doppelbock [double-mount]". 28 What is furthermore striking about platform shoes is their cross-gender appeal, which is all the more remarkable given the clear delineation between men's and women's footwear since the late 18th century. 29

"The Modern Woman Wears […] the Glass Heel with In-Built Goldfish Bowl" 30
Swiss publications continued to report on fashion during the war. Alongside Annabelle, whose first issue came out in 1938, Swiss readers with an interest in fashion could turn to L'Illus tré in (francophone) western Switzerland, and two weekly magazines-Schweizer Illustrierte and Sie und Er in the central and eastern cantons. The latter in particular featured weekly reports about the latest fashion trends, some running over several double-page spreads, while also providing fashion advice and, as the war dragged on, tips on how best to save and re-use materials. Shoes were given relatively little attention, in spite of having grown in significance as a fashion accessory (at this point in time, full-body shots were not yet the norm in Swiss fashion photography). On rare occasions, there might be full-side bags, hats, gloves, umbrellas, and silk scarves. 31 Even rarer were reports devoted exclusively to shoes, such as the article about Bally published in Annabelle with the heading: "The blue ribbon of Swiss quality: The shoe from Schönen werd." 32 From 1942, reports on shoes with platform soles or wedge heels appeared more frequently; although as often as not, they raised points relating to the war economy rather than fashion-a feature on "ersatz materials", 33 for example, or a short column headlined "What will we be walking on this summercork, wood, or straw?" 34 One exception was a report published in Sie und Er. Headlined "Wood is today's big fashion" 35 -a direct allusion to one of Bally's advertising slogans-the article reported on a special display ("Wood in the Service of Fashion") exhibited at the sample fair in Basel.
Rather surprisingly at first, the satirical magazine Nebel spalter depicted Bally shoes-entirely consistent with the company's self-image-as advanced fashion products [Fig. iii].
[iii] Bolleter, "The Modern Woman Wears [...]" (Nebelspalter no. 28, 9 Jul. 1942) The "Goldfish Bowl" was just one of dozens of fashion-themed cartoons 36 published in Nebelspalter during the war years. This was in contrast to satirical magazines outside Switzerland, such as Punch, Kladderadatsch, or Le Canard enchaîné, which seldom, if ever, paid attention to fashion.
Having expanded its print-run from just a few hundred copies in the 1920s to 30,000 in 1945, 37 Nebelspalter enjoyed (and continues to enjoy) a reputation as an important weapon in the nation's "spiritual defence" (Geistige Landesverteidigung), "the integrationist ideology that propagandized the unity of nation and state, forged through an intense process of introspection on what is 'typically Swiss', and a resistance to the alien". 38 The weekly had been swift to adopt an anti-Nazi stance right from 1933. This resulted in a "mythologization of its own past", 39 beginning immediately after the war and to some extent still going on today. Little room was thus left for critical reflection [iv] Lindi, "Autumn 1942-Stepped-up Fashion" (Nebelspalter no. 41, 1 Oct. 1942) on its endeavour "against red and brown fists" 40 (i.e., Communist and Nazi thuggery) being not strictly progressive but tainted with anti-urban, anti-American, sexist, and racist tendencies.
The magazine's satirical gaze fell with particular regularity on contemporary shoe fashions. The prime targets for mockery were almost always shoes with platform soles and wedge heels, which attracted attention by dint of their sculptural appearance and the dramatic effect they had on the female silhouette.
Many of the drawings operate within the classic framework of fashion cartoons, typically based on creating "figures of fun". The cartoons' "primary purpose is to be funny and entertain". 41 Each new fad in the fashion world provided yet more satirical fodder [ Fig. iv].
Another characteristic of the platform shoe was its ability to lend women's bodies "unnatural" height, which presumably threatened the established order of the sexes [Fig. v].

Swiss-Baby, Züri-Schnuggerli, and Swingling: The Cartoons of Ernst Schoenenberger
Another important frame of reference in the relationship between satire and fashion is the unusual body of work created by [  . From 1942 to the end of the war, over 30 of his cartoons were published in Nebelspalter-more than half of which appeared on the front cover. In 1950, the magazine's publishers even released a special issue featuring 80 of his cartoons.
Pride of place in these invariably large-scale drawings was almost always given to young women dressed in the very latest fashions. The women's appearance is made all the more striking by their footwear, which Schoenenberger rendered with considerable attention to detail: He hardly ever repeated the same pair of shoes or resorted to formulaic representations. His work even included images drawn "from life", such as the shoe appliquéd with a squirrel motif [Fig. xii]-drawings of which featured in numerous Swiss magazines, having first appeared in L'Illustré in late December 1944. 42 Clearly, Ernst Schoenenberger was remarkably well informed about fashion, to the extent that creations by such renowned shoe designers as Salvatore Ferragamo are easily recognizable in his drawings. The cartoonist also used clothes as a way to visually drive home his message (the female puppeteer, for instance, both manipulates and panders to men). Thus, we see that the female protagonist's blouse is a fashionable variation of [vii] Ernst Schoenenberger, "Zürich Girl" (Nebelspalter no. 36, 3 Sept. 1942) the uniform jacket worn by the "American who dropped from the sky" [FIG. XI]. Being up-to-speed on the latest fashions was far from the norm among 20th-century cartoonists. As Gundula Wolter has shown, cartoons that took a close interest in contemporary fashion had begun to fall out of favour as early as the 1830s. 43 The cartoons employ iconography drawn primarily from US visual culture, and specifically "pin-ups"-a genre that became especially popular during the Second World War. These fulllength pictures showed women in minimal (or figure-hugging) clothing, shown in poses that conveyed narrative. 44 The genre's heyday was from 1920 to 1950, when magazines faced increasing competition, and illustrators were employed with the specific remit of attracting readers. 45 The exaggerated female body forms and poses, and the pictures' narrative element can also be seen in Schoenenberger's cartoons. Many of his female characters are portrayed with a note of sexual aggression and latent hostility towards men. These traits are shared by the popular femme fatale figure of the era, who graced the front covers of contemporary pulp magazines and became emblematic of vi- [ix] Ernst Schoenenberger, "Swiss Baby at the Starting Blocks" (Nebelspalter, no. 32, 9 Aug. 1945) sual culture's nascent fascination with "the bizarre". However, artists working in these popular genres invariably depicted women wearing extremely stilettoed heels, whereas Schoenenberger preferred to draw shoes with platform soles or vertiginous wedge heels. The cartoon highlights Schoenenberger's active participation in contemporary fashion-critical discourse, underscored by a rigidly dualistic view of gender that would not tolerate even the slightest deviation.
It was precisely this strict demarcation of female and male roles that was challenged by the events of the Second World War. Countless women entered civilian working life to assume roles previously occupied by men, before eventually even taking on functions in the military (Switzerland here being no exception). Whether working as carpenters, welders, or bakers, women fighting on the "domestic front" were invariably represented in a positive light in the illustrated weekly press. 46 By contrast, women's inclusion in the army caused palpable anxiety and unease. The Women's Auxiliary Service (Frauenhilfsdienst, or FHD) was founded in 1940. (Bally even responded with the creation of a specially designed shoe for servicewomen.) Roles were clearly defined: The Auxiliary Service was voluntary, and women who served were restricted to supporting functions. Although large numbers of women initially volunteered, the intake of new recruits fell dramatically from as early as 1941. 47 It did not escape army command that women's reluctance to sign up might in some way reflect frustration at being denied political rights (it was not until 1971 that Swiss women were able to vote in federal elections). Colonel Vaterlaus, who headed the Auxiliary Service from 1942, felt that it was unbecoming of women "in the present time" to make their vital contribution to the army contingent on a political quid pro quo. 48 Meanwhile, Schoenenberger glibly dismissed women's reluctance to volunteer as a mere matter of clothing [ Fig. vi].
Bally was also prey to the widespread fear of women becoming more masculine: Today's woman knows that she might be conscripted to the armed forces, which is precisely why she has to dress in a way that maintains her femininity and charm. In terms of silhouette and details, she refrains from outdated excess and eagerly follows a fashion whose soft feminine lines lend congenial expression to a quietly optimistic serenity. 49

Anti-Americanisms
Although the cartoons derive their form from US popular culture and riff on its visual iconography, much of their content is anti-urban, anti-American, racist, and sexist.
This was rooted in cultural anti-Americanism-a rather astonishing sentiment, given Switzerland's geopolitical situation in the early 1940s. The ingredients for this attitude are already evident in some of the early cartoons from 1942. Striding energetically through the picture on very high platform shoes is a meticulously coiffured and fashionably dressed woman. This "sassy Zürich girl" cuts a striking figure: long pointed nails painted red, full mouth emphasized with blazing-red lipstick, with the look topped off with a flashy pair of sunglasses. The caption addresses readers directly, telling them they know nothing about "today's swing" [Fig. vii].
[x] Ernst Schoenenberger, "The Trophy Baby" (Nebelspalter no. 16, 18 Apr. 1945) While the later cartoons are more focused on current affairs, the representation of female protagonists continued to use the template of young, fashionable urban women who were characterized by their obsession with swing and US culture while brimming with sex appeal.
Zürich was indeed an important centre for jazz and swing in Switzerland. Internationally celebrated musicians performed at the Esplanade and Grand Café Sihlporte. 50 Although people spoke of these performances in favourable and even knowledgeable terms, 51 there was little understanding for either the young "swing generation" or the associated club culture. An illustrative example of this attitude can be found in an article published in 1943 in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung. As well as describing the young people's purportedly Americanized (body) language, the journalist writes extensively about their trademark look, singling out the "cork-soled buskins", short skirts, and red-varnished finger nails favoured by "swing girls", and the excessively long jackets and hair of the "swing boys" (accessorized with the obligatory pack of Lucky Strikes). The article's tone grows increasingly strident, resorting to the same tropes as Schoenenberger in calling for "post-education" and military service as a means to instill discipline into insubordinate youths: We are guaranteed one solace, however: Times are hard, and that is something the swing generation cannot escape. One day, they will receive their summons to basic training, aerial defence, or agricultural service. Life there will swing to a rather harsher (and entirely unmistakable) rhythm. They generally emerge from this different style of swing with clear eyes and newly steadied legs. 52 [Fig. viii] While Nebelspalter had previously adopted an anti-urban stance-or, more specifically, an anti-Zürich stance (Zürich being the largest city in Switzerland and therefore an alleged hotspot for vice)-the intensification of its explicit anti-Americanism, combined with racism and a firm line in the "battle of the sexes", marked a new development. In an essay entitled "Feindbild Amerika" (The American Bogeyman), Dan Diner describes how the transformation of women's roles-a phenomenon that first emerged in the United States-became the target of virulent hostility from certain swathes of the European population in the 1920s. 53 Women came to be viewed as tyrannical authority figures who paid the price of equality through the loss of their "innate" femininity. While the figure of the "American Woman" may have been an object of desire, she did not inspire respect. 54 [ Fig. ix] As the war progressed, Schoenenberger's female characters took on an increasingly aggressive appearance and a more explicitly sexual undertone. The women he drew were desirable, yet also monstrous and sinister, with a predilection for "hunting" and "killing" men [ Fig. x].
One contemporary development that may have prompted this imagery was an agreement concluded with the United States, permitting (effective from summer 1945) US officers and soldiers to take leave of duty in Switzerland. 55 Some 300,000 GIs duly travelled to Switzerland, unleashing all manner of (erotic) fantasies and fears among the Swiss population. Women soon fell under general suspicion of engaging in sexual relationships with the newly arrived war heroes, 56 to the detriment of Swiss men-an anxiety that Schoenenberger had expressed a year previously [ Fig. xi].
More disturbing than relationships with GIs were those with black GIs. One police inspector in Basel remarked: "[…] in fact, the most shameful aspect of this for our country [is] that black men [are] by far and away the most favoured" 57 [ Fig. xii].
It was not just contact with GIs that stirred up resentments. Published in early 1945, this cartoon marks a response to the soldiers who had been interned since mid-1940 in camps run by the Swiss army. 58 "Daisy Tüpfi" is portrayed as an exotic (even animalistic) mythical creature, while her cocky companion "Hula Wumba"-here, Schoenenberger was probably alluding to the West African tirailleurs sénégalais of the French armyis characterized by the sort of racial stereotypes familiar from Jim Crow and minstrel shows.
The cartoon's historic significance is all the more potent for being published just ten years after Zürich Zoo's last ever "human zoo", when visitors were invited to gawp at an enclo-sure of people from European colonies (including Senegal). 59 Men once observed from a safe distance were now "on the prowl" in Swiss everyday life.

Interpreted against the Grain
Belying a conservative-indeed, reactionary-message, Ernst Schoenenberger's cartoons also convey glamour and cosmopolitanism. Although fashion is presented as a by-word for shameless sensuality and unbridled consumption, Schoenenberger's scrupulously observed understanding of the latest trends and his characteristically jaunty style-coupled with an eclectic visual vocabulary-make his drawings considerably more attractive than many of the fashion illustrations published in Switzerland during this period. As a cartoonist, he had a knack for capturing the materiality and swish of fabric to great effect.
This cosmopolitan spirit was shared by Bally. Even during the war years, the company acknowledged fashion's international character-not just for commercial reasons, but also as a kind of trademark corporate approach. Thus, the company [xi] Ernst Schoenenberger, "The American Who Dropped from the Sky-Our Newest Rival" (Nebelspalter no. 45, 21 Apr. 1944) [xii] Ernst Schoenenberger, "Happy End" (Nebelspalter no. 6, 8 Feb. 1945) regularly included extensive reports from the world's fashion capitals in its in-house publications, while voicing its appreciation of forward-thinking shoe design in the United States and Italy, and ultimately rejecting the notion of "national" fashion. Writing after the Nazi occupation of Paris, Grete Trapp, the company's fashion correspondent, observed: For the first time in over a century, it is impossible to get hold of the latest fashion news from Paris. […] This has not brought fashion to a grinding halt. It has only resulted in certain delays, while people (firstly) look around for new sources of inspiration, and (secondly) use the loss of Paris as an impromptu spur to take the initiative in expanding their own skills. Significantly, the event has not resulted in a single country retreating into an isolationist approach to fashion, tinged by nationalism. Quite the opposite.
[…] In fact, we wouldn't even dream of advocating such a thing as "Swiss fashion". 60 As a number of recent publications have shown, fashion was not simply consigned to the margins in times of war. It could be viewed in a variety of ways: as a means to uphold and communicate totalitarian ideology, 61 as an important economic factor, 62 and as a way for individuals to take conscious control of their appearance and so defy the life-threatening chaos that surrounded them. 63 With Switzerland spared direct involvement in the Second World War, the country's fashion discourse anticipated some of the conflicts that characterized the postwar years, such as teenage subcultures, the blurring of gender boundaries, mass consumerism, and the influence of US popular culture.