My very first pair of Gucci shoes were a beautiful pair of black pumps with slightly squared off toes, silver horsebits and perfect 4 inch heels. Oh my goodness I loved these! At the time I was working at Paine Webber Investment banking as an admin, one of the younger bankers I worked with wore Gucci shoes... and I was so impressed and sort of in awe of her style (being fresh from, lets admit it, not very fashionable Vermont)... I had to get my own even though I certainly didn't have a banker's salary! I would still wear these shoes today if I hadn't had the misfortune of getting them soaked one day when I had to run cross town (for an interview no less), and of course it was pouring rain, and of course there were no cabs... The shoes were never the same, the leather got completely soaked and it ruined the shape. TOTAL TRAGEDY. I still have them somewhere, I just can't get rid of them; but I don't wear them. Happilly there have been many horsebits since...
These from Fall 2005 have a giant half horsebit on each toe.
These from Fall 2006 are a variation tied with a little kiltie tassel bow.
These from Fall 2007, are one of my favorite pairs of shoes. They have a 4.5" heel and the very classic style of horsebit.
Oddly, the last two Falls I have not bought Gucci shoes. Usually when I go to the store there is more than one pair that I just LOVE and call to me, and I have to pick one... but the last two Falls I haven't felt that way about any. And I'm definitely practical enough not to buy a pair of shoes that expensive if I don't absolutely love them... Hopefully Fall 2010 will have my next pair!
Here's the horsebit history from Gucci's website:
The horsebit was first written into the house vocabulary in the Fifties, used on heavy tan leather saddle-stitched handbags. Since then, the horsebit has been both miniaturized and maximized as hardware; luxuriously schemed into embossed or burned-out surfaces on leather suede and velvet; turned into repeat patterns printed on silk and sculpted into the components of precious jewelry.
The horsebit played a crucial role in marking out the Gucci loafer as a time-traversing design classic. The snaffle was introduced as a decoration on the soft and comfortable brown or black leather Gucci men's moccasins in 1953. They graced the feet of Clark Gable, John Wayne and Fred Astaire, and when women's versions appeared in 1968, became the choice of sophisticated women looking for a luxurious kind of comfort. The shoes became favorite everyday wear for elegant women, such as Lauren Bacall.
In new times, Frida Giannini looks at the horsebit with fresh eyes. She might take the prints of interlocking, squared-off bits, of the highly fashionable red and blue Gucci pattern used for shoulder bags, shoes and silk blouses in 1969-1970, transform them in and project them, in mini-form, onto flowing dresses or blown up to exaggerated scale on travel-totes. With new style, a new feminine touch, that counts as the current installment in the long-running serial of Gucci design.
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