Capezios

Fashion Synopsis

Dance shoes jumped from the stage and landed in the streets when Capezio produced ballerina inspired shoes for the modern gal. Actually, the Capezio family slipped, rather than jumped into the role of footwear gurus. In 1877, Salvatore Capezio ran a small shoe repair shop. A frantic opera singer who had misplaced her shoes begged Salvatore to customize a pair. He did, and the rest is history.

The shoes were such a hit that the Metropolitan Opera company ordered their customized footwear from him, and as the word got around, dancers requested performance shoes as well. When Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova wore a pair of Capezio ballet slippers for her U.S. tour, her attention shoved the name in the spotlight.

In the 1950’s, ‘All-American’ sportswear designer Claire McCardell asked Capezio to create a complementary line of footwear for her casual clothes. The pointy-toed stiletto wasn’t appropriate for slim Capri pants, and it was too dressy for simple cotton dresses. Capezio made colorful ballet inspired flats for streetwear, and the world went Capezio crazy.

The dance craze of the 80's returned Capezios for an encore. The soft leather jazz dance slipper was a big hit, as was the good old fashioned ballerina flat. Capezio made all styles of flashy footwear for the 80's that made you want to go out and take the stage, or the dance floor at least.

Capezio maintains two manufacturing operations for both the fashion and dance lines: dance shoes are made in New York, and all other fashion footwear is produced in Cincinnati, Ohio.