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HBC knows that saddle shoes continued to be very popular with teenage girls during the the 1940s, espcially the early-40s before Amnerica entered the War. A reader writes, "I think the blucher type reached its peak with teenager females in 1941, while children continued to wear them until the present." A good example is two older teens wearing them with shorts about 1940. http://histclo.com/style/foot/shoe/sad/gen/sad-geng.html The teeny-bopper style was to wear saddle shoes with bobby socks. We are less sure about the popularity with boys. We do see younger boys and teenagers wearing them as both a sporty and dress shoe. It is the prevalence we are not sure about. sWe do note two teenagers, brothers and sisters, wearing saddleshoes in a photograph taken about 1940 (figure 1). This suggests that they were also being commonly worn by boys. Both wear them with white socks. Interestingly the entire family got dressed up for a family portrait, so at least in some quarters the saddle shoe was not entirekly seen as a sport shoe. The brother and sister look to be wearing identical saddle shoes. They look the same, however, on close examination the girl's shoes have destinctive heels while her brother's shoes have a much flatter heel. We note boys at a Catholic school wearing saddle shoes as part of their First Communion suits in the 1940s. We also note some of the older boys wearing them for graduation. We note the girls at an American elementary school wearing them in 1949.
While we note saddle shioes before the War, or American involvment in the War (1940-41) and after the War (1946-49). We are not sure about during the War (1941-45). A reader writes, "I believe there was some regulation that prohibited two-tone saddle shoes from being made during World War II because of the War. But after the war they were again very popular reaching a peak in the 1950s."
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