Shoe blog

Happy Birthday Betsey Johnson!

  Betsey Johnson will have 68 candles on her birthday cake today.  To celebrate she is offering a 25% discount for purchases made on her website.

   Betsey was born August 10th, 1942 in Wethersfield, Connecticut.  She is best known for her feminine and whimsical designs.   While many of her designs are considered “over the top” and embellished, I love them.   

In the 1960s she was part of the Warhol night club scene.  Edie Sedgwick was her house model.    In the 1970′s she had a rock and roll line called “Alley Cat”.  I made an Alley Cat pants suit (Vogue patterns) in 1976.  If I could fit into it I would still be wearing that outfit.  It was one of my favorites.   In the 80′s she started opening stores.  Today there are over 4o franchise stores.  In the 2000′s she signed a license deal that made her designs more available through Betseyville.   Betsey is also a breast cancer survivor and is very active in the fight against the disease.   Her cheeky description of her style formua is,”Take a leotard, add a skirt.”

 She also does a cartwheel at the end of her fashion shows.  How cute is that!

Let’s look at some Betsey Johnson shoes today.

Nelson Shoes $140 at  Betsey Johnson web site

Ardis on sale for $104  at Zappos

Judson $140 at Zappos

While Betsey Johnson isn’t for everyone, she seems to have a lot of fun with what she is doing.  To celebrate, I might purchase something from her web site.