Oxford buckle shoes worn by Melvin Van Peebles: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

A pair of Carlos Morandi oxford shoes worn by Melvin Van Peebles. The show vamps and quarters are made from white leather and the heel cap, 3” tox box, and 4.25” leather buckle flap are made from brown leather. At the end of the leather buckle flap is a 1” gold covered buckle. A decorative design is punched into the leather at the top of the toe boxes and along the edges of the topline, throat line, and the heel box. There are leather outer soles with 1” black heels. Stamped text on the leather reads [GENUINE / LEATHER / SOLES] stamped inside a shield device with the text [MADE IN SPAIN] stamped below. The shoe size [9 ½] is stamped near the heel and the brown leather insoles have [C / M / CARLO / MORANDI / MADE IN SPAIN], embroidered in black on a white fabric tag sewn to the footbed of the shoe.

Materials, dates and provenance

• Date: Mid to late 20th century
• Created by: Carlo Morandi, Italian
• Subject of: Melvin Van Peebles, American, 1932 - 2021
• Type: oxfords
• Type: shoes (footwear)
• Medium: leather, rubber, elastic, and metal
• Dimensions: H x W x D (a - left shoe): 3 5/16 × 3 15/16 × 11 9/16 in. (8.4 × 10 × 29.4 cm)
• Dimensions: H x W x D (b - right shoe): 3 5/16 × 4 × 11 9/16 in. (8.4 × 10.1 × 29.3 cm)
• Place made: United States, North and Central America
• Topic: African American
• Topic: Actors
• Topic: Black Enterprise
• Topic: Clothing and dress
• Topic: Fashion
• Topic: Fashion design
• Topic: Film
• Topic: Musicians
• Object number: 2024.60.18ab
• Credit Line: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture
• Data Source: National Museum of African American History and Culture

Sources and reuse

Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of African American History and Culture through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed. The displayed image also has an explicit CC0 designation. The underlying object's rights statement is: No known copyright restrictions Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.