Summary

This shoe pattern is created on a Sanitarium Skippy Corn Flakes cardboard box and illustrates a shoe sole surrounded by an outer material edge. Amongst many others, this pattern is part of the shoemaking designer kit that enabled Stanio Fancoff to acquire versatility and different fashions within his shoemaking trade.

Stanio Ivanoff Fancoff was born in 1908 in Bojentsi, a small village in Bulgaria. At age 11, Stanio left home to learn the shoemaking trade. In 1929, he immigrated to Melbourne, settled in Fitzroy and began to work for the V.G. Zemancheff & Sons basket shoe factory in South Melbourne. In1936, he married Dorotea Georgi Touzou who had recently arrived in Australia. Around this time, Stanio set up his own shoemaking business from home, with Georgi, her cousin and sister weaving the shoes which he then assembled. Select shoe samples were then taken to Sydney and Tasmania for sale. In 1942, Georgi and Stanio moved to Broken Hill for Georgi's health; there daughter Nancy was born and Stanio set up a shoe shop/factory. In 1945, Georgi died and by 1950 Stanio and Nancy had moved to Adelaide where he again opened a shoemaking business and shop. He passed away in 1978, having been in the shoemaking business for 59 years. This collection documents his migration and working life experiences.

Physical Description

Created from the Sanitarium Skippy Cornflakes cardboard box this softened rectangular pattern illustrates a foot shape surrounded by other material. The pencilled central foot shape has cursive inscription "N=1" on the left side, while the right has the letter "R" with an arrow. At the pattern's bottom two penned continuous lines (the right line also has a dashed line atop) form a triangle with the base. In the left side portion the word "KAT-OF" is written and in the right portion, at 5mm off the cardboard's edge a band of approximately 1.5 cm of vertical lines that have been cut through the cardboard begins to replicate and follow the cardboards edge. Only 14 (10 within the triangle) lines appear in the bands lower portion, but the band lines continue up the pattern's right side and this line cutting resumes at the two-third up point, where 23 incised lines are created. At the top left edge, 13 evenly spaced dots cover a space of 7cm and then turn at right angle and further spaced at approximately 2.5cm the dots flow down the patterns left side. On the reverse side, are two arrows plus the word 'yepbyim' written in pencil atop of the Sanitarium Skippy Corn Flakes, Brave Breeds competition advertisement.

Significance

This collection is significant in documenting a small migrant business as well as the fashion of a particular period. It is well provenanced and charts the application of trade skills in a new country. It also illustrates the stages of hand shoe manufacture from the 1930s, demonstrating the enduring nature of the tools and patterns that were used.

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