February 11 th 2020 we were lucky enough to be invited to a private view of the shoe exhibition within the Musee Des Arts Decoratifs Loure Paris. This unique, prestigious space, dominated by its 18 meter high vault is the museums central emblematic space. the galleries on either side of the nave look out onto the Rue de Rivoli and the Carrousel gardens. The three floors of the gallery rising majestically on either side house the Musee des arts decorations permanent collection. When we entered the museum on that frosty February evening, the world had no idea of the curtailment to personal and artistic movement that was about about to descend.
Throughout history the shoe has existed in a dizzying diversity of shapes materials and sizes. In western society and elsewhere around the world, from the middle ages up until present day, men’s, women’s and children’s shoes all share one primary purpose, to protect the foot from the ground and weather.
Christian Louboutin, En Pointe Pumps 2007 Met Museum NY
This piece of clothing, intrinsic to a persons ease of mobility over terrain, is not always created with the intention of walking. Many shoes are too delicate, too small, too fragile or just too uncomfortable. Shoes can reveal the wearers mood, through the choice of a certain colour or shape, but more often than not they are a mark of social class, wealth and position.
Marie Antoinette 1792 silk, leather and wood shoe.
The Paris exhibition came about after the study of one small shoe in the museums own collection, dating from 1792, measuring just 21 centimetres long and 5 centimetres in width and belonging to Marie Antoinette. The research revealed that the aristocratic women of the “Haute bourgeoisie’ during the 18th and 19th century walked very little, their restricted mobility was such that their shoes were not really meant for walking very far if at all.
Chopines Venice Italy 1600’s V&A collection London
Fantastic footwear is often shaped by social convention, and the Chopine is no exception. Almost 500 years ago, these platform shoes, some shapes like contemporary skyscrapers were designed to display familial wealth. These Chopines had developed from ancient platform styles, worn from the 6th century BCE. Platforms have had a very long tradition in European fashion right through to the 17th century. Then they faded from fashion and it wasn’t until the 20th century when Salvatore Ferragamo amongst others reintroduced them in his shoe collections during the 1930s that the platform shoe came back into fashion.
Chopines Venice 1600’s, white calf leather and wood.
The daughters and wives of Venetian nobility were put out like gilded parade floats, mounted upon very high Chopines, dressed in sumptuous silks and furs, their job was to convey the wealth of their families as well was the larger affluence of Venice. They could only to walk very slowly and would require the aid of two servants to navigate whatever space they were moving though.
Sometimes hoes can turn out to be a fatal scourge, they are that knife edge walk between pleasure and pain, fetishists and makers, They are the place where our bodies connect to the earth. In the award winning 1948 British film ‘The Red Shoes” staring Moira Lister by Powell and Pressburger, the central character Victoria Page wears crimson red ballet slippers which at first bring her fulfilment, but which later turn out to be a fatal scourge, dying for her art.
Red Ballet shoes 1948 by Freed London, courtesy Northampton Museum UK
Original flyer for the 1948 film
Some shoes become iconic, associated with journeys, expeditions, exploration, famous people and personalities. They become obsessions for some, Imelda Marcos amassed a collection of over 3000 pairs of size 8.5 shoes, most with a very sensible low heel, it earned her the sobriquet “Marie Antoinette with shoes”.
The Carrie Bradshaw character in the New York based tv show “Sex In The City’ was mugged for her coveted Manolo Blahniks, her characters passion for shoes was such that she could only afford to purchase her apartment after selling her 100 pairs collection of shoes for a $40,000 deposit.
Apollo II Moon walk boot NASA ILC industries Delaware USA
The Tramp, Charlie Chaplin Boot 1915
Shoe Lasts, Ferragamo Italy
Horse Shoe’s, Berlin 2006 Iris Schieferstein