There’s so much more to shoes than simply protecting our feet. And museums have begun to cater for the public’s obsession with footwear, which often transcends any thought of practicality, by putting on exhibitions dedicated to shoes.
There are three big shows on the subject in London this summer. Shoes: Pleasure and Pain at the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) is on until 31 January 2016. Rayne: Shoes for Stars at the Fashion and Textile Museum finishes on 30 August. And Life on Foot at the Design Museum is on until 1 November.
The interest people have in shoes can be partly attributed to a fascination with celebrity culture, including iconic television shows such as Sex in the City, which firmly planted Manolo Blahnik high heels into “everyone’s living room”, says Helen Persson, the curator of Shoes: Pleasure and Pain.
But the belief that shoes serve a grander purpose rather than simply being functional dates back 2000 years. An Indian wedding toe-knob shoe made of wood and covered in gold and silver, a pair of men’s shoes made from gilded and marbled leather, and “parakeets” that incorporate long blue tail feathers are among the standout items in the V&A’s collection.
Despite the popularity of fashion exhibitions, the V&A has not put on a show dedicated to shoes since 1987.
This, Persson speculates, could be because shoes are such a “nightmare to display”. One of the ways the V&A has tried to ensure its exhibition does not resemble a shop floor is to present the shoes by theme rather than by date.
The transformative quality of shoes is addressed through cultural interpretations of Cinderella.
Shoes’ ability to signify status by affecting how the wearer sounds and looks is illustrated both by a pair of blue Vivienne Westwood platforms worn by model Naomi Campbell in 1993 and by noisy slap-soles worn in Europe during the 17th century.
As well as giving more sober insights into the design process, craftsmanship and technological innovation, the show explores how shoes may express sexual empowerment or become objects of fetishism.
New technologies are also influencing the ways in which museums can present shoe collections.
For instance, the Northampton Museum and Art Gallery, home to the largest shoe heritage collection in the world, is increasing the accessibility of its items by creating a digital archive of 13,000 pairs of shoes.
The museum has also created an app that allows users to explore how shoes are used symbolically throughout one’s lifetime, including birth, coming of age, marriage and death. The app also looks at how footwear is influenced by geography, climate, cultural identity, religion and status.
Shoe exhibitions can generate sponsorship. British footwear manufacturer Clarks, as the headline sponsor of the V&A’s exhibition, is working with the museum to develop an exclusive product range inspired by its collections.
In some cases the brand is the central focus, as with Camper, the Spanish firm at the heart of the Life on Foot exhibition. This draws on the company’s archives and explores the manufacture of its shoes from its design studios in Majorca to its mass production operations in the far east.
Nina Due, the head of exhibitions at the Design Museum, acknowledges the challenges that arise when such a brand is not only the sponsor but the subject of an exhibition.
“As a design museum, we are between arts and commerce, and we will always be about brands,” she says.
“So we guess we have that authority to work with partners without it looking like product placement. But as a museum it is still our duty of care culturally to be challenged as to how we then position that brand.”
It is easy to dismiss a pair of decorative shoes as frivolous. Yet shoes are an artform – one that speaks volumes about the complexities of human nature, the function of big business and the ingenuity of design.
Nina Due, the head of exhibitions at the Design Museum, says: “We commissioned Universal Design Studio to design the exhibition.
It came up with the use of materials in new and interesting ways, including black rubber, which is a nod to how the first Camper shoe came about. Back in 1975, Camper shoes were made out of recycled rubber and featured Mediterranean colours.
“If you have a product that everyone is used to seeing in a commercial environment, you need to make sure you show different things about it and create a gallery experience rather than a retail one.”
There are three big shows on the subject in London this summer. Shoes: Pleasure and Pain at the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) is on until 31 January 2016. Rayne: Shoes for Stars at the Fashion and Textile Museum finishes on 30 August. And Life on Foot at the Design Museum is on until 1 November.
The interest people have in shoes can be partly attributed to a fascination with celebrity culture, including iconic television shows such as Sex in the City, which firmly planted Manolo Blahnik high heels into “everyone’s living room”, says Helen Persson, the curator of Shoes: Pleasure and Pain.
But the belief that shoes serve a grander purpose rather than simply being functional dates back 2000 years. An Indian wedding toe-knob shoe made of wood and covered in gold and silver, a pair of men’s shoes made from gilded and marbled leather, and “parakeets” that incorporate long blue tail feathers are among the standout items in the V&A’s collection.
Despite the popularity of fashion exhibitions, the V&A has not put on a show dedicated to shoes since 1987.
This, Persson speculates, could be because shoes are such a “nightmare to display”. One of the ways the V&A has tried to ensure its exhibition does not resemble a shop floor is to present the shoes by theme rather than by date.
The transformative quality of shoes is addressed through cultural interpretations of Cinderella.
Shoes’ ability to signify status by affecting how the wearer sounds and looks is illustrated both by a pair of blue Vivienne Westwood platforms worn by model Naomi Campbell in 1993 and by noisy slap-soles worn in Europe during the 17th century.
As well as giving more sober insights into the design process, craftsmanship and technological innovation, the show explores how shoes may express sexual empowerment or become objects of fetishism.
New technologies are also influencing the ways in which museums can present shoe collections.
For instance, the Northampton Museum and Art Gallery, home to the largest shoe heritage collection in the world, is increasing the accessibility of its items by creating a digital archive of 13,000 pairs of shoes.
The museum has also created an app that allows users to explore how shoes are used symbolically throughout one’s lifetime, including birth, coming of age, marriage and death. The app also looks at how footwear is influenced by geography, climate, cultural identity, religion and status.
Shoe exhibitions can generate sponsorship. British footwear manufacturer Clarks, as the headline sponsor of the V&A’s exhibition, is working with the museum to develop an exclusive product range inspired by its collections.
In some cases the brand is the central focus, as with Camper, the Spanish firm at the heart of the Life on Foot exhibition. This draws on the company’s archives and explores the manufacture of its shoes from its design studios in Majorca to its mass production operations in the far east.
Nina Due, the head of exhibitions at the Design Museum, acknowledges the challenges that arise when such a brand is not only the sponsor but the subject of an exhibition.
“As a design museum, we are between arts and commerce, and we will always be about brands,” she says.
“So we guess we have that authority to work with partners without it looking like product placement. But as a museum it is still our duty of care culturally to be challenged as to how we then position that brand.”
It is easy to dismiss a pair of decorative shoes as frivolous. Yet shoes are an artform – one that speaks volumes about the complexities of human nature, the function of big business and the ingenuity of design.
How the Life on Foot exhibition was developed
Nina Due, the head of exhibitions at the Design Museum, says: “We commissioned Universal Design Studio to design the exhibition.
It came up with the use of materials in new and interesting ways, including black rubber, which is a nod to how the first Camper shoe came about. Back in 1975, Camper shoes were made out of recycled rubber and featured Mediterranean colours.
“If you have a product that everyone is used to seeing in a commercial environment, you need to make sure you show different things about it and create a gallery experience rather than a retail one.”
