Thursday 1 October 2015

Shiny, shiny, shiny boots of leather

In a room with dark walls and long, purple, velvet curtains, the high chandeliers emitting only the dimmest glow from above, I was a voyeur. It was warm, and in the background slow, hypnotic music played, as I peered at the objects of desire in all their leather, fur, jewels, ribbons and buckles... out of reach... untouchable. Sex, seduction, submission and power were recurring themes throughout. Pleasure and pain.

Shoes!

Not just any old shoes. Well, some old shoes, yes.... shoes that were centuries old... others which looked like cars (complete with tail-lights, the Pradas worn by Kylie), fairytale slippers (including Cinderella's glass Swarovski one created for the recent Disney film) and tiny, tiny Chinese shoes to fit women's feet that had been bound so as not to exceed the “ideal” length of 7cm. 7 cm! 

(I did feel slightly sick at this thought.)
(I still feel slightly sick.)

The lovely V&A, one of my favourite places in London, is hosting a fascinating exhibition – Shoes: Pleasure and Pain. I'm sure I wasn't alone in wanting to visualise the original wearer of the knee-high red leather boots, with 40 pairs of lace holes threaded with gold braid, lined in silk, so curvily shaped to emphasise her slim ankles and sensual calves. She would have been wearing them nearly a hundred years ago.

Other pictures formed in my head on seeing the Christian Louboutin/David Lynch collaboration, the ultimate in fetish shoes. Like ballet pumps with heels which bent round so they were parallel to the base of the shoe, these were made to be...

impossible to walk in, so that

     the wearer of them

          can only

               crawl.

And they were designed to be viewed from behind too.... their soles are completely transparent.

A picture is forming in your head as well, isn't it? It's difficult for it not to, I know.

Men's shoes too: I wouldn't want anyone to think this was a show that could only interest women. Glorious 1950s winkle-pickers with impossibly pointed toes, biker style boots with straps and buckles (which I noted were from Shelly's... a place much frequented by my friends and me in the '80s).  High-heeled and fancily decorated in beads and studs were the boots worn by those most rugged and macho of men: cowboys. Glam rock platform boots and jewel-encrusted mojaris worn by Indian royalty 200 years ago defied gender stereotypes too. If you've any interest in history, design and society, you can learn a huge amount just from looking at shoes through the ages and, like so many things, they're a reminder that much of what we think of as 'modern' has been done before - long before.

I knew I'd be on foot most of the day, and have to jump onto tube trains and walk down busy streets, so I wore some comfortably worn-in zipped ankle boots. The chunky heels are wearing down and the toes are square. But it was obvious from the display I saw that, throughout history, the most significant and desirable footwear is, of course, not actually meant to be walked in.


12 comments:

  1. My daughter and I also visited this exhibition on the same day as the Alexander McQueen one, both were wonderful. I too wore comfy shoes knowing that I would be on my feet all day, my daughter made no such concession, sporting high heeled pink platforms to go with the Japanese Lolita look, I spent all day stepping aside as tourists took pictures of her....

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    1. Ah, young and daft, eh... perhaps your daughter's footwear will be in a future display some day too?!
      It's a great exhibition, isn't it? We were hoping to do the Geffrye Museum the same day but sadly ran out of time.

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    2. I love the Geffrye Museum, I used to live just up the road though it's a lot more sophisticated now. The last time I went was a couple of years ago and I would highly recommend that as all the " rooms" have the appropriate Christmas theme. Then a visit to the Dennis Severs House silent Christmas tour, you need to book early for that though as it sells out very quickly, you would absolutely love it I'm sure.

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    3. Thank you - that's a great recommendation, sounds brilliant!

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  2. I love the V & A too, C and miss England ALL the time! I visited the Museum when they presented the display devoted to The Supremes a few years ago. If only I could visit the exhibition that you've so evocatively written about. If you ever land in Toronto (though I'm not sure why you'd ever want to do so), consider dropping in to The Bata Shoe Museum (in the same general area as The Royal Ontario Museum [lots of dinos] and The Art Gallery of Ontario.)

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    1. Great that you love the V&A too - they do things really well there, don't they, and yes I'm sure you'd have loved this one too. Some of the exhibits were on loan from the Bata, by the way. I like the sound of the dinos and the art gallery too, thanks... so if I ever get to Toronto...

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  3. Shoes that are not meant to be walked in? I can believe it: humans are strange creatures but what would we do without them? I note no mention of any footwear from my own collection - beat-up daps, steel-toe capped work boots or mud splattered trainers. Our time will come.

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    1. You realise how strange we are - and always have been - when you see that strangeness condensed into an exhibition like this, I think. There were practical shoes there too, and some that were wonderfully thought out, like shoes elevated above iron rings so the soles wouldn't drag in the muddy roads, etc. - but what was more evident was the importance placed on shoes as symbols of status. The wealthier and more powerful you are, the less you have to walk and do things for yourself; some of the shoes from ancient times (if memory serves me right, for example the very high ones worn by wealthy Manchu ladies) were so impractical that the women wearing them would need to hold onto their maids to help them get around.

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    2. Sounds truly fascinating. Must call the butler!

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    3. Yes, I learned a lot... I could write an essay... if only History had been taught like that at school!
      Not surprisingly most of my shoes and boots are very practical too... but I still hanker for the odd exception!

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  4. I'm sure you're aware of it by now, but just in case, did you notice that there's a Lianne La Havas documentary about this very exhibit on the iPlayer? You've got me intrigued - I'm going to check it out.

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    1. Oh no I wasn't aware - but that's brilliant, many thanks! I must check that out tomorrow.

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