Last week my sister and I went on a day trip to Paris, the perfect way to chase away the winter blues! We managed to fit a a lot into one day, including lunch, a visit to Notre Dame and a spot of shopping. We also managed to see a wonderful shoe exhibition at the Musee des Arts Decoratifs, next to the Louvre. We both love shoes and so it seemed the perfect thing to do before lunch.The exhibition, called Marche et Demarche, explores the relationship between fashion and the body and looks into the cultural significance of the shoe as well as its essentiality in our everyday lives, from the Middle Ages to the present day.
Before the industrial production of shoes began in the second half of the 19th century, people were divided by what they wore on their feet. Peasants and workers wore heavy clogs whilst the privileged classes wore beautiful hand-cut creations of silk or fine leather. We marvel at the tiny size of these beautiful silk creations, but the aristocratic women did very little walking and so they were able to squeeze their feet into these tiny creations without worry of having to actually go anywhere.
Platforms came into fashion in the 1930s where the soles were often made of cork or wood. This elevated the wearer but made it very difficult to walk. The style carried on into the 1970s where amazing colour combinations were used, like this fabulous orange and blue pair.
African, Asian and American shoes are massively diverse but also have many common traits. Most are adapted to rural life as well as the climate and terrain and are primarily made for walking in. The sandal with the turned up toe was designed to limit sand from getting into the shoe. But embroidery, beading and leather decorations show that these were not just utilitarian objects. Certain motifs can show the wearers ethnicity or social standing and it also shows that everyday shoes can also be elegant.
Boots can be very practical for colder environments. I loved the colourful embroidery of the boots on the left, and the boots on the right are Japanese and are made from rice straw which makes them light and flexible for walking through the snowy forests of Japan. Even without lining they are waterproof as the hard snow fills any small holes in the woven straw.
In China, the tradition of binding women's feet dates back to the 11th century. It was initially reserved for aristocratic women but became more common by the 18th century. The prefect size for an adult woman's foot should not have exceeded 10cm and after two years of binding the feet, the foot resembled an un-opened lotus flower. From the side, you can see how small the shoes were and from above, you can see the size of it compared to an outline of a normal shoe size.
Throughout history, it seems that many shoes designed for women were created to cause pain and affect the way that they walked. In Japan, geta were worn. They were a form of raised wooden clog held on with a flip flop-type thong. These ones on the left were taken to an extreme and worn by geishas for ceremonial occasions. The wearer had to walk with very slow steps and created a figure of eight with each step. The shoes on the right are Chinese and were also elevated. These were created to make the wearer walk with little jumping steps.
Stilletos were first introduced by Andre Perugia in the 1950s, on the left. The thin heel sculpts and lengthens the legs as well as causing the hips to sway while walking. The shoe on the right takes things to extremes.
The connection between feet and eroticism means that shoe design has been influenced by this. Shoes that impede movement or accentuate parts of the body in walking in them become erotic. These crazy shoes below play with heel heights, taking them to extremes.
The technological progress in the post-war period meant that designers could experiment with new materials for shoes. The shoes on the right are bouncy and allow the feet as much natural movement as possible, whilst also working as a shock absorber.
Nature often inspires fashion and these shoes illustrate that to an extreme. Iris Schieferestein creates rather disturbing pieces from roadkill or skins she collects at slaughterhouses.
The main thing I took away from this exhibition was that I love shoes in all forms! But it did also make me realise how many shoes have been designed to impede women in many ways. Whilst men have definitely had a share of uncomfortable shoes (winkle pickers for example) it doesn't begin to compare to what women have endured. One of the items that did make me laugh though, were these bedazzled buckles that were titled 'Bulging Buckles'! Apparently, in the 1730s, men stopped wearing heels but replaced that trend with wearing giant buckles on the front of the shoe instead. The buckles got so large and heavy that they often hung off the side, dragging on the floor, and causing injury if they banged onto the ankles. This caused the men to have to walk with their legs far apart!
This intriguing exhibition is on until the 22nd March.
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