From tiny Chinese slippers for women’s bound feet to contemporary-day fetishwear,exhibition looks at how shoes can signify status and transform the wearer Forget the feathered Manolo Blahniks and crystal-studded Jimmy Choos, the red-soled Louboutins and gold-platformed Vivienne Westwoods. The corner of a cabinet that most clearly tells the anecdote of Shoes: Pleasure and Pain, or a new exhibition at the V&A,contains exquisite 19th-century Chinese silk shoes for bound feet which, at just 7.6cm long, and showcase what was then considered the feminine ideal. Next to them are a hulking pair of Adidas basketball boots from the late 1980s; these are closer to the foot size of a small elephant than to a human.
The fact that shoes are often not foot-shaped is at the heart of what this exhibition is about. The cultural significance of shoes is a rich topic,and as a result has become fairly well-worn territory in recently years. The challenge for the V&A is to expend its unrivalled collection to bring something new to the topic. As its title suggests, Pleasure and Pain attempts to bring a fresh angle by dint of a full-frontal view of the perversity and strangeness of our relationship with shoes. Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com