Speaking of Shoes…
March 17, 2012
I have fantasies about visiting this place with Alice and a pack of friends. Toronto, anyone?
The museum has a collection of over 10,000 shoes. Hundreds are on exhibit in four galleries. Current exhibits are:
The Roaring Twenties: Heels, Hemlines and High Spirits
Beauty, Identity, Pride: Native North American Footwear
All about Shoes: Footwear through the Ages
Here are some past exhibits, including a fascinating piece on Our Boots: An Inuit Woman’s Art. Another online exhibit I liked a lot is called History of the Elevated Foot.
(Click on “Select a Story” on that Past Exhibit page to see the whole list.)
You’ll see truly gorgeous photographs throughout the site. They’re fussy about reproduction so I’ll hold back on sharing their wonderful photographs, even though it’s very, very hard to do so.
There’s also music.
Even podcasts! Lovely photos on the podcast page, too.
Maybe a trip to the Bata Shoe Museum will happen one day. Meanwhile, there’s the Web site.
Enjoy!
P.S. If you know any teachers, there are lots of resources for educators on the site.
March 17, 2012 at 10:14 pm
What a fascinating place! I’d go! I’m not a shoe maven, but, I do love history and cultural studies, and getting to know about people by their shoes seems very fascinating!
Hope you and Alice make it there!
March 18, 2012 at 2:23 am
Wow! I doubt I’ll get to Toronto (though who knows?) but what a fascinating collection! I will look through the links again and pass them on to my eldest daughter who is a shoe-a-holic.
March 19, 2012 at 6:35 am
I have a pair of 1940s reproduction kitten-heel lace up oxfords that I wore when I did my Ten Cents a Dance presentations. They KILLED my feet (nobody makes repro shoes in my size!) but they’re so adorable, I love them anyway. I love perusing the historical shoes. Wonderful sites, thanks for sharing!
March 19, 2012 at 1:53 pm
I remember those shoes from your reading. The whole outfit was inspired. Sorry your tootsies hurt, but you did make quite an impression on your audience.
For readers of this blog: Check out Christine’s book Ten Cents a Dance. This is a link to a local bookstore here in Portland, Broadway Books. They will gladly ship this wonderfully written novel to you. You can also find it at Barnes and Noble and, of course, that Devil in Disguise, Amazon.