NEWBLOG - Tiistaina, 23.06.2015 klo 18:19
Throughout time and around the world, shoes have defied, refined and redefined the anatomy of the human body to a greater extent than any other garment or accessory. An expansive new exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum shows the historical development and modern proliferation of footwear with equal attention to sociology and fashion. Ancient and medieval shoes are exhibited together with Manolos and Jimmy Choos, and the future of footwear is explored through thermoplastic knitting and 3D printing.
The backstories for footwear trends – detailed in the V&A’s superb catalogue – provide some context for understanding shoes’ odd shapes. For example, the origin of high heels in European fashion was equestrian: At the end of the 16th century, Shah Abbas I of Persia sought to impress European monarchs with his cavalry, securing alliances to protect his kingdom from the Ottoman Empire. Europeans responded by adapting his soldiers’ heeled riding shoes for everyday wear. Men, women and children donned them, embellished with embroidery and ribbons. Their association with horses forgotten, heeled shoes were free to evolve into brogues and stilettos.
Of course origins alone cannot explain the persistence of heels, let alone their extreme mutation. Another part of the story surely is status: the power of arbitrary distinctions. Red-painted heels were a privilege of courtiers in the France of Louis XIV, and Manolos distinguished Carrie Bradshaw in Sex and the City. Driven by anxiety, status encourages exaggeration.
Yet shoes deserve more credit, as do their creators – both anonymous Medieval craftsmen and celebrity fashion designers. Mutable in the extreme without becoming unwearable, shoes can transform their wearers to an astonishing degree. Actors even use shoes to develop new characters. Charlie Chaplin, for instance, attributed his creation of the Tramp to an oversize pair of boots.
Shoes have personality. Their character extends through the whole body. Footwear design entails more than just human morphology. At its best, it’s a form of psychology.
http://www.queenieaustralia.com/formal-dresses | http://www.queenieaustralia.com/semi-formal-dresses
Shoe Therapy? See How Manolo Blahnik And Jimmy Choo Refashion Freud At This V&A Show
Six centuries before Manolo Blahnik opened his first boutique, anonymous European craftsmen cobbled shoes that make his needle-thin stilettos seem tame. Pointy toes stretching nearly a foot beyond the wearer’s feet were stuffed with moss in order to keep their peculiar leaflike shape. And even the Middle Ages weren’t the beginning. Ancient Greek statues of Aphrodite show her in platform shoes that Lady Gaga might envy.Throughout time and around the world, shoes have defied, refined and redefined the anatomy of the human body to a greater extent than any other garment or accessory. An expansive new exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum shows the historical development and modern proliferation of footwear with equal attention to sociology and fashion. Ancient and medieval shoes are exhibited together with Manolos and Jimmy Choos, and the future of footwear is explored through thermoplastic knitting and 3D printing.
The backstories for footwear trends – detailed in the V&A’s superb catalogue – provide some context for understanding shoes’ odd shapes. For example, the origin of high heels in European fashion was equestrian: At the end of the 16th century, Shah Abbas I of Persia sought to impress European monarchs with his cavalry, securing alliances to protect his kingdom from the Ottoman Empire. Europeans responded by adapting his soldiers’ heeled riding shoes for everyday wear. Men, women and children donned them, embellished with embroidery and ribbons. Their association with horses forgotten, heeled shoes were free to evolve into brogues and stilettos.
Of course origins alone cannot explain the persistence of heels, let alone their extreme mutation. Another part of the story surely is status: the power of arbitrary distinctions. Red-painted heels were a privilege of courtiers in the France of Louis XIV, and Manolos distinguished Carrie Bradshaw in Sex and the City. Driven by anxiety, status encourages exaggeration.
Yet shoes deserve more credit, as do their creators – both anonymous Medieval craftsmen and celebrity fashion designers. Mutable in the extreme without becoming unwearable, shoes can transform their wearers to an astonishing degree. Actors even use shoes to develop new characters. Charlie Chaplin, for instance, attributed his creation of the Tramp to an oversize pair of boots.
Shoes have personality. Their character extends through the whole body. Footwear design entails more than just human morphology. At its best, it’s a form of psychology.
http://www.queenieaustralia.com/formal-dresses | http://www.queenieaustralia.com/semi-formal-dresses
