Shoe of the Month-Shoe Stories

Shoe Stories

Our shoes are very personal to us. Not only do we shape them by wearing them. But shoes also shape us and how we feel in them. Shoes can also tell stories about what we have done and where we have been. We keep them as reminders of certain moments in our lives.

When people donate shoes to the collection we are always interested in their personal stories and memories. Here is Irene’s story about her amazing shoes by designer Terry de Havilland.

‘These are my Boing Boing shoes! One day we were passing the Terry de Havilland boutique. The Zebedee shoes were in the window and I could not take my eyes off them! It was not just because they were fantastically unusual, but they were also so elegant, beautifully made and – most importantly – wearable. I knew instinctively that they were very special and I just had to have them!’

Boing Boing Shoes

 

Shoe of the Month-Red is a Powerful Colour

Red is a powerful colour

In the month we celebrate Valentine’s day we may not this year have the opportunity to doll up and dine out, but we can still dress up at home, perhaps in these Robert Clergerie designed velvet peep toe court shoes from about 1995. 

Red has always been a significant and powerful colour, in part down to the expense involved in obtaining the natural red dye derived from cochineal scale insets found in South America

Red is often been associated with love and passion but has also been worn to convey contrasting messages at different times and in different cultures. Red shoes were the prerogative of Roman senators and later the Emperor King Louis XIV of France adopted red as the colour of nobility. He covered his wooden heels in red leather to indicate status and wealth. In China, red bridal shoes are thrown on the roof of the newly married couple’s home to ensure happiness and a long marriage.

Contemporary examples include Dorothy’s ruby slippers in The Wizard of Oz, which were essential for her to fly home to Kansas and the demonic red ballet shoes that lead Vicky the main character in The Red Shoes, to her death.

Red Shoes