This Friday, the Museum at New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology will open Shoe Obsession, an exhibit that explores shoes’ phenomenal effect on culture and design. “The average American woman has almost two times as many shoes as she did 10 years ago, and the heels of shoes have almost doubled in height as well,” the exhibit’s co-curator Valerie Steele told The Daily Beast. Encompassing more than 150 pairs of shoes from an array of designers that are both established (Givenchy, Ferragamo) and on-the-cusp (Aperlaï, Charlotte Olympia), the exhibit examines footwear’s evolution into the extreme. Says Steele: “They are almost like little works of sculpture and art.”
Shoe Obsession will run from February 8 through April 13 at the Museum at FIT.
—Misty White Sidell
The Museum at FIT
Azzedine Alaïa, 2011
From the collection of Lynn Ban
Christian Louboutin
Pigalle pumps, Fall 2012
Givenchy Haute Couture by Riccardo Tisci
Spring 2012
Iris van Herpen
X United Nude, 2010
Prada
Spring 2012
From the collection of Lynn Ban
Giuseppe Zanotti, 2012
From the collection of Lynn Ban
Roger Vivier (Bruno Frisoni)
Eyelash Heel pumps, Fall 2012–2013
Rendez-Vous (Limited Edition Collection)
Conspiracy by Gianluca Tamburini
Poisonneuse sandals, 2012
Peridot and amethyst gems, aluminum
Charlotte Olympia
Kiss Me Delores pumps, 2012
From the private collection of designer Yliana Yepez
Alexander McQueen
Spring 2010
From the collection of Daphne Guinness
Christian Louboutin
Fetish Ballerine, 2007
Masaya Kushino
Lung-ta [The Wind Horse] shoes, 2008
White leather, human hair, Leavers lace, lacquered Japanese cypress wood
Nicholas Kirkwood
Fall 2011
Nicholas Kirkwood x Keith Haring
Fall 2012
From the collection of Lynn Ban
Pierre Hardy
Fall 2010
Tom Ford
Spring 2012
Salvatore Ferragamo
Glam collection, Fall 2006
Alexandre Birman
Resort 2013
Andreia Chaves
Invisible shoes, 2011
Gucci
Spring 2010
From the collection of the Baroness Monica von Neumann
Aperlaï (Alessandra Lanvin)
Fall 2011
Noritaka Tatehana
Lady Pointe shoes (designed for Lady Gaga), 2012
Chanel, 2009
From the collection of Lynn Ban
