It’s Carrie Bradshaw’s dream come true: an entire museum exhibit dedicated to shoes. And not just any shoes, but stilettos, platforms and all kinds of sky-high, fabulous footwear.
Opening Wednesday, the Brooklyn Museum’s “Killer Heels” is a heady walk through history. Curator Lisa Small and her staff lassoed more than 160 objects of desire, both historic and contemporary. And while many of the designers’ names are familiar — Blahnik, Céline, Chanel, Dior, Fendi, Ferragamo — there are also shoes fashioned by architects, like the 12-inch-high leather booties Rem D. Koolhaas made for Lady Gaga.
Among Small’s favorites are the pair of plain black stilettos that belonged to Marilyn Monroe, a fervent Ferragamo fan: She owned more than 40 pairs. Those shoes arrived last week from Florence, on loan from the Ferragamo museum.
“They’re black stiletto pumps, very clean, very streamlined,” Small says. “They were Marilyn’s shoes! We had a moment unwrapping them.”
Also in the show: photos, period furnishings and six short commissioned films, all inspired by high heels. Here are some highlights.
Italian Chopines 1550
Photo: Lea Ingold and Lolly Koon
These velvet and lace shoes weren’t meant to protect anyone from Venice’s watery streets, Small says. Rather, they were like “fancy undergarments that showed how wealthy you were” — since they raised you up, requiring lengthier, pricier gowns. Prints show courtesans pulling up their skirts to display the shoes, but upper-class women likely kept theirs under wraps.
Ferragamo platforms 1938
These have been called the “Over the Rainbow” shoes. Though they were designed a year before “The Wizard of Oz” came out, Small says, Ferragamo was influenced by the costumes and colors of American musicals. The designer reportedly gave a pair to Judy Garland, though Small has yet to find a photo of her wearing them.
Casuccio e Scalera per Loris Azzaro sandal 1974
The platform shoe first surfaced some 2,000 years ago, fading in and out of fashion ever since. This sequined beauty dates back from the disco era — a time, Small says, when even men embraced that form of elevation. This woman’s sandal has a plain white leather top: “All the excitement’s in the sole and heel.”
Louboutin’s “Déjà Vu” 2011
Photo: Jay Zukerkorn
“This is in the section I called ‘Metamorphosis’ — shoes that suggest they’re changing into another form,” Small says. “Here, Louboutin takes this iconic slingback and puts something playful and fun on it. I like that he selected googly eyes, because people stare at shoes — and these shoes are looking right back at you!”
United Nude Gaga shoe 2012
Photo: Jay Zukerkorn, PacificCoastNews
For the launch of Lady Gaga Fame — the perfume — the singer asked United Nude to design what Small calls “a really, really high shoe.” The heel is about 12 inches tall; the golden men crawling over it echo the design of the perfume bottle. “I just love it because it crystallizes the notion of high heels as a fetish,” Small says. “These men are literally pressing themselves against this shoe.” And yes, Gaga wore them: There’s a photo of her in those sky-high shoes in the museum’s gallery.
Walter Steiger’s “Unicorn Tayss” 2013
Photo: Jay Zukerkorn
“These couldn’t be more ‘killer,’ ” says exhibit curator Lisa Small. “They’re ferocious shoes!” Not only is the pony skin on the pumps dyed in a leopard pattern, but the curve of the heel is meant to evoke a tusk or unicorn horn, while the platforms suggest hooves.
Source NYPost by Barbara Hoffman
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