The Fashion Museum Bath has an exhibition, Shoephoria!, which traces the evolution of shoe style over the last 300 years.
I went there today to look at the exhibition. The boots on the photo of the poster I took are 1970s mens ones that apparently were passed around various friends over the decades.
There are 350 pairs of boots and shoes, many drawn from the Fashion Museum’s own collection, alongside ‘star’ shoes borrowed especially for it.
The exhibition includes shoes worn by iconic past figures including actors Noel Coward and Margaret Lockwood, music hall star Fred Kitchen, ballerinas Margot Fonteyn and Alicia Markova, and Nicola Adams' shoes worn inStrictly Come Dancing 2020.
Shoephoria! looks at footwear and its wearers in an exhibition that demonstrates the creativity and style of shoemakers and wearers throughout history.
Here I am outside the museum.
From the oldest shoes in the collection – a pair of red velvet mules from the 1690s – to trainers from the 2000s; from shoes belonging to Queen Mary and Queen Victoria to designer shoes by Vivienne Westwood, Manolo Blahnik and Jimmy Choo,Shoephoria!offers a close-up look at the various styles that make up the history of footwear.
Star shoes in the display include:
Shoes worn by iconic British ballerinas Margot Fonteyn and Alicia Markova
Queen Victoria’s elastic-sided boots from the 1850s, by shoemaker Joseph Box
The oldest shoe in the Museum’s collection: a red velvet mule with gold and silver embroidery ca 1690s
Noel Coward’s monogram-embroidered velvet slippers ca 1967
A pair of long, green Russian boots ca 1900s worn by Lady Ottoline Morrell (1873 -1938), an English aristocrat on the fringes of the Bloomsbury Group
Queen Mary’s diamanté bow shoes ca 1930s, by celebrated British shoemaker Rayne
Do go and visit Shoeporia! at The Fashion Museum Bath. Link HERE for their website.
To shop vintage shoes at Lovely's Vintage Emporium click link HERE
