Art News

Exhibit at Bata Shoe Museum Lifts the Skirts on Feminine Footwear

Slap-sole shoes, probably mid-17th century Italian, are seen on display in the "On a Pedestal: From Renaissance Chopines to Baroque Heels" exhibition at the Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto. -  REUTERS/Mark Blinch.

TORONTO (REUTERS).- Centuries before Sarah Palin and Michelle
Obama were sized up over their shoes women’s feet had been a platform for
showing off their economic and political status. A new exhibit of more than 60
pairs of rare platform and high heel shoes shows how extreme and impractical
footwear became a fashionable symbol of social standing in the 16th and 17th
centuries. The exhibit, “On a Pedestal: From Renaissance Chopines to Baroque
Heels”, includes footwear on loan from 11 international
museums. The exhibition remains open until September 20,
2010.