VOGUE: THE SHOE A Love Story
As we launch the book Vogue: The Shoe, with an exhibition, author Harriet Quick weighs in on our enduring love affair with the shoe.
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As we launch the book Vogue: The Shoe, with an exhibition, author Harriet Quick weighs in on our enduring love affair with the shoe.
It was a complete eye – opener to write and edit Vogue: The Shoe and it was revelatory to see how complicit the dialogue is between women and shoes. I edited a century of imagery from fashion’s greatest lens men including Norman Parkinson, Mario Testino, David Bailey, Bruce Weber, Corinne Day and Nick Knight. The thrill was to discover the genres of shoes that perpetuate through vast swings in fashion, society and via the changing role and ambitions of women.
Whether it is as a Louis heel shot by de Meyer (1920) when rising skirt lengths first allowed a show off shoe, or a strappy tasselled style designed by Yves Saint Laurent and imaged by Guy Bourdin (1977) on a trio of beauties on the Hôtel de Crillon terrace in a psychosexual drama, a geisha wedge by Mrs. Prada (2013); Celine’s perverse fur lined mule (2010) or an imaginary princess shoe illustrated by Manolo Blahnik that adorns the cover – shoes speak volumes.
I wanted the chapters to capture those over-riding memes. From the wishing and dream fulfilment of Cinderella shoes (sparkly, transformative and fairy tale like); to the empowerment of city heels in Town & Country; to the ethnic and street influence in Cult Style – a chapter that embraces clogs, Doc Martens, grunge converse and more.
Collective escapism can be seen in the sun-drenched locales and footloose spirit in ‘Summer Dreaming,’ while our peccadillos and taste for extremism are fired up in ‘Fetish & Fantasia.’ “How expressive of character footwear is,” wrote Vogue in 1920. Surveying the current spring outpouring, from tropical fancies to demure kitten heels and the reprise of the cowboy boot – shoes remain a cipher of our times and one of the most blessed indulgences known to womankind.
Discover the incredible visual stories by Vogue’s most renowned photographers at the Vogue: the shoe Exhibition at Lane Crawford ifc mall from February 21 to March 12, 2017.
