The Bata Shoe Museum

Talk about cool and quirky museums...besides the (now defunct) Museum of Death, the Mustard Museum and the Pez Museum, this one ranks among the top that we've visited!  The Bata Shoe Museum!

(from wikipedia's entry on the Bata Shoe Museum)
"Designed by Raymond Moriyama and completed in 1995, the structure sits on the southwest corner of Bloor and St. George Streets in downtown Toronto. Its form is derived from the idea of the museum as a container. Taking this further and associating it with footwear, Moriyama stated that the building is meant to evoke an opening shoe box..."

Here's a cool factoid about this museum...

"The Bata Shoe Museum was featured in an episode of The Amazing Race: Family Edition, for which the contestants were in Toronto. Teams had to choose a pair of shoes, and find the woman who fit the selected pair amongst 100 candidates."

I've never seen an episode of "The Amazing Race".  Did anyone watch that episode?

(continued from wikipedia...)

"The collection which became the Bata Shoe Museum originated with Sonja Bata in the 1940s. As she travelled the world on business with her husband, Thomas J. Bata of the Bata Shoe Company, she gradually built up a collection of traditional footwear from the areas she was visiting. These artifacts were the beginning of an unparalleled collection which would eventually be housed in an internationally acclaimed museum"

Although the Museum was founded in 1979, it operated out of previous other buildings before opening at this location in 1995.

This looked like a cool exhibit...

(from Wikipedia)
"The museum usually houses four exhibitions, one semi-permanent and three time-limited and changing. The semi-permanent exhibition, All About Shoes: Footwear Through the Ages, features diverse footwear from many historical periods and geographic areas, and looks at its significance in various cultural practices and phases of life. The three changing exhibitions are usually on display for one to two years, and may focus on a specific time period, cultural group, geographic area, or an aspect of material culture. The footwear on display, often remarkable for its construction and/or embellishment, also acts as a key to understanding its times, and illustrates social and cultural developments"

Below are the current exhibitions at the Bata...The one in the lower left corner was under construction.

This was an exhibit that had footwear of the 20th century arranged by decades. This was the 1950's orange heels and featured the workmanship of Roger Vivier, a French fashion designer credited with developing the stiletto heel in 1954. The heels were so thin and to give it support, a steel shaft was put in the heel. My mom used to wear pointy toed stilettos in the late 50's/early 60's. Vivier's shoes were compared to works of art. He even designed shoes for Queen Elizabeth II's coronation but for some reason, I can't imagine her in stiletto heels!

There's British model Twiggy (waify precursor to the skeletal Kate Moss and her ilk in the heroin chic happy 90's) in the 1960's section...

Another part of the museum had shoes mentioned in stories and literature. This glass slipper is from Cinderella.

This ominious looking iron anklet was worn by prisoners..

Back to the shoes of each decade exhibit...these heels symbolized the 90's and are by Manolo Blahnik, made famous by the actresses of "Sex and the City". This pair didn't really do it for me though. Not into gold or criss cross straps. He does make some sexalicious fk me shoes though. Hey, where's the Jimmy Choo's?

The museum had four stories with many fascinating exhibits on each floor...One thing I liked was the staircase. Well, not the staircase itself but these glass cases alongside the staircase which held various shoe-related memorabilia. Many of them were from all over the world and depicted shoes on chinaware, mini sculptures and such. The shoe theme was everywhere. Even the benches where you could sit were shaped like shoe soles!

One of the upper floors had shoes worn by famous people. This pair used to belong to crooner Michael Buble (a Canadian).

This was a pair of Nike tennis shoes worn by Roger Federer during one of the French Opens (the soles had red clay stains). Bert got all excited for this one.

Glow in the dark foot steps...

Platform boots worn by Emma Bunton, aka "Baby Spice"...

Can you guess who these belonged to?    

Flamboyant singer/musician Elton John!

This is a pair of size 20 basketball shoes which belonged to Shaquille O'Neal. He was still a rookie and his feet were still growing at the time. He now wears a size 23 triple EEE or something outrageous like that. I wear a women's size 8. My feet would totally drown in these!

I thought this was funny - a pair of Hush Puppy loafers worn by Canuck actor, Mike Meyers in his role as "Dr. Evil" in the Austin Powers movies.

I just realized this is out of order, but this should have gone in the 1960's shoes section of my post. The pair on the left are known as Winklepickers and were worn by British rock and roll fans (male and female). These were the precursor to the Mods. On the other hand, Teddy Boys (the tough rocker look) in the UK wore Creepers (this style was revived in the mid 80's when British bands like the Cure and the Smiths were popular, not just among goths but with rockabilly and ska fans as well). The shoe on the right are men's platform shoes. I remember my dad had  a pair in the 70's (what short Filipino dad didn't? Ha ha) and us kids were soooo embarassed by it. Bert has an old pair of his dad's that he's saving to wear for a costume one day.

Oooh, I love these 60's mod shoes. Since women's dress hemlines went up, shoes lost their higher heel and became lower heeled or flats with really cool ornamentation as well as wilder colors!

On the same floor as the Elton John platforms, there was a glass covered display (along with an accompanying short film) of more famous shoes worn by celebrities. These  are Elvis's shoes! I was expecting blue suede.

I thought these were cool - Pablo Picasso's zebra striped chukka boots! He was stylin' guy!

 

In another exhibit (the Socks one), they had various displays about weaving stockings, the process of making socks and other types of foot coverings. These happened to be Napoleon's socks!

These are Queen Victoria's stockings which are woven silk and emblazoned with her monogram. They don't even look worn. I'm sure since she was royalty, she had dozens of pairs of these.

Embroidered stockings became fancier as well, often with designs like flowers and leaves...

Ewww, now here is a sock I wouldn't want to wear. It's made of hair and is a replica of one of the earliest socks worn by man.

One of the most interesting (and sad) exhibits was the one on Chinese foot binding. This is an example of one of the shoes worn by Chinese women with "Lotus Feet". This practice went on for centuries and ended only early in the 20th century. The practice of foot binding greatly deformed the feet of young girls (breaking their arch) and restricting their movement.  Toes were curled under and bound tighly with bandages. This began when girls were as young as three years old. They would suffer from problems like infection, dead flesh falling off, septic shock, falling from imbalance, and foul odors from their feet.

These were saddle shoes which were popular in the late 40's and 50's. They were often worn with thick woolen "bobby sox".

One of the "Chopines" worn during the Renaissance...These were a type of platform footwear worn during the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries. The original purpose was to elevate the wearer above mud and dirt. It was worn mostly by the rich and sometimes the heel of the chopine was covered in the same fabric as the wearer's clothing. One of the chopines we saw was more than 2 feet tall! And I thought my 4 1/2 inch heels were high! Dayummm!!!  The increasing height of the chopines also conveyed the status of the wearer. It was a way for rich chicks back then to show off their wealth and power.

Later on, at our hotel, we picked up one of those tourist guides to the city. In the guide was a two for one coupon for the Bata. Obviously, it was too late for us to use though.  Anyhow...on to the University of Toronto!