Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Day at the Museum: Northampton Museum & Art Gallery (Shoe Collection)

Recently (less than a week ago), I took a day trip (with a friend of mine) to Northampton. Since we had time, we decided to visit the museum with a huge shoe collection!

Here are a few highlights...

Black and white syntetic platform sandal
Cypriana shoes, London 1980 - 1983
Made for 'glamour' market

Women's white plastic flip-flop
'Fruit Flops'
c. 1990
  
Bound foot shoes made around 1900 in China. Imagine trying to squeeze into those (it's like the size of the modern day few month old baby shoes)! 

 Bound foot shoes, in a Western style.

The Dragon Shoe by Thea Cadabra 

What a beauty! A drawer fill of heels! 

Red leather heels with a brass cage heel. 

A display full of old lasts.

A shoe 'fetish'?

That infamous platform (design) which made Naomi Campbell trip over on the catwalk (for Vivienne Westwood. Note: The original shoe was blue)

Shoe for an elephant!

 I tried on these pair of shoes and I must say, they were too big and heavy! Can you see the little fish inside the heel?

 Another part of the room which displayed how 'criminal' shoes can be (or how much criminal evidence the authorities can obtain from just shoes).

James Bond (007) (Roger Moore) weapon (see that little knife?)!

 Extracted footprints from the crime scene.


Never thought there would be evidence of some crime just by looking at a pair of shoes
hung over the telephone line...

I must say, the visit to the museum was educational and worth a visit (plus it is free to enter)! Though the museum is small, the massive amount of shoes (only around 1,000 displayed at the rest of the 12,000 shoes are impossible to display) is enough to keep anyone occupied.




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