The Bata Shoe Museum, Toronto
BATA SHOE MUSEUM, TORONTO
"He’s a well-heeled man." That’s a phrase I heard applied to men with money when I was a child. That it actually referred to heels on shoes never occurred to me. During the 1500s in Europe, status was indicated by shoes that were difficult to walk in because of their high heels. With the use of that phrase, our language still recognizes the power of the shoe to show a person has wealth. Since the time of Egyptian royalty, the people with power have worn the best footwear as a mark of their high status. Very early in the development of civilization, impractical, heavily jeweled shoes were the in thing if you had power and money.
The ultimate in the madness connected to shoes as status was in China, where for 1,000 years, foot binding was practiced - the tinier the feet, the higher the rank. The feet of wealthy women were so small that they could barely walk, proving that they did not have to do any manual labor. It was only in the 20th century that the crippling process was stopped. Beautiful samples of Chinese shoes for these petite feet, along with many others, are on display in the four-story, modern, beautifully appointed Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto, which I visited recently.
The exhibit starts with a copy of the world’s oldest known shoe - from the Otzi man discovered frozen in the Alps. He died violently 5,300 years ago with his bearskin shoes intact, stuffed with grass. Copies were made and found to be very comfortable, protecting the feet at temperatures as low as 10 degrees below zero.
Because shoes did indicate a person’s position in the social hierarchy, rules were sometimes made to prevent their misuse as a symbol. During a period when the longer the shoe, the more highborn the person, Edward III made a law that limited the length of the toe according to a person’s real wealth and social standing. Another example is that in Rome, only the pope can wear a shoe embellished with a cross.
Several places in the museum feature collections of shoes of famous people, along with their pictures and short bios sometimes indicating the situations in which they wore the shoes. I noted that Jimmy Stewart had very narrow, long feet and that Marilyn Monroe’s feet were beautifully formed. The shoes that Ginger Rogers wore while dancing with Fred Astaire really did have high heels. Many other shoes, from Liz Taylor’s to Britney Spears’, are displayed. On the second floor, the shoes of eight people, including Elvis Presley, Tiger Woods and Winston Churchill, are highlighted as a short film about them plays on a screen.
This museum is, however, about more than what the rich and famous wear. One section shows how shoes are used at special times in our lives. It includes baby shoes, wedding shoes and death shoes. Some shoes are made for people with special occupations, from astronauts with giant shoes for warmth to smugglers with heels and soles reversed so it looks as if they are walking backward.
Three rooms give details about three groups. First is the exhibit titled "Alaskan Coastal Cultures," which has a description of Eskimo tools, weapons and boots, boots, boots of all different kinds for different jobs. These boots, besides being practical, are often works of art.
The second room, with an exhibit titled "Paths Across the Plains," shows the Plains American Indians and their striking moccasins, especially those decorated with beads or porcupine quills. Again, 100 models are on display, some extravagantly embellished in the belief that well-dressed people were protected against evil spirits. Two quotes in particular spoke to me. The first was on the display of children’s beaded moccasins: "We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children." The second was, "Oh great Spirit, grant that I may never find fault with my neighbor until I have walked the trail of life in his moccasins."
The third room, with an exhibit titled "Beads, Buckles and Bows," displayed 400 years’ worth of embellished footwear for women. In the evolution of women’s shoes, from 1661 to the present, the emphasis was on how they were intended to make a woman feel like royalty, even if only for an evening. It was in the development of fancy shoes for women that the phrase "putting your best foot forward" originated.
Let me close with a quote from Sonja Bata, the founder of the museum: "Shoes are such a personal artifact. They tell you about the owner’s social status, habits, culture and religion. That’s what makes them so special." ___
For more information go to www.batashoemuseum.ca/.
