The Toe Zone Shoe Blog on Fantastic Toe

Summer’s here, so there’s no better time to take a look at some of our shoe-related sightseeing options!

Italy

Italy is arguably ground-zero for shoe lovers, so let’s start here. First up is the shoe-steeped culture of Vigevano, Italy. This town has a long history of shoe production, a 500-year-old square in which I’m guessing you could enjoy a lovely espresso, and a first-rate shoe museum, the Museo Internazionale della Calzatura Vigevano. It’s easy to get to, as it’s just about 35 kilometers from Milan…From there, why not pop over to Milan to check out the flagship Rene Caovilla boutique, “a luxury salon in the heart of the city, furnished with works of art, wall tapestries and architectural features from 18th century Venice.” It’s located at Via Bagutta 28…In Florence, the recently re-opened Ferragamo Museum, which is presenting an exhibit on the use of color in Ferragam shoes, is a must-see; enter from Piazza Santa Trinita 5r… In Rome, stop by the first Stuart Weitzman boutique to use the ribbon-themed decor, located at 27 Via dei Condotti (pictured at left). Eventually all Stuart Weitzman boutiques will use this theme.

Paris

Check out Shoe Lover’s Tour of Paris, a recent Toe Zone entry, for more information on what to see and do in Paris.

England

Margaret Halsey (1911-1997), a writer who lampooned the British and their customs, once said “Englishwomen’s shoes look as if they had been made by someone who had often heard shoes described but had never seen any.” Well, apparently those cobblers had never seen the “world famous shoe collection”, at the Northampton Museum and Art Gallery, about 70 miles from London. The museum’s “Life & Sole” gallery shows the history of shoemaking and recreates a Northampton shoe factory…Once in London, check out the exhibit by Chantal Joffe at the Victoria Miro gallery, at 16 Wharf Road. The artist paints images from the world of fashion; while only tangentially shoe-related, it nonetheless looks worth a visit (a sample is at right)…Of course, you must also stop by Manolo Blahnik’s first boutique, located at 49-51, Old Church Street.

US/Canada

In Toronto, of course, is the mother ship, the Bata Shoe Museum, where you can learn just about everything you need to know about shoes…Farther south, you can visit a (much) smaller museum, the Brockton Shoe Museum, in Brockton Massachusetts. Among other displays, their celebrity footwear exhibit includes “shoes worn by Ted Williams, Arthur Fiedler, Rocky Marciano, and the size 24 shoes worn by Primo Carnera - world champion Italian boxer of the 1930s.”…Even farther south, check out the “History in Every Step” exhibit at the Charleston (SC) Museum, which includes (among other significant shoes) the evening shoes worn by Nancy Moore Thurmond (Strom’s wife) when she was voted Miss South Carolina in 1965.

If you’re more in the mood for kitsch Americana, check out the Big Shoe Repair building in Bakersfield, CA, and the Giant Shoe Museum in Seattle.

Philippines

Finally, this YouTube video, entitled “See To Believe” provides an excellent overview of Makatina, Philippines, a city which does indeed love its shoes. I recommend that you watch it immediately.

Happy travels!

While it was a blast window shopping and shoe gawking during my recent trip to Paris, there’s more shoe stuff going on there than just shopping. From museums to bookstores to pastry shops, there was a whole lotta shoe loving going on. Here are a few fun and random footwear tidbits from the city of light.

If you’re in Paris this summer, check out the exhibit by illustrator Edmond Kiraz at the Musee Carnavalet. The exhibit, entitled “Les Parisiennes” is a wonderful depiction of the women and men of Paris over the last forty years. A couple of his illustrations, such as the one at right, even feature shoe shopping! (This one’s caption roughly translates to “I must take you dancing tonight to make sure these shoes are comfortable for you.”) …The hype machine for Sex And The City is running at full throttle there; advertisements were on practically every surface. Is it possible Parisians are as excited about the movie as we are (or were)?…People in Paris are on foot a lot, and it’s not just the tourists. I saw more than one professional woman power-walking to her destination. Her shoes? Metallic sneakers! She carried her heels in a tote. Very chic, and boy can she move…Shoe-shaped chocolate was everywhere! Of course this can’t be the first time these two fetish objects have been paired, but it sure seemed like it was more prevalent in Paris…RIP Yves Saint Laurent, who died Sunday in Paris. His funeral is being held on Thursday at the Saint Roch Church on Rue Saint Honore.

There are, of course, a million ways to experience the beautiful city of Paris: You can seek out amazing food and wine; take in the unsurpassed art and architecture; or just luxuriate in the cafe lifestylye. On my recent trip, I chose to see the city through the lens of a shoe lover who was unfortunately saddled with an underperforming currency. In other words, I window shopped. Herewith, using our new ShoeShopper feature, is a pictorial survey of the fantastic shoes I saw on my shoe lover’s tour of Paris.

I started in Le Marais, a charming district replete with one-of-a-kind boutiques showcasing lots of fun and funky footwear. From the newsprint ankle boots to the chunky snakeskin platforms (at left), the shoes here felt younger and more edgy, with a distinct “downtown” feel.

Next stop was Rue de Grenelle in Saint Germain des Pres, an area that one could credibly classify as ground-zero for couture shoes. From the Christian Louboutin store — a wonderful little confection of a place — to the Prada boutique with its amazing spider-encrusted boots (detail at right), shoe gawking along this street is a great way to spend a couple of hours.

My final stop was the famous shopping street, Avenue George V (near Avenue des Champs Elysees). Hermes was here — showcasing sky-high, jewel-toned platforms — as was Kenzo, which had gorgeous stripey slingbacks on display (at left).

So, without further ado, have a look at the whole series of pictures. It’s almost as fun as being there.

I suspect that shoe shopping is not the traditional way to celebrate Cinco de Mayo. Nonetheless, today’s topic is the comfortable and stylish San Miguel Shoes, made in the central Mexican town of San Miguel de Allende, a town whose rugged cobblestone streets have gotten the better of many a tourist’s shoes.

Billed as “the original combat, cocktail sandal”, San Miguel Shoes combine a rugged sole inspired by military boots with colorful elastic straps that add enough style for a cocktail party. A winning combination, as I saw first hand on a recent trip! Not only are they stylish – my travel companion was wearing the Delhi model pictured here, and literally everyone who saw them complimented them – but they are also low-heeled, wide-toed, and stretchy. They’re the perfect travel shoes!

What’s more, the founder of the business still makes the shoes himself, in their factory in San Miguel de Allende; his wife tends to customers at their shop on Mesones Street. You can buy the shoes there – it’d be a great stop on any shoe lover’s tour of Mexico – or in select boutiques and on the web.

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

Today marks the debut of a really fun feature on Fantastic Toe: our curated shoe exhibits.

Every once in a while, we will assemble and post an exhibit of noteworthy shoes in art, the movies, or other medium — sometimes from a bygone era, sometimes contemporary. We’ll post them under the member name “Curator”; you can always find the current exhibit by searching on that name from the Browse Collections interface.

Curator’s first exhibit, “Twist! Monkey! Frug! (Shoe Ads from the 1960s)“, is worth looking at not only for the shoes (which are really quite stunning — check out the Christian Diors and the Charles Jourdans in particular) but also because the beautifully photographed ads are themselves works of art, and the ad copy (from which our exhibit title is excerpted) very much reflects the era. 

For the most part, these are couture shoes — the ads ran in Vogue and similar magazines, here and in France, between 1965 and 1969 — so you won’t find any of what some might call the more outrageous shoes of the 1960s. Instead you’ll see lower heels, more muted colors, wonderfully simple lines. (Can’t you just picture Faye Dunaway wearing these in 1968’s The Thomas Crown Affair?) Needless to say, these are not the shoes that marched on Washington.

One brand in the exhibit with an interesting back story is the venerable but now defunct I. Miller. Its founder and namesake, Israel Miller, who died in 1929, built several shoe stores in New York City; the flagship, located at 46th and Broadway and in operation through the 1970s, bore the inscription “The show folks’ shoe shop dedicated to beauty in footwear.” Even more wonderful, the exterior wall contained 4 sculpture niches, each of which housed a likeness of a prominent woman in the arts. What a branding strategy! The building is now in slight disrepair, but nonetheless it surely belongs on any shoe lover’s tour of New York City.

See how fun this is? Where else can you mix in a little architectural history with your shoe lust? Check out the exhibit, and check back soon for the next one.