Topic: FASHION NEWS
Killer Heels at the Brooklyn Museum of Art
By Tammy Duffy
Vertiginous shoes are nothing new. Stilettos and platforms originated from the Italian Renaissance. On Wednesday, September 10, Killer Heels opens to the public at 2 p.m at the Brooklyn Museum of Art in NYC. .This survey of shoes will bring you to an altitude that is mind boggling. You will get to see these elevated fashion statements from the 16th century to the deadly weapons that rip up the red carpets of today. There will be 160 shoes on display that will fall into six categories; Glamour and Fetish, Revival and Reinterpretations and Architecture.
Deadly sharp stilettos, architecturally inspired wedges and platforms, and a number of artfully crafted shoes that defy categorization are featured among the more than 160 historical and contemporary heels on loan from designers, from the renowned Brooklyn Museum costume collection housed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and from the Bata Shoe Museum. Designers and design houses represented in Killer Heels include Manolo Blahnik, Chanel, Salvatore Ferragamo, Zaha Hadid X United Nude, Iris van Herpen X United Nude, Christian Louboutin, Alexander McQueen, André Perugia, Prada, Elsa Schiaparelli, Noritaka Tatehana, Vivienne Westwood, and Pietro Yantorny.
The curator of this exhibition, Lisa Small says,” All of these shoes could be considered architectural in the broadest sense. When it comes to architectural concerns; like support and load bearing, those kinds of structural issues are also particular in high heels.” The extreme heights reached on very thin heels only became possible through extruded steel technology, the same materials that keep skyscrapers in our skies.
Killer Heels explores fashion’s most provocative accessory. From the high platform chopines of sixteenth-century Italy to the glamorous stilettos on today’s runways and red carpets, the exhibition looks at the high-heeled shoe’s rich and varied history and its enduring place in our popular imagination.
As fashion statement, fetish object, instrument of power, and outlet of artistic expression for both the designer and the wearer, throughout the ages the high-heeled shoe has gone through many shifts in style and symbolism.
Presented alongside the objects in the exhibition are six specially commissioned short films inspired by high heels. The filmmakers are Ghada Amer and Reza Farkhondeh, Zach Gold, Steven Klein, Nick Knight, Marilyn Minter, and Rashaad Newsome.
The exhibition runs from September 10, 2014–February 15, 2015 at the Robert E. Blum Gallery, 1st Floor,
Brooklyn Museum
200 Eastern Parkway
Brooklyn, New York 11238-6052
Hours
Wednesday: 11 a.m.–6 p.m.
Thursday: 11 a.m.–10 p.m.
Friday–Sunday: 11 a.m.–6 p.m.
General Admission
| Adults: | $12 |
| Students with valid I.D.: | $8 |
| Adults 62 and over: | $8 |
| Children under 12 accompanied by an adult: | Free |
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| Special rates apply |
