The V&A’s Shoes: Pleasure & Pain exhibition (13 Jun to 31 Jan) will showcase all manner of weird and wonderful shoe designs that have caught the eye over the years. Here are six moments where shoes stole the spotlight.
Lady Gaga being carried by her bodyguard
The extreme heels trend arguably hit its peak around 2011 when celebrities such as Lady Gaga and Daphne Guinness valiantly tried to go about their day while wearing Alexander McQueen’s armadillo heels. Their days mostly involved getting out of cars and walking 10 steps to be shot by Annie Leibovitz, but still. When you’re wearing shoes that stand 12in high, even one step can be tricky. Lady Gaga came a cropper here and her bodyguard came to her rescue.
Naomi Campbell in Vivienne Westwood heels
The noughties weren’t the first time platforms of dangerous altitude were a thing, of course. The classic falling-on-the-catwalk moment came back in March 1993 when Naomi Campbell slipped walking in Vivienne Westwood’s sky-high blue platforms. A classic fashion moment, Campbell worked in them again 20 years later on the Jonathan Ross show and came through unscathed. The shoes in question are included in the V&A exhibition.
Marty McFly in Back to the Future 2
Sometimes footwear can, frankly, be awesome. Such was the case with Marty McFly’s trainers in 1989’s Back to the Future 2; you know, the ones which fasten themselves on his feet before he climbs on a hoverboard. Nike promises that such marvels will be available to buy by the end of 2015, but in the meantime content yourself with watching that clip over and over again. Hoverboards are still in development.
Elton John’s platforms
Men’s platforms were a standard in the 70s – like carrying a portfolio bag and donning pocket square today. Rock stars did it best, with the likes of Elton John and David Bowie indulging in a platform-off with their increasingly outlandish stagewear. Elton arguably won this battle, with his giant platform boots – sold at an Amnesty International auction in 2013 – an iconic part of his look. The fact that he wore them while sitting at a piano may have helped.
Marilyn Monroe in Some Like It Hot
The 1950s means stilettos; sexy but controlled. And the sight of Marilyn Monroe walking down the train platform in stiletto heels is one to behold in 1959’s Some Like it Hot. “It’s just like Jello on springs,” marvels Jack Lemmon, who by this point is already dressed as a woman and aware that walking in such shoes is far from easy. And sashaying in them, à la Marilyn, is a skill in itself. Like watching a master at work.
Moira Shearer in The Red Shoes
A pair of shoes that send their heroine to her death, Moira Shearer’s crimson ballet slippers, worn in Powell & Pressburger’s 1948 classic, are included in the V&A exhibition. They perhaps symbolise all that the exhibition – and our relationship with footwear – is about. They are beautiful yet dangerous: just like those armadillo shoes, really.
