FASHION - COMPANY NEWS
Wednesday, December 6, 2017
This contemporary pair of gold Jeremy Scott x Adidas sneakers may be the height of fashion today but they harken back to the golden winged sandals made for the Ancient Greek messenger god, Hermes. Indeed, the current popularity of golden footwear has a longstanding and complex history behind it. American, 2016 Image © 2017 Bata Shoe Museum, Toronto, Canada (CNW Group/Bata Shoe Museum)
FASHION - COMPANY NEWS
Source : Bata Shoe Museum
The Bata Shoe Museum is pleased to announce the opening of its newest exhibition, The Gold Standard: Glittering Footwear from Around the Globe. Opening today, the exhibition features some of the Bata Shoe Museum's most impressive and precious artefacts and explores the meanings and cultural uses of golden footwear across the globe.
The gleam of gold has seduced people around the world. Treasured for its incorruptibility and remarkable shine, gold has been used ornamentally since time immemorial and as currency since at least the Bronze Age. Gold has ornamented the powerful and adorned the divine for thousands of years. But gold for shoes? Seems improbable. Yet golden footwear has been central to expressions of status and style in numerous cultures. From royal shoes to fashionable sneakers, the gleam of golden footwear has been used to proclaim privilege and flaunt status worldwide.
Curated by the BSM's Senior Curator Elizabeth Semmelhack, and comprised solely of artefacts from the BSM collection, The Gold Standard examines objects as diverse as Ancient Egypt golden funerary sandals to rare 16th century Italian chopines to contemporary gleaming gold sneakers. Together, the objects tell the story of the ongoing popularity of golden footwear and the complex history behind it.
The Gold Standard: Glittering Footwear from Around the Globe will be on display throughout 2018.
