V&A’s Shoes: Pleasure and Pain exhibit to open at Peabody Essex Museum

By

Obi Anyanwu

Published
Aug 20, 2016

Victoria and Albert Museum’s Shoes: Pleasure and Pain exhibition is heading to the US for the first time ever. The exhibition will be held at the Peabody Essex Museum in Massachusetts after first closing in London in January 2016.

 
Shoes examines footwear designs from all over the world and showcases over 200 pairs of shoes ranging from vintage designs to contemporary silhouettes. The shoes are divvied by category to best highlight their features such as ‘Creation,’ which details the shoe manufacturing process and ‘Status’ that explored footwear designs for aristocrats and laborers.
 
Some styles that were on display in the Shoes exhibit at V&A included moccasins from Manitoba, Canada, two-teethed geta slippers from 1920s Japan, spiky heels from Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood in 1974 and brogue oxfords from New & Lingwood in 1989.

Shoes: Pleasure and Pain first opened at the V&A Museum in June 2015, and it will open at the Peabody Essex Museum on November 19, 2016. The exhibition will remain through March 12, 2017.