Northampton Shoe Museum

A few months ago I went on an expedition with two classmates and one of my shoe design teachers to Northampton. It's one of the last places in England with a working shoe factory that we could see in action. Of course I didn't take any photos within the actual factory, but I did manage to get a few snapshots at the shoe museum...

Despite being very dark, I got a couple snaps of some amazing shoes. Check out this fantastic fetish boot print on these incredibly mod boots.

A few vintage foot binding shoes. Look how ornately embroidered these things are. I guess when you can afford to be ornate when you're dealing with such tiny things.

On the other hand, these brogued shoes for bound feet are surprisingly simple and modern looking.

Gotta love the crazy cantilever heel on this shoe. I am counting on someone to help me balance a one of my shoe designs in a very similar way. So sexy and weird.

If Dorothy wanted to be a little more practical about walking all the way to the emerald city, she might have considered these. But the clear Docs with the baby picture? I have no idea...

How fabulous are these vintage silk uppers? Can you imagine wearing boots like this every day? I would relish it.

Vivienne Westwood's famous platforms. Not the blue ones, but the exact same model. What I love about this shoe is the delicate shape of the toe, the curve of the platform and the unobtrusive colour.

Spice Spice Baby! (sorry)

Sorry for the blurry photo. This one was particularly dark. But it was too awesome not to share. Wish her ass was a little more shapely though, don't you think? I found this section of the museum the most interesting because it had a few examples of the evolution of fetish shoes. How mundane this heels looks to us, and yet at the time, it was an incredibly high heel in SHINY black leather. How provocative!

Some very mod spurs. I love these.

And if you thought I was tall before... The extreme high heel is taken to a new level (see what I did there?) with this pair. The logical part of me keeps thinking "you might want a closed toe with a back if you want to balance in those." Of course, I imagine they would never be worn by anyone standing.

                              Try walking in them. I dare you! I love the choice of colours in this one. Bright 70s yellow and ruddy orange. Nothing says sex and fetish like mustard yellow, you know?

How awesome are these Pete Murphy shoes? I love this sort of print, especially on leather.

FABULOUS boots. If I recall correctly, the black design was patent and appliqued onto the soft white leather.

And last, but not least, some metallic snakeskin 70s platforms. Again, I apologize for how dark the museum was. In order to protect the shoes they hired blind lighting designers.