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I wouldn’t normally review a book about shoes since I have written a book or two on the topic and being too close to the subject matter makes giving an objective review difficult. However, this book has a flaw that surpasses content and that is the type of book that it is - a collector’s price guide.

In our world of online information, the days of published price guides are coming to an end (rumour has it that Collector Books is throwing in the towel next year), I can’t even remember the last time I thumbed through a Kovel’s antique price guide - I know it was last century. The past twenty years have been volatile in the collectables market; mid-century modern furniture is in, Victorian dolls are out, American pottery is surging upwards in value while Japanese antiquities slowly deflate in price… The online marketplace has changed how collectors buy and evaluate their collections and many of the changes are market corrections. While Franklin mint plate values crashed to the floor, vintage clothing prices were steadily expanding. The problem with price guides is their tendancy for optimistic evaluations of collectables that are ever on the rise of popularity.

I can’t say I find the evaluations in Warman’s Shoes field guide useful at all: A pair of American mid 19th century brogans with a Civil war attribution is evaluated at $23,900. This price is presumably based on an auction result and I am guessing the provenance of who wore them, where and when, must have been airtight, plus the shoes must have been sold at a Civil War memorabilia auction, because no shoe collector would pay more than $300 for a similar pair. A pair of two year old Prada shoes are evaluated at $800.00, but they are identical to a pair that have been available on a well known website for over a year at $425.00 with no takers. Another recent pair in the book are Nine West black and gold sandals with an astonishing evaluation of $900.00 - a price not yet seen on any pair of Nine West shoes - even new ones! Meanwhile, two pairs of black satin shoes with embroidered vamps are given no maker identification and are assigned a ‘1940s’ date, however, they are typical designs of Jerry Edouard from about 1970. Their evaluation of $100 per pair is a realistic selling price, if not a bit low.

The book has scads of illustrations of interesting shoes and I would have delighted to see them in a ‘Shoe a Day’ calendar, but as a viable price and identification guide the book has very little value.

A couple of months ago we were approached by a Hong Kong firm about creating an exhibition of shoes for a shopping plaza in Sha Tin (the new territories next to what used to be the border with mainland China.)  I wasn’t sure if it would come together but as of Saturday May 1 you can see that it did!

On display until May 31 at the New Town Plaza in Sha Tin are fifty historic shoes that include examples from designers: Joe Famolare, Christian Louboutin, Maude Frizon, Roger Vivier, Salvatore Ferragamo, Andre Perugia, Andrea Pfister, Charles Jourdan, David Evins, Herman Delman, Beth Levine, H&R Rayne, Jerry Edouard, Rene Mancini, and many more.

Interview with Kenn at opening

Forgive this brief update but life tends to come in waves and there hasn’t been much of an ebb around here the last few weeks… I have been finishing up the editing for my next book with Thames and Hudson entitled Shoes A-Z: Designers, Manufacturers, Retailers and Brands, to be released this fall. There are still captions to do, but the bulk of the work is now complete!

Also, an interview I did with The Collectors Weekly on shoes was launched last week. And while not ’solely’ about shoes, there is also a great article that came out in the most recent addition of Worn Fashion Journal about the Fashion History Museum.

Our next goal is to get the website up for the Fashion History Museum, so stay tuned!

Advertisement for Grendha Jellies - March 1985

Jellies (molded rubber shoes) were popular once again this past summer - this time with high heels rather than the usual flat sole styles. The first time they were hits was the mid 1980s as this advertisment from the March 1985 US Vogue proves. The pair in green offered in the advert by Grendha, the Brazilian manufacturer, is identical to the red pair marked Thierry Mugler.

Red Jellies labelled Thierry Mugler, 1985

Xray of a chopine showing spikes used to strengthen and attach the two blocks of wood used in its construction

I love it when I find preeminent exhibitions. The Met’s Poiret exhibition in 2007 and the Yves St. Laurent retrospective in Montreal in 2008 were both superlative shows that could not have been better.

The Bata Shoe Museum now joins this prestigious circle with its newest exhibition On A Pedestal: From Renaissance Chopines to Baroque Heels. This is the best assemblage of Renaissance and Baroque footwear ever seen - in fact I think about a half of all extant Chopines are in this display. The exhibition is small (these are shoes we are talking about, and even if they are upwards of a metre tall they are still usually not more than a size 4), but the privilege to see these all gathered into one gallery is memorable.

It is a miracle that the twenty or so examples of Chopines (some pairs, some singles) survived at all considering the oldest complete dress dates only from 1640, at the end of the Chopine’s height of popularity which had begun over a century before - fifty years before the rise of the heel. It is the story of the heel that makes up the second part of the exhibition. The origin of the heel is traced from Middle Eastern horseback riding (the heel kept the shoe in place in the stirrup) to Baroque Northern European high-street fashions. Most amazing and amusing are the cross-over styles that use both platforms and high heels and look surprisingly familiar (yes Nicholas Kirkwood I am looking at you.)

Exhibition catalogue

There is an excellent catalogue to accompany the exhibition, available in the museum’s gift shop, that traces the history of the platform and the heel back to ancient times and foreign lands. This is a wise purchase as my only complaint about the exhibition is the usual unavoidable problem of trying to read text in a dimly lit gallery, but the shoes are five hundred years old and I am not yet fifty, so they need more care than I do…

I highly recommend making the trip if you can because the shoes in this exhibition come from museums around the world (from Boston to Venice to Stockholm) and they don’t normally travel because of their age and rarity. One of the examples on display is at the museum only because the funds were donated to conserve it before being sent to the Bata Shoe Museum. On A Pedestal runs until September 20, 2010, so you have plenty of time to make plans for the pilgrimage!

Right: The cover of the Exhibition catalogue ‘On a Pedestal’, by Elizabeth Semmelhack, curator, Bata Shoe Museum

Above: Photograph copyright 2009 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston / X-ray courtesy of Joel Thompson, Associated Textile Conservator and Richard Newman, Research Scientist

J-Lo in a low low cut dress, 2000

I know it doesn’t feel like a decade has passed since Y2K but in a little more than a month we will be entering the 2010s and that means the first decade of 21st century fashion is wrapping up. Science fiction predicted we would all be wearing unisex jumpsuits in crease resistant synthetics, but in reality the first decade of the new millennium offered no space age vision. The entire decade was about looking back, not forward.

Sarah Jessica Parker in a vintage inspired cocktail dress

Vintage fashions from the 1950s to the 1980s were the inspiration for all new fashions from chain stores to haute couture. Department stores resembled giant vintage clothing warehouses filled with separates from different eras to mix and match for a hodge podge contemporary look (a way of styling delineated by Patricia Field in her costuming for Sex and the City, but difficult to pull off successfully). Vintage shops carried authentic Jackie Kennedy sheath dresses, mod coats, beaded cardigans, Disco T-shirts, and Flashdance leggings that could transform you into any vintage fashion icon from Holly Go-Lightly to Rhoda Morganstern. Borrowing from the past to create modern style has been common since Barbara Hulanicki revived the 1930s and 1940s for her Biba label, but when Ralph Lauren got too close to copying an Yves St. Laurent tuxedo dress he was fined by a French court in 1994 for copyright infringement. But that didn’t stop the trend. From Anna Sui to Nicholas Ghesquiere, raiding vintage wardrobes for style ideas was the dominant trend of the 2000s. Cameron Silver of Decades, a vintage clothing store in West Hollywood, admitted in 2002 that 60% of his sales went to designers “who are just hyper stylists these days.”

Crocs - the summer 2006 hit

Some defining fashions of the 2000s were continuations of trends that began in the 1990s or before. Tattooing and piercing, for example, grew in popularity with the punk and fetish cultures but generally remained unseen until the early 2000s. At first, small ankle tattoos appeared, and then lower back tats were exposed in bare midriff tops and low-rise jeans (thong underwear straps were also showcased by low-rise jeans.) By the end of the decade, neck calligraphy and entire sleeves of Japanese motifs were covering arms. However, piercing all but disappeared, with the exception of the occasional tribal style ear lobe plug worn by skateboarders and bicycle couriers.

Shaved heads, made popular by Hip Hop singers and Sinead O’Connor in the 1990s, turned the street tough/chemo patient look into a mainstream tress code in the 2000s. For women, the tousled ‘I just fell out of bed’ look of the 1990s persisted but lost momentum by the end of the decade in favour of more coifed locks. And with a nod to the Studio 54 era, Afros and corn rowing had small return engagements, as did coloured hair, but really only for performers like Lil’ Kim and Pink. Caramel highlights was about as daring as anyone got who didn’t perform on stage.

Crop top and low rise jeans, New York, Spring 2001

Thin was very ’in’ despite the fact that most of the population was getting fatter, probably because we all put on weight while quitting smoking. Meanwhile in fashionland, Nicole Kidman, Angelina Jolie, Paris Hilton, Nicole Ritchie, Lara Flynn Boyle, Victoria Beckham and Kate Moss resembled their wafer thin laptops when they turned sideways. The only discernable bumps on most fashion icons were those made by surgically implanted or padded breasts. Take away cigarettes, cocaine, and bulimia and you have to wonder how many rail thin celebrities would be able to maintain their 00 dress sizes.

Bratz dolls, fall 2002

Most work places saw casual dress codes expand from Fridays to every day. The most popular casual look for work and weekend at the beginning of the decade was low-rise jeans or trousers with full or flared legs. When worn in combination with a crop top, the toned tummy became the new erogenous zone but pudgy muffin tops were the reality. In the middle of the decade flares disappeared and tight tapered styles and leggings reappeared; waistlines also moved back up to the top of the hips. Crop tops were abandoned in favour of more modest empire-waist peasant tops, making an entire generation of women look like unwed mothers. The biggest non-fashion event of the 2000s was the return of the poncho. Ponchos were in fashion for about 3 minutes in the winter of 2004/2005, and were long gone by the time Martha Stewart emerged from prison or Ugly Betty wore her Guadalajara version to work. The poncho was part of the Bohemian or ‘Boho’ style of peasant tops and gypsy skirts that returned often throughout the decade. Also in for repeat performances were animal prints, denim, military (cargo pants, camouflage), and pimp and pole dancer styles (Pussycat Doll chic consisting of micro minis, Huggie Bear hats, and bling).

Baby Doll Dress, spring 2000

For dressier occasions the baby doll dress lasted most of the decade. Worn with dark stockings or no stockings at all, baby doll dresses never reached the nth degree cult status of the Japanese Goth-Lolita look. However, most other subculture fashions, from Goth to Gay, went mainstream in the 2000s.

Queer Eye for the Straight Guy was launched in 2003 as part of the landslide of reality TV makeover shows (What Not to Wear, Ten Years Younger, Extreme Makeover…) The format became routine: An overweight woman of a certain age who is exhausted from work and taking care of her kids is given a brutal talking to by a bunch of stylists who sharpen their wits on her high school hair-do and age inappropriate 90s wardrobe. She is given a dye job, her eyebrows are plucked, she puts on a new outfit or two, and her life is suddenly worth living again because she says she feels sexy in her new too-tight jeans floral print blouse, and stiletto shoes. The sponsors of these shows were often mainstream chain stores, which meant New York location shoots did not explore the wonderful shops of Tribeca, but rather the H&M on Broadway.

Takashi Murakami for Louis Vuitton, 2003

The Gap and Banana Republic, leading retailers in the 1990s, waned in popularity in the 2000’s, while Old Navy, a budget basics store from the same parent company, held its own alongside strong fashion retailers like H&M and Target. Founded in Sweden in 1947, H&M began opening franchises across Europe in the 1960s; their first American store opened in Manhattan in 2000. The origins of Target date back over a century but in the shift from five and dime retailer to Walmart competitor, Target hired designers such as Steven Sprouse in 2002 and Isaac Mizrahi in 2003 to create collections for budget-conscious customers. H&M followed suit, hiring designers Stella McCartney in 2005 and Roberto Cavalli in 2007.

French Connection, founded in 1972, accidentally discovered in 1997 that their UK branch was identified in a fax as FCUK. Leaping upon the vulgar dyslexic acronym for marketing purposes, the French Connection sold T-shirts with sayings like ‘FCUK fashion’ to style-deprived imbeciles. The company feigned surprise when they lost their bid to the rights of the acronym; First Consultants UK Ltd. proved precedence in court and in 2006 French Connection abandoned their FCUK campaign.

Juicy Couture track pants and Uggs

One of the decade’s leading marketing success stories began when Gel Nash-Taylor, the wife of Duran Duran’s John Taylor, and her partner Pamela Skaist-Levy branded a line of maternity pants in 1996 under the name Juicy Couture. Juicy Couture offered affordable, comfortable casual wear aimed at the yummy mummy’s market wedged between girl power and cougars. The label found limited success until 2003 when Liz Claiborne bought the fledgling company for 50 million dollars. By 2005, Juicy Couture and its knock-offs had women 18-45 in tracksuits with words like Juicy, Sweet, Sexy, and Meow written across the butt.

Chavs in Burberry plaid

Long-standing brands re-marketed themselves for a hipper look in the new millennium. The English classic Burberry reinvented itself in 2002 to appeal to a younger crowd, losing most of their older, established clientele in the process when Chavs (English term for teenage delinquents such as soccer hooligans) picked up on the trend for Burberry plaid. Similarly Marc Jacobs hired artist Takashi Murakami to update a bag for Louis Vuitton that would appeal to the Japanese Lolita aesthetic in 2003.

Celebrity brands exploded in the 2000s. In most cases the celebrities had marginal input into the design and only loaned their name for branding. The list included: Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen, Gwen Stefani, Kelli Osbourne, Lenny Kravitz, Anna Nicole Smith, Mariah Carey, Donald Trump, Lil’ Kim, Jessica Simpson, Jessica Alba, Kanye, Kylie Minogue, Jennifer Lopez, P Diddy, Miley Cyrus, Avril Lavigne… and many more.

Japanese Goth Lolita

On a high fashion note, the leading American designer torch passed from Tom Ford to Marc Jacobs in the 2000s. Across the pond it was the talented ‘l’enfant terrible’ Alexander McQueen who managed to find recognition and funding for his label from the Gucci Group, courtesy of Tom Ford in 2002. John Galliano remained a bright light in fashionland at Christian Dior, even though his couture consists of irrelevant fantasy gowns made solely for media exploitation. Galliano also has Anna ‘Nuclear’ Wintour, chief editor of American Vogue, as his number one fan. Anna Wintour’s thinly veiled send up in the 2003 book and 2006 film ‘The Devil Wears Prada’ proved that fashion was just business after all, and not a very nice one at that. While getting along with Wintour is necessary for good reportage in Vogue, Armani and Alaia are not quiet about their disdain for her. She may need to be wary of burnt bridges now as the current falling circulation doesn’t look good on her twenty-one year reign at Vogue.

Fashion reportage is changing and the fashion magazine is no longer the dominant style delineator. The 2000s saw the birth of television channels devoted to fashion. The Internet put the power of fashion coverage into many more hands; The Vintage Fashion Guild, The Sartorialist, Worn Fashion Journal, and numerous other professional and amateur websites and blogs now report on and influence the path of fashion.

Roberto Cavalli dressed as Karl Lagerfeld for Halloween 2007

In the 2000s we saw less of Karl Lagerfeld (42 kilos less). We also saw brilliant designers retire: Issey Miyake, Calvin Klein, Hanae Mori, Valentino, Christian Lacroix, and Tom Ford. And some designers we lost forever: Thea Porter, Bonnie Cashin, Bill Blass, Roberta de Camerino, Pauline Trigere, Hardy Amies, Geoffrey Beene, Stephen Sprouse, Giovanna Fontana, Donald Brooks, Liz Claiborne, Mr. Blackwell, Oleg Cassini, Gianfranco Ferre, and Yves St. Laurent.

Gladiator platform sandals, spring 2008

As for coming attractions in the 2010s, I suspect we will see more environmentally friendly fashions including sustainable materials coming into fashion – more hemp, less polyester. Mixed in with revivals, including a broader shoulder line from the 80s, fashion is already showing a trend for new ways of constructing and decorating that are contemporary, not retro. Vintage is here to stay, but not always in its original form. There is already a strong trend for ‘up cycling’ – remaking bad vintage into good wearables. Don’t forget this was the way things used to be until prosperity in the 1950s made North Americans consumers with voracious appetites for novelty. We have already seen shoes with built in Ipods and coats and dresses with cell phone pockets so perhaps more technology and fashion will combine in the coming decade. On the negative side expect to see significant cost increases in labour and shipping. Other than these few prognostications – time will only tell.

Ten things I will remember about fashion in the 2000s, and most of them aren’t good:

Miss Piggy takes a cue from Janet Jackson from a 2004 viral email image

1 - 2004’s ‘Wardrobe Malfunction’ – Tell the truth Janet it wasn’t an accident; it was just a bad idea.

2 - Flip-flops – They are too casual and dangerous to wear any place other than the beach or the back yard

3 - Uggs – They get stinky and dirty quickly, they make your legs look fat, and they’re ugly

4 - Eco terrorists – from P.E.T.A. members who send images of skinned animals to vintage websites that have a 1940s rabbit muff for sale, to vegans who like to remind everyone at the table why they are superior because they don’t wear leather shoes or use cosmetics. You catch more flies with honey than vinegar.

5 - Paris Hilton and all the other celebrities with sex tapes and no underwear

6 - Knock-offs – Fashion is all about knocking off someone else’s ideas – Victor Costa and Nettie Rosenstein weren’t designers, they were copyists. Fake purses, sunglasses and shoes became common in the 2000s but the real issue here is trademark infringement. Obviously a company logo is clearly copyrightable, but is quilted kid or contrast stitching? China (the United States biggest creditor) makes the most profits from the production and sale of knock-offs so until websites that offer $89.00 ‘Louboutin’ shoes are closed down, don’t tell me tales of terrorists making money from Louis ‘Fauxton’ bags because I am not listening.

Boho Chic, 2008, as worn by Kelly Bensimon, with a corset belt and Minnetonka moccasin boots

7 - Non-clothing accessories – everything from a Starbucks coffee to a teacup Chihuahua – must you walk around with perceived status symbols in your hand?

8 - Oversized, over-designed handbags – What happened to all those elegant crocodile Kelly bags and evening clutches from the 90s – purses were wonderful then but now they are big and ugly.

9 - Overpriced cheap products – Crocs are a good example. They are great shoes for the beach or back yard, but why are knock-offs available for a tenth of the price? Hey Crocs – your products are rubber sandals, not art, charge accordingly.

10 - Reality fashion programs. I keep promising myself to stop watching Project Runway and I will – next time. I don’t like the unfair and unrealistic expectations set upon the contestants. I am still angry over the 2006 ‘couture’ challenge in Paris - couture can NOT be made with glue in two days, to fit two different models

All Images were gleaned off the net - if any are copyrighted I will gladly credit or remove them at the owner’s request.

What happened to September? I have spent most of the last two months finishing off the research for my next book on shoe design since 1950 but more about that later… In the process of research I came across this cover from Sport Style magazine, August 1, 1983 - a perfect match for my high heeled sneakers by Norma Kamali (I also own the socks.) I love finding images of things in the collection in period magazines –check out the tag ‘As Seen In’ for more examples…

I don’t make new year resolutions because I never keep them. However, I do have one year-end tradition and that is to enter the new year with the least amount of ‘baggage’ from the past year; I try to answer all correspondence, pay off outstanding bills, and dispose of inactive files. In keeping with this tradition I purge my computer of old emails, especially ones from confrontational situations. I have heard that some psychologists recommend writing down negative events and then burning the paper to release the angst; another method I like to use is to tell everyone - for educational reasons of course…

A year ago I bought a pair of 1940s snakeskin shoes with cork heels from an English dealer on eBay to illustrate my book ‘Forties Fashion’. However, instead of the shoes arriving, I received notification from the Wildlife Enforcement Division of Environment Canada that the shoes were made of python and had been impounded and would be destroyed. My reaction was to explain that obviously there had been a mistake since python was not endangered as python purses, belts and shoes were available in most high-end shops. I knew that leopard, jaguar, and sea-turtle, to name a few, were endangered and illegal, but python is a farmed animal, like mink, and surely it wasn’t endangered. I called Andrew Bruce, the Wildlife Officer who wrote me about their confiscation.

Mr. Bruce sent me a link to a long list of species and subspecies of plants and animals that were endangered and apparently there is an Indian subspecies of python that is being threatened by a loss of habitat. However, in other online python forays I found more articles about the problems with pythons in Florida’s everglades that are not indigenous because of pet-owners who release their pet ‘Monty’ into the wild. I also found a snippet about how PETA was putting pressure onto the fashion business for their use of python because in their estimation there are too many python products on the marketplace for what is being reported as farmed in Southeast Asia. Their conclusion is that pythons are being hunted in the wild. The PETA site goes on to describe in great detail how the snakes at farms are killed to obtain the skins. For anyone who has seen ‘Fastfood Nation’, a propaganda film about slaughter houses that masquerades as a comedy, the details are equally unpleasant.

Python snake shoes with cork heels, c. 1945, now destroyed

Of course, the reality of the situation is that confiscating and destroying a pair of antique shoes of cultural and historical significance has no bearing on today’s commercial trade of illegal python skins. However, it has brought attention to the topic. To rectify the situation I was told the eBay seller in the UK was required to obtain a license at a fee of ten pounds to export the 65 year old shoes. I know that ignorance of the law is never allowed as a reason for breaking a law but it now seemed there was no law broken, only a problem with paperwork and procedure. Had she paid the ten pounds, the export license would have been granted and the shoes legally shipped. Apparently when it comes to some laws, its not about what is right or wrong but rather if you pay for your indulgences.

I paid the ten pounds to get the export license but was told by Simon James at the British Wildlife Licensing and Registration Services that the license had to be applied for before the shoes were sent, not after. This little fact could have been told to me before I paid the fee, but no…and no refund was made.

In the end, all this high handed talk about endangered subspecies was really only about greasing some official’s palm to fill out a form. I am sure the pythons in the wild can relax upon hearing that!

It was reported yesterday that during a visit to Iraq President Bush was pelted with two shoes by an angry Iraqi. We often forget in Western Society that clothing can mean more than just keeping up with fashion, and footwear is especially loaded with meaning.

In ancient times, the shoe was often used as a symbol of authority. ‘Upon the land of Edom do I cast my shoe’ (Psalms 60:8) This biblical story refers to the symbolic acquisition or transfer of property — a cultural practice of Assyrians and Hebrews. The symbolic ritual of the shoe was extended in Hebrew culture to express wealth and/or seal a deal. When a loved one dies, Judaic practice for the grieving family is to go shoeless during the mourning period as a sign of poverty because without their loved one they are poor. Also implicit in Judaic law is the ceremonial ‘Halizah’ shoe that was removed by a childless widow from the foot of her unmarried brother-in-law to release him from wedding her.

During the Middle Ages In Western culture shoes came to represent good luck; when renovations were done in homes a well-worn shoe was often placed in the rafters or walls to ward off evil spirits. As early as the 1540s there are references to shoes being thrown after newly married couples to wish them good luck in their new life together; Queen Victoria referred in her diaries to shoes being thrown, for good luck, into the doorway of Balmoral castle upon its completion in 1855.

However, feet and footwear can have very different meanings in different cultures. In Ghana, a king must never touch the earth or he loses his status, so he is always in sandals, even though most of his people are barefoot. In Japan it is rude to sit on the floor with your feet out in front, with your toes pointing at someone.

Shoes and sandals line the doorways of Mosques because shoes are considered unclean in Middle Eastern culture and are removed in the presence of God (Allah) to show respect and submission. To use the shoe or sandal to hit someone, even lightly, is the worst insult that can be made, even showing the soles of your shoes to someone is considered rude in Arab culture

In Western culture, where our colder climate necessitated indoor footwear until central heating became common, it is now becoming popular to request guests to remove their shoes, despite the fact that it has not been our custom and could embarrass guests with smelly feet, holey hosiery, a short stature, or foot deformities. The request is not always warmly received as it suggests the host or hostess care more about the condition of their floors than the comfort and company of their guests.

Although I normally deny any interest in reality TV, I can’t deny I am a keen follower of the ‘So You Think You Can Dance’ shows. Sunday night was the finale of the Canadian version and Nico, not surprisingly, took the top award. Why am I blogging about dance instead of fashion? Because dance and fashion have always had a close relationship. What a dancer wears affects their ability to perform and enhances their movement, especially when it comes to footwear.

In ancient times, every culture developed some form of dance, usually related to harvest or hunt celebrations, marital or maturity rites, or victory over an enemy. In Europe, dance associated with pre-Christian rituals survived the medieval church by becoming secular folk dances. As Christianity spread globally, converts were more easily procured if elements of indigenous culture, such as dance, could be retained alongside their new religious belief. From the Scottish Fling to the Hawaiian Hula, dances that were once pagan rituals became secular folk dances. Some dances even became associated with Christian rites like the religious parades of Latin America where the Samba was born.

The other catalyst for the development of dance was in the distinguishing of class. Masques (balls) became popular Renaissance entertainments at the Italian and French courts in the late 16th century. Dances such as the Farandole and Pavanne were presented in participatory performances to display the dancer’s fine clothing and reflect refinement through erect backs and precise processional movements - the exact opposite of bawdy peasant dances that were usually danced drunkenly, in circles.

French high heeled shoe, c. 1730

By 1700, court dances were developing into a new form of performance art called ballet. Professional dancers trained for regular performances at the French court. King Louis XIV even performed as a dancer, for which he became known as the Sun King, after Apollo, whom he portrayed in one of the ballets. Dancing masters taught ballet to improve deportment and foster conspicuous refinement. Most aristocratic dancers were not ballet dancers, but emulated simple ballet steps in high-heeled shoes through the fashionable dances of the time - the Minuet and Gavotte. However, when the French aristocracy fell in 1789, the minuet also fell from favour. Dance in Western Society now grew in two separate directions, professional and social.

“It is with regret that for many years past, the Minuet has, almost, totally fallen into disuse . . . a dance essential for youth to learn, on account of its utility as a foundation for the superstructure of those graces which distinguish people of fashion, and good breeding . . .” Francis Peacock, 1805

Ballet was originally danced in fashionable dress. By the 1820s, square-toed shoes with ribbon laces were in fashion when ballerinas first danced on their toes. The ballet slipper has remained a similar shape ever since.

While the French court danced the Minuet, the English preferred the simpler and livelier ‘country’ dances such as jigs, reels, and cotillions that were usually performed in sets of four or eight people. These dances quickly spread throughout Europe in the 1790s when ‘Anglo-mania’ became the rage following the French Revolution. They are the origin of today’s square dancing and country line dances and gained popularity in the early 19th century as the middle class grew in size because these dances could be learned after a few lessons and did not require years of dance training.

“Country dance is the most common of all dances now practiced. It is so simple, that the most illiterate are in some measure able to perform it . . .” A Treatise on Dancing, 1802

A wave of vernacular European dances followed English country-dances into the ballroom beginning with the Waltz. Derived from the Landler, a Bavarian folk dance, the Waltz developed into a couples dance by 1812 that was considered scandalous at the time because partners faced each other with the man’s arm about the woman’s waist. However, under the watchful eyes of chaperons, the dance became acceptable as long as light could be seen between the couple while they whirled about the floor. More couple dances took to the floor during the mid 19th century including the Polka from Bohemia and the Mazurka from Poland.

At the end of the 19th century Black American rhythms were synthesizing with European musical forms, resulting in a new syncopated beat called Ragtime. Dancing to Ragtime required a close hold of the partner, bent knees, and a walking gait - very different from the previously required stance of dancing on the balls of the feet with an erect back and straight legs.

Shoes with criss-cross laces became known as Tango shoes in the 1910s and early 1920s when the Tango was popular. They were best displayed when a woman extended her ankle while being dipped by her partner.

In North America different steps and dances, some with upper body movements, were often named after animals, like the foxtrot, turkey trot, or bunny-hug. At the same time in South America, the sensuous Tango developed in the brothels of Buenos Aires. Society was not ready for dances that looked like recipes for sin. However, in palm-filled hotel courts at afternoon teas, the latest dances gained acceptance when sanitized versions were demonstrated by dancing stars like Irene and Vernon Castle.

“Unspeakable Jazz Must Go! …We reprove those dances which are lascivious, such as the Fox-trot, the Tango, the Turkey-trot, and others of the same kind, by whatever name they may be called . . . Rapid and jerky music is condemned and with any form of improper dancing is disapproved of as degrading tendency.” Ladies Home Journal, December, 1921

While afternoon ‘Tango Teas’ were being held in acceptable venues for socialites, it was in the urban night clubs and speakeasies of the early 1920s that Jazz and Latin rhythms really began to take off.

Saddle shoes, c. 1950

From Ragtime developed a number of Jazz dances, beginning with the Charleston and Black Bottom in the mid 1920s. These were energetic dances that only entered the general population when reinterpreted by white dance bands. A modified version of the Charleston was combined with a fast-tempo Foxtrot to become the Quickstep - a dance created specifically for the purpose of competition dancing in the late 1920s. The Lindy, named after Charles Lindbergh, also grew out of the Charleston, and was later known as the Jitterbug when danced to Swing music. After the war, Jive and eventually Be-bop (the early steps of Rock ‘n’ Roll) evolved from Jitterbug. These dances were especially favoured by teens who from the late 1920s to early 1960s commonly wore saddle shoes (two tone laced shoes) for hopping and bopping to the latest song.

Evening sandals perfect for rumba dancing, late 1930s

The success of the Tango brought interest in other dances from Latin America in the 1930s and 1940s, when the evening sandal was coming into popularity. The Rumba was a hit with wealthy Americans who wintered in Cuba; it was brought to America by Xavier Cugat’s band in the early 1930s. The Samba, Conga, and Mambo followed and were joined later by the Cha-Cha, Bossanova, and Salsa.

When boots returned to fashionable wardrobes in the early 1960s Go-go dancing was all the rage and the boots became known as Go-Go Boots.

In the 1960s dancers literally let go and no longer danced with their partners, instead performing numerous ‘go-go’ steps and upper body movements that were given names like the Twist, Watusi, Frug, Fly, Pony, Hitchhike, Hully-Gully, Monkey, Swim and Mashed Potato, to name a few. By 1970 the popular hippie mantra of ‘do your own thing’ could be interpreted on the dance floor as unstructured, free form movement, with no defined steps.

Then in the mid-1970s, a dance called the Hustle brought about a renaissance in partner dancing. This touched off the disco fever craze that ended in 1980 as abruptly as it had begun a few years earlier. While Disco blended Latin and Black rhythms on the dance floor, Latin and black cultures blended on the street in the form of competitive street dances, performed in sneakers, that took the place of gang fighting. Break-dancing, popping, and vogueing developed into hip-hop, house and krumping at the end of the 20th century.

“This has been a monumental year for Discomania . . . 15,000 new clubs have opened across the country . . . including roller discos . . . and franchise clubs like 2001, Tramps, and Club 747 featuring discos housed in old Boeing 747 airplanes . . . Paramount’s film Saturday Night Fever grossed over 32 million after only 26 weeks . . . and New York City declared the first national disco week in June.” Disco - The Official Guide, 1978

Anyone wanting to keep up with the latest dances has been able to attend dance schools, purchase ‘how-to’ books by authors like Arthur Murray, and since the 1950s, watch television shows like American Bandstand or Soul Train, to learn the steps. Competitive ballroom dancing began in the 1920s and became popular in the 1950s. The goal of competition dancers is to create artistic and athletic performances within a framework of standardized steps and deportment. There are five competition ballroom dances: English (slow) waltz, Viennese (fast) waltz, tango, quickstep and fox-trot; and five competition Latin dances: Paso-double (Spanish in origin), jive (even though not Latin), cha-cha, rumba and samba. Along with the standardized steps came associated styles of dress. Full-skirted gowns for ballroom and skimpy fringed dresses for Latin became standardized dress for competitions in the 1960s and 1970s. So remember the link between footwear and dancing the next time you Shake Your Booties.