Museum Blog- Amy Boxall

At the present moment of time the Museum of Arts located in Northampton has an amazing exhibition of shoes being displayed to the public. I was fortunate enough to be a member of the public who got to have a look around this gallery and discover new things about the history of shoes.

In particular I was very interested in the different types of ballet shoes I saw whilst at the exhibition. For example many dating back to the 19^th century. One specific ballet shoe that caught my eye was by FREED in 1948. The red satin ballet pointe shoe was made for Moira Shearer to wear in the well-known classic ‘The Red Shoes’; although these actual shoes was prepared to be worn during rehearsals they still remain unused therefore I was very interested in this.

 

After looking more into the history of this shoe I found out the film ‘The Red Shoes’ is a fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen which became very famous as the original story was written in 1845. I specifically love the satin material used on the actual shoes as well as the cherry red ribbon as I feel these shoes look very powerful and give the impression the owner can conquer anything in them. I was very surprised when I found out these shoes remain unworn. My reason for this is because the large picture behind the ballet shoes show a lady who I presume is Moira Shearer wearing the red ballet shoes. After researching the history of the film I discovered over 25 pairs of red ballet shoes were made and many were also worn during rehearsal and filming although these specific shoes were not worn. The film 'The Red Shoes' became very famous after its release in September 1948. Moira Shearer also became well known to the public after her performance in the film.

Whilst at the Museum me and my class mates were luckily enough to have been shown the show room. I really enjoyed having a closer look into a variety of different shoes the museum holds from all different years which were not presently on show. The picture below shows one section of the show room where you can see a large amount of shoe boxes which contain different decades of shoes. I enjoyed having a look through these boxes and seeing what different styles and designers shoes I could find.  I look forward to returning to the  Museum of Arts to visit their next exhibition.

                                                                 withloveamyx