These Boots Are Made For Walking to the Bata Shoe Museum
I’ve never been to Canada let alone Toronto, but now I have a new place to add to my bucket list. The Bata Shoe Museum looks to be the dream destination for anyone that loves boots, slippers and heels. The building itself is a modern looking box built out of masses of grey concrete and glass. A thoroughly uninspiring view compared to the incredible wealth of beauty that lies inside it. To be honest I find this tends to be a good omen, the uglier the outside of a museum the better the insides tend to be. At least in modern builds, there are of course plenty of museums in spectacular old buildings where the outside lives up to the inside. But I find that recently built museums that look like they are secretly warehouses with a nice finish, tend to have designed for the pieces they are showing off, rather than the awe of visitors.
They have thousands of pieces in their collection. Items from all over the world and from centuries back in time. And as much as I love the later pieces (as you will see in my ode to a particular pair later on in this article) it’s the older pieces which wow me with the skill of their creators. These shoes are made from such simple materials, literally whatever the people had around them. And yet they were created to masterfully fit the owners feet, support them as they fought for their lives in harsh climates and difficult terrains. The mind boggles at the skill of these historical cobblers. I mean really, I can’t even make a pair of slippers for my mum’s Christmas without giving up nearly in tears! I am thoroughly impressed and inspired by the skills on display.
If you (like me) cannot quite manage to make a day trip to Ontario they also have some spectacular online exhibitions. My eye was captured by the stunning heeled Moravian boots in their exhibition on wedding shoes from around the world. They are made from a lovely, buttery looking black leather over red. Holes have been stamped out of that black leather to show off the contrast with the red, while white threads have been embroidered in both square geometric designs and vine-like floral ones.
I’m not going to lie these might be my one true love in boots form. I adore late Victorian lace up boots to begin with, but the addition of gold heel caps and red soles and bright embroidery just elevates them to spectacular in my eyes. They are over a hundred years old and yet they look to be basically unworn and spotless. This suggests that the first owner and all subsequent ones saw them more as an ornament than as shoes. If I had a pair I think I would fall victim to the same problem. The tragedy of owning something so beautiful but also fragile is that to wear it is to damage it. You desperately want to wear it and show it off, but every second of wear threatens the polish on the toes, the integrity of the embroidery threads, the brightness of the scarlet leather that peaks through the black.
Unfortunately, I will not be able to make a trip out to see these boots in person. And even worse the museum hasn’t taken the obvious step in monetization by selling replicas of their stock, so I will not be able to buy a pair and see if I could force myself to dance in them for anything longer than a moment for fear of hurting them. But if you are out near the Bata Museum, please drop by and say hello to them for me!
