“How do they walk in these things?” a limping Jack Lemmon asks in the classic film “Some Like It Hot,” reluctantly femmed up and complaining about his newly acquired high heels. It’s a question that comes to mind often when strolling through the Brooklyn Museum’s latest exhibition, “Killer Heels: The Art of the High-Heeled Shoe,” which boasts more than 160 shoes — from slim stilettos to 10-plus-inch platforms — by 68 different designers spanning four centuries. (The movie clip in question loops, fittingly, next to a pair of Marilyn Monroe’s black Salvatore Ferragamo pumps.)
Of course, the show features the expected boldfaced names in footwear —Westwood, Louboutin, Manolo Blahnik, and so on — but according to curator Lisa Small, it’s not a simple runway rehash. “We’re in a moment, obviously, where fashion exhibitions have become very popular for museums,” Small said (herself sporting United Nude’s Eamz heel, designed by Rem Koolhaas to mimic Eames furniture). “Fashion itself has a high profile in culture, and museums are always looking to connect. But I maintain and feel very strongly that objects of fashion are important aspects of material culture. Many of these shoes were commercially available, but we’re putting them in here and trying to look at them in different ways.”
Instead of a basic retrospective organized through a timeline, the exhibition’s thematic structure seeks to highlight conceptual tensions lurking within the very idea of the “high heel” — between form and function, empowerment and objectification — and examines the many roles it’s played as an indicator of social and cultural affiliation, from a sign of nobility in the 17th century to its centrality to drag culture in contemporary times. A section titled “Architecture” emphasizes structural stability, pointing to pieces like Zaha Hadid’s metallic “NOVA,” 2013, while “Metamorphosis” explores the symbolic potential of shoes, looking at such items as Elsa Schiparelli’s “Shoe Hat,” 1937-8, and Maison Martin Margiela’s Cinderellian glass slippers.
Also embedded throughout the exhibition are six commissioned films, including works by Steven Klein, Rashaad Newsome, and Zach Gold — whose interest in “fashion films” sparked the initial idea for the show, and whose bright, fragmented “Sketch for 4 Screens,” 2014, now marks its entrance. Based on the single prompt of “high heels,” each film finds a unique way to combine shoes with movement, further blurring the line that distinguishes heels as functional items or purely visual pieces.
“Some people just want to buy [my shoe] and put it on their table, but I do like them to be worn,” said Dutch artist and fashion designer Winde Rienstra, whose handcrafted “Bamboo Heels,” 2012, present a modern counterpoint to traditional Japanese geta. “But they are not always easy to wear.” Still, returning to Lemmon’s initial protest, it seems the point of “Killer Heels” is to move beyond asking “how” one might wear these varied creations and to start asking “why.”
“Killer Heels: The Art of the High-Heeled Shoe” is on view at the Brooklyn Museum until February 15, 2015.
